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Shock at noose found on NY campus | Shock at noose found on NY campus |
(9 minutes later) | |
A black professor at Columbia University in New York has found a hangman's noose left on her door. | A black professor at Columbia University in New York has found a hangman's noose left on her door. |
Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. | Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. |
Columbia students and staff have expressed their shock and surprise at the incident - which occurred at the university's teachers college. | Columbia students and staff have expressed their shock and surprise at the incident - which occurred at the university's teachers college. |
The discovery echoes a case last year in Jena, Louisiana, where white high school students placed nooses in a tree under which white students usually met. | The discovery echoes a case last year in Jena, Louisiana, where white high school students placed nooses in a tree under which white students usually met. |
Columbia University has not identified the professor who found the noose on Tuesday, but students say she teaches a class on racial justice. | Columbia University has not identified the professor who found the noose on Tuesday, but students say she teaches a class on racial justice. |
Teachers college president Susan Fuhrman sent an e-mail to students and faculty members condemning "this hateful act". | Teachers college president Susan Fuhrman sent an e-mail to students and faculty members condemning "this hateful act". |
Student Mary Owens told the Associated Press news agency: "It's really, really disturbing." | Student Mary Owens told the Associated Press news agency: "It's really, really disturbing." |
Professor Arlene Ackerman, who teaches at the college, said she was "shocked and stunned". | Professor Arlene Ackerman, who teaches at the college, said she was "shocked and stunned". |
'Double standards' | |
Nooses are reviled by many as symbols of lynchings that were once common in the southern US. | Nooses are reviled by many as symbols of lynchings that were once common in the southern US. |
In the Jena case racial tensions were sparked after three nooses were found hanging from a tree in the school yard, the day after a black pupil had sat in its shade. | |
That incident resulted in three white students being suspended from school, but not prosecuted. | |
In a later incident six black teenagers at the school, who became known as the Jena Six, were charged with attempted murder after they allegedly attacked a white pupil at the school, although these charges were subsequently reduced. | |
The white teenage victim was beaten unconscious and had a badly swollen face, but was able to attend a school event the same evening. | |
The case provoked one of the biggest civil rights protests in recent years with demonstrators criticising what they said was a double standard of prosecution for blacks and whites. |