Officials and universities in several US states condemned racist text messages sent to black residents on Wednesday. The messages, which had almost the same language, told the recipient that they had been “selected for cotton picking.”
In a statement, the FBI said it was aware of “the offensive and racist text messages being sent to individuals across the country” and was liaising with the Justice Department and other federal authorities.
The texts were received by people in Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio, among others, CBS News discovered. NAACP President Derrick Johnson condemned the posts, saying they represent an “alarming increase in vile and disgusting rhetoric.”
The text messages were sent from numbers with area codes in at least 25 different states, CBS News found. On Thursday, several numbers were disconnected, while others went to voicemail identifying them as TextNow users, a provider that lets people create toll-free phone numbers.
TextNow said in a statement that it “had learned that one or more of our accounts may have been used to send text messages in violation of our terms of service,” adding that it closed the accounts as soon as it was notified .
“We will not tolerate the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”
CBS News spoke to one of the people who sent a version of the text. The person, whose area code was associated with Fort Wayne, Indiana, said the message was a joke before abruptly ending the call. Subsequent requests for comment went unanswered.
Officials report widespread reports
The Virginia Attorney General’s office told CBS News that it is aware of the messages and “unequivocally condemns” them, urging recipients to contact local law enforcement agencies and the FBI if they believe they are being threatened.
Atlanta police in Georgia told CBS News they were aware of the texts and are not investigating at this time, but urged residents to report suspicious messages.
Several schools and universities also said their students had received the texts.
Police at Clemson University in South Carolina said they had received reports of students receiving racist text messages, while some black students at the University of Alabama also received the messages, the student newspaper reported.
Some students at Ohio State University also received the texts, school spokesman Benjamin Johnson told CBS News. “We have reported the messages to the Office of Institutional Equity and are offering support services. We are aware that this is happening nationwide,” Johnson said.
Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania warned parents in a letter On Thursday, high school students received racist text messages. The school district did not characterize what was in the text messages.
Montgomery County, Maryland, said in a letter to families and students that local law enforcement and the FBI are aware of these messages, and that “law enforcement agencies in some areas have announced that they consider the messages to be a low-level threat.”
Recipients describe fear
CBS News spoke with two Atlanta residents who reported receiving the messages. Devereaux Adams, 27, said he felt “scared and hurt” when he received the text Wednesday afternoon.
Adams said it’s “very confusing” because he can’t say where or how the person who sent the texts got his contact information. “I don’t feel safe at all,” Adams said.
Another Atlanta resident, Monet Miller, 29, said she felt scared after receiving the messages. She said her friends in North Carolina also received the text.
“I knew it was a joke, but when I saw it so early after the election I was shocked. I just became more cautious about my surroundings and where I was going,” Miller told CBS News.
Fort Lauderdale resident Corryn G. Freeman said she received a racist text message from a local number she did not recognize at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. “It really instilled fear. It caused anger. I believe they know I’m a black woman or a black person, and that’s why they would attack me with that kind of inflammatory racism,” Freeman said.
After posting on social media about receiving the message, Freeman said two of her friends contacted her to tell her that their children, both black, had received similar racist text messages.
“It’s not fair that they have to deal with this level of racism after an election they didn’t participate in. But because of the audacity of whoever this is after the election, they are being subjected to it,” Freeman said.
Scott MacFarlane contributed to this report.
