Here’s a question; if someone were to tell you that a Black mayor of a small Texas town who is up for re-election was sent a noose and a note threatening him and demanding that he “get out of this race now,” and you had to guess what year this happened in, how many of you would have guessed it happened sometime during the era of Jim Crow as opposed to—*checks notes*—2024?
Source: Sean Gladwell / Getty
Yeah—a lot of folks would have been wrong.
According to ABC 13, the noose and the note in question were delivered to Arcola City Hall lasr Tuesday, and it was addressed to Arcola Mayor Fred Burton. And in case any of you were thinking that maybe someone just sent the Black man, who is running for his fourth term in next week’s mayoral election, a nice tie that just happens to look like a noose as a gift, the note accompanying the clear and unmistakable symbol of anti-Black hatred was explicitly clear on the package’s intent.
“I pulled out it said, ‘Get out of this race now!!’” Burton said of the note in the package, the contents of which were confirmed by the city’s chief of police, Arika Carr. “It’s a slap. Especially on a Black man’s face that he has to open up mail like that and see something like that. I thought we were better than that as a society.”
Burton implied that this wasn’t the first racist incident he and his campaign has had to deal with, which wouldn’t be a surprise coming from the state that is arguably second only to Florida in banning Black studies into anti-“woke” oblivion.
“This (election) has been the most, I guess, if you will, nasty. But I won’t let that situation, that mail, I won’t let those type of racial, if you will, throwbacks, affect me in this race,” Burton said.
To be fair, the controversy surrounding Burton doesn’t begin and end with him being Black and salty racists in Arcola having a problem with it. In fact, Burton’s 2024 campaign has come under fire amid a series of scandals, including one that revolves around his use of taxpayer money, and another related to his behavior towards at least one of his opponents in the upcoming mayoral race.
From People:
The Houston Landing reports that Burton spent $7,500 of public funds on a private investigator to trail a council member and her family in an effort to prove that she lived in a neighboring town and should be kicked off the council.
The outlet cites an invoice in that amount billed to “The Honorable Fred Burton, City of Arcola” which clearly states that it covered surveillance of the council member. The Landing reports that in a February city council meeting, Burton openly admitted to using public funds for that purpose, saying, “That’s what you call the responsibility of taxpayer’s money.”
On April 13, per the Landing, Burton sparked controversy again when he posted a video to a private Facebook group for Arcola residents of mayoral candidate Veeda Williams’ campaign flyer being set on fire. The video was later removed.
Still, none of that would explain or justify a racist’s attempt at intimidating the incumbent through the same style of racial aggression that prominent civil rights leaders, Black residents in white neighborhoods, and Black students in newly integrated schools throughout American history have had to grapple with.
“It’s very troubling to receive,” Carr said. ” It’s very disturbing that in 2024, we are still at this point of receiving this type of mail or someone doing this type of crime.”
The Arcola Police Department said in a statement that the investigation into the package sent to Burton and whoever is responsible is “being treated with the utmost seriousness,” and that the FBI is assisting with its investigation. But finding the culprit is one thing—eradicating the all-too-American anti-Blackness that inspired them is something else entirely, and there’s really no investigation that can accomplish that.
