Oregon lawmakers consider ban on display of nooses, a racist symbol
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Greg Evans, a Black man who joined a parade of witnesses urging Oregon lawmakers to ban the display of nooses, said the issue was personal for him: A member of his family had been lynched over a century ago in South Carolina.
“He was killed basically for offending a white man,” Evans, a member of the Eugene City Council, testified Tuesday. “He was hung by a noose. His body was riddled with bullets, and then he was set on fire.”
Louisiana, Virginia, California, New York, Maryland and Connecticut previously criminalized the display of nooses. The bill under consideration in Oregon would make intimidation by display of a noose a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $6,250 fine.
Last month, a noose was placed on the recycling container of a mixed-race couple in Eugene and their car was spray-painted with a racial epithet, Evans said in an interview. He believes most people who place nooses are fully aware of the pain it causes Black people.
“Some are just kids that are ignorant, that are playing a joke,” Evans said. “But it’s not a joke. It’s not a prank. This is serious business.”
Evans said the noose is a symbol of white supremacy that conveys the message: “The white man is still in charge and remember your place in this society.”
One of the witnesses at the hearing Tuesday on the Oregon bill described the effect of the placement of a noose last May at a Portland State University construction site.
“It was shocking and terrorizing for our community. Staff and faculty were not only afraid to go to our new building but were afraid to attend PSU in general,” faculty member Kelly Cutler told the Oregon Senate Committee on Judiciary.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and city commissioners urged the committee to support the bill, saying it “opens the door for legal remedies” against intimidating people with nooses in Oregon, where records show hate crimes and bias incidents increased 366% in 2020.
“The harm to communities impacted by the display of a noose should not be understated,” the city leaders wrote.
A Republican on the judiciary committee, Dallas Heard, who is white, asked what would happen if antifa protesters came to the Oregon State Capitol and hanged an effigy of him.
“What would the state’s action through this law be in enforcement of this law on that group ... who did something like that against myself under the First Amendment right to protest?” Heard asked.
The committee chairman suggested Heard speak to legislative counsel to get clarity.
Read more at: https://apnews.com/article/legislature-oregon-eugene-d46259c173d57c623b6f0c6ff443c3f1
