NAACP to hold town meeting after racist flyers distributed in Lynchburg, Virginia
The flyers' content looked to be replicas of historical ads for the sale of enslaved people and rewards for their capture.
The Lynchburg, Virginia, chapter of the NAACP is hosting a town hall meeting this month in light of concerns raised after neighbors noticed racist flyers outside their homes on Christmas Eve.
Chapter president Brenda Farmer referred to the flyers distributed to over a dozen community members on Cabell Street and in other areas of Lynchburg as “despicable,” adding that the Lynchburg NAACP “will not tolerate that,” according to the Lynchburg News & Advance.
WDBJ-7 reported that the people who received the flyers have various backgrounds, including white, Black and Jewish.
The flyers’ content — which looked to be replicas of historical advertisements for the sale of enslaved people and offering rewards for their capture — disgusted and angered Farmer, who stated such things shouldn’t be allowed in the 21st century.
“I’m not going back, I’m marching forward,” said Farmer, according to the News & Advance. “We have to embrace each other in love and not bigotry.”
The NAACP will hold the town hall meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25 at the Lynchburg Community Action Group building, located at 1010 Main St.
News
The Lynchburg Police Department shared on its official Facebook page on Dec. 25 that it was investigating “suspicious activity … in reference to citizens discovering racially charged literature being left on their property” the night before. “The flyers did not contain any threats.”
The department requested that residents with security, doorbell or other video footage of a suspicious person between midnight and about 3 a.m. save the footage.
While unsettling, neighbors in Lynchburg said the Christmas Eve incident wasn’t the first of its kind, according to WDBJ-7.
“They left nooses on people’s porches last year… this year, it was letters,” said resident Deion Carter, WDBJ-7 reported. “People take that very threatening. That’s a very threatening gesture to people, especially if no one knows who it is.”
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