Racist texts about slaves and ‘picking cotton’ sent to Black people as state AGs, colleges and police probe their origins

By: CNN

Posted: Nov 8, 2024 2:13 PM CST
Updated: Nov 8, 2024 6:40 PM CST

Anita Kot/Moment RF/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

By Ashley R. Williams, Jack Forrest, Jillian Sykes and Sean Lyngaas

(CNN) — Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election.

The NAACP president warned Thursday of possible broader implications of the hate-filled rhetoric reported in more than 20 states from New York to California, and the District of Columbia. Attorneys general of both parties are condemning the messages and vowing to root out their senders.

“The unfortunate reality of electing a president who, historically, has embraced and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”

Donald Trump’s presidential “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages,” its spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Students from at least two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) – Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee – have reported receiving the text messages, according to statements from the universities.

It was not immediately clear who sent the messages, and there is no complete list of whom they were delivered to. At least some appear to have been sent through TextNow in what the company “believe(s) … is a widespread, coordinated attack,” it told CNN on Friday.

“As soon as we became aware, our Trust & Safety team acted quickly, rapidly disabling the related accounts in less than an hour,” said the company, whose service lets people sign up anonymously using an email address and send texts that appear to come from a randomly-generated phone number.

The “texts appear to be targeting Black and brown individuals, including students,” New York’s attorney general said.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau is investigating the texts, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced. “These messages are unacceptable,” she said, adding, “We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.

Talaya Jones, a Black resident of Piscataway, New Jersey, was “shocked,” then angry and sad, to get a racist text Wednesday telling her she had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation” and referring to “executive slave catchers,” she told CNN.

“I thought it was like a joke,” said Jones, who forwarded the text message to loved ones and shared it with CNN. “It really just shows that we didn’t come as far as everybody thought we did as a nation, from back in the day when slavery was still a thing.”

“It became sadness when I realized that young people were getting it, like elementary schoolers and middle schoolers,” Jones said later. “Why would you want to intentionally hurt somebody that you don’t even know?”

A day after receiving the text message, Jones also received an email addressing her by the N-word and containing a similar message about being “selected to pick cotton.” “Who is doing this and how are they able to keep coming back?” she asked. “You don’t feel safe in anything that you do, because you don’t know who’s doing it. You don’t know how far they’ll take it.”

Texts’ ‘emotional and psychological impact’

The FBI and law enforcement in Maryland are aware of students and others getting the texts, Montgomery County Public Schools said in a statement, noting, “law enforcement in some areas have announced they consider the messages low-level threats.”

“We recognize that the emotional and psychological impact on our students, staff, and particularly our communities of color is profound,” the school board’s statement reads. “We stand in solidarity with those who feel targeted and hurt by these actions.”

The text messages hark back to the era from the early 17th century to the end of the Civil War in 1865, when millions of enslaved Africans were shipped to the United States and forced to toil on plantations.

Many were forced to live and work on plantations growing cotton, considered a leading cash crop. They picked cotton for long hours and endured heat, humidity, unsanitary conditions, untreated illnesses, malnourishment and rape.

Enslaved people were often auctioned off and sold to other slave owners, leading to families being separated. Slave catchers, known as slave patrols, were legally charged with controlling the enslaved population. Their duties included chasing down and apprehending runaway slaves and returning them to their owners, enforcing curfews and beating and terrorizing slaves who were rebellious or disobedient.

Recipients shocked by ‘vile’ messages

At the University of Alabama this week, Black honors freshman Alysa was in tears and wanted to go home after getting a message saying she had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation” and should “be prepared to be searched down,” her mother, Arleta McCall, told CNN.

“It’s eerie that it’s the day after the election. It’s eerie that it came to my daughter’s personal phone. It’s eerie that it’s only going to Black students,” McCall said. “Her group of friends have mapped out their paths to class so they can walk together and keep each other safe.”

The University of Alabama acknowledged “individuals across the country have received these disgusting messages” and urged anyone with information about them to report it, a statement said.

The “racist and vile spam text messages” have also spread to Louisiana, Republican state Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday via X. “I have directed the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation to fully investigate the origins of these disgusting texts that only intend to divide us,” she said, urging anyone impacted to report the messages to her office.

Whoever is sending the racist text messages is using anonymizing software to obscure their location, Murrill told CNN on Friday.

At least some of the messages were sent using an email service routing traffic through Poland, but it does not mean it is where the sender is, the attorney general said.

“They could be coming from Napoleonville, Louisiana, for all we know. We don’t know where they are originating from,” Murrill said.

The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are “still trying to trace where everything is actually originating from,” she added.

Murrill herself, who is White, received one of the racist messages to her personal email account this morning, she said.

“It’s racist and divisive,” Murrill said. “I think it’s just intended to try and create division. We condemn it.”

Condemning the messages as “disgusting and unacceptable,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said the “texts appear to be targeting Black and brown individuals, including students, and may include personal information about the recipient such as their name or location,” she said on X. “I unequivocally condemn any attempt to intimidate or threaten New Yorkers and their families.”

Students and residents in a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, and in New Haven County were also targeted, CNN affiliate WFSB reported.

“How did they come up with a list of recipients?” Kenneth Gray, a University of New Haven lecturer and retired FBI special agent, told WFSB.

“They did some real research not only putting together their target list but also crafting a message that had information that made it seem real,” Gray said.

Black newsman addressed by name in text

In Virginia, a Black photographer at news station WVEC-TV got a text message from an unfamiliar phone number, addressing him by name and telling him he had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation,” he said.

“I feel like it’s a spam message,” recipient Sam Burwell said in a story posted by the station. “I do feel disappointed about the message they’re sending a day after the election.”

The Virginia attorney general’s office broadly is “aware of these text messages and unequivocally condemns them,” spokesperson Chloe Smith said, noting “anyone who believes themselves to be under threat should not hesitate to contact local law enforcement as well as their local FBI field office.”

A racist text message from an unfamiliar number also arrived by name to the Black 15-year-old daughter of Laura Bass-Brown, she told CNN affiliate KHOU 11 News in the Houston area. It initially appeared automated, but after reviewing screenshots from her daughter’s friends, she discovered the sender often replied when students responded, Bass-Brown said.

Nevada’s Attorney General’s Office is working with law enforcement to investigate “the source of what appear to be robotext messages,” the office said in a statement on X.

And in Washington, DC, the attorney general’s office also is “aware of racist text messages being sent to residents there, condemning them unequivocally,” spokesperson Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein said.

“Anyone receiving these messages should contact our civil rights section by calling 202-727-3400 or emailing [email protected]. If you believe your safety is at risk, please contact local law enforcement,” he said in a statement to CNN.

TextNow is “working alongside our industry partners to uncover more details and continue to monitor patterns to actively block any new accounts attempting to send these messages,” the company told CNN on Friday. “We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”

CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis, Hanna Park, Alayna Treene, Andy Rose and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report, which has been updated with additional information.