Terroristic threats sent in violent racist mail to Black elected officials in Charlotte
Several public officials in received the messages that echoed President Trump's "go back to where you came from" rhetoric, sent by a person who hid their identity but made their racism clear
Several Black elected officials in North Carolina were targeted with hateful, racist mail that called for them to be “tarred and feathered and run out of town” and sent “screaming to the concentration camps,” by an unknown suspect, officials said.
Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake has requested an FBI investigation into several threatening notes leveled at 12 African American local officials, including county commissioners, Charlotte City Council members and the chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board.
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Leake read one sinister two-page letter at a public meeting that said, “I would love it if they would blow you up.” It also warned that someone” may “blow up” a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr., according to The Charlotte Observer.
“Black Democrats should be tarred and feathered and run out of town” and sent “screaming to the concentration camps,” the hostile letter said.
“These went to only Black elected officials,” Leake said. “It grieves me. All of these years that I have lived and been a part of that movement called the Civil Rights Movement that we thought that we had won … If you wrote it, you are not strong enough to even sign your name. I’m turning my letter over to the FBI.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board Chair Mary McCray said on Tuesday, she too received two threatening letters with similar messaging.
She also read her letter Tuesday night during a public meeting.
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“So you feel you’re on a great course and want to stay the course. Sure doesn’t hurt that [Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools superintendent] Earnest Winston is Black, does it? You c–ns on the school board don’t even bother to try and hide it, do you? You folks are making CMS a sewer.”
“Never before with the hiring of several other superintendents while being on this board have I received such racist criticism,” McCray said. “This is not about the capability of Earnest Winston to lead this district, but it is all about the fact that he is a Black man.”
The letters also had the same hateful rhetoric espoused by President Trump.
“Nothing good will come to you if you don’t change,” the letter to Leake and other commissioners stated. “You need to go back to where you came from … Your freedom was born on the backs of great Americans, white Americans, who fought for you, so get over it. Assimilate.
“One of these days,” it continued. “Someone … will round you up. All of you. And send you screaming to the concentration camps where you belong … Be very careful.”
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said: “We are aware of the letters and (are) reviewing the material.”
