Bad Halloween decoration idea: Hanging black effigy in front yard

A suburban Birmingham, Ala., family says they didn't realize what hanging a figure that looked black from a tree in their front yard would look like

Jay Scott Smith

Oct 9, 2018

Halloween thegrio.com — An installation of 3,000 candle-lit pumpkins are the right way to celebrate Halloween. (Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images

It’s that time of year again, where families start doing the most to decorate their homes for Halloween.

An important piece of advice when it comes to the decorations: do not hang anyone from a noose in your yard — especially if the person you are “hanging” appears to be black. One family in Homewood, Ala., which is just south of Birmingham, found this out the hard way.

According to AL.com, a photo showing what appears to be a black man hanging from a tree was posted on Facebook just after 9 p.m. on Saturday night by Alexus Cumbie:

The homeowners, Jennifer and Marc Wolfe – surprise! – said they were stunned to find out people were upset about their decorations. They said that they go “all-out” on Halloween decorations every year and claim it was their 11-year-old son’s idea to hang the effigy.

“It’s not his fault because I was out there, but I didn’t even think about it,” Marc Wolfe said. “We’re not racist. Did I make a mistake? I guess so.”

They said they bought their decorations from a woman assumed that particular decoration was a white guy who had been badly burned. A lesson here: when in doubt, don’t do it.

The Wolfe’s son took it down from the tree when he saw people taking pictures of it and left it sitting in the front yard next to a coffin display.

The Wolfes say it was an innocent mistake with absolutely no malice or hate involved – “If they want to say we’re insensitive and should have known better,” Marc Wolfe said, “I’ll own up to that.” – and, of course, the family says they aren’t racist.

According to Jennifer Wolfe, they attend a liberal church and have friends of all races. Even their son’s best friends are black and Latino.

“They picked the wrong family to call racist,” she said. But her husband struck a more measured and realistic tone at the end of this.

“I can see their point but we just hung it because that’s how it came,” Marc Wolfe said. “This is a classic example of how bad we’ve gotten toward treating other people.”