Noose returns as symbol of hate

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The prolific hangman's noose threatens to replace the burning cross as the reigning symbol of hate in the United States,

"I think the noose is replacing the burning cross in the minds of many white people as the primary symbol" of the (Ku Klux) Klan," said Mark Potok, editor of Intelligence Report, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are investigating nooses hung across the nation in the aftermath of events in Jena, La., a small town dealing with racial strife and the site of a recent civil rights demonstration.

Recently, nooses have been hung anonymously on a tree at the University of Maryland, backstage at a Memphis theater, on the doorknob of a black professor at Columbia University in New York and in the duffel bag of a black U.S. Coast Guard cadet, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Justice Department officials deplored the nooses as "shameful" and said many of the "cowardly actions" may violate civil rights and hate crime laws, the Post reported.