In an incident clearly reminiscent of racially motivated lynchings from America's past, a brown doll dangling by a noose from a tree outside the Cambridge Inn yesterday morning bore a sign reading, "Duke hasn't changed." The Class of 1948 bench underneath the tree was covered with dripping, black tar.
Police have been unable to determine who is responsible for the incident, but University housekeeper Kenneth Burton discovered the display before sunrise Wednesday morning. He told officers from the Duke University Police Department that he saw two individuals-one black man and one man whose race he was unable to discern-standing beneath the tree.
By 9 a.m., members of the Duke University Police Department decided to remove the doll from the tree. About 20 students, administrators and employees as well as an ABC news cameraman watched as facilities management employees used a ladder to reach the doll and cut down both it and the noose. Handling the effigy with kid gloves, they placed it in a garbage bag, where it remained on a pile of leaves beneath the tree for more than 20 minutes before removing it as evidence.Facilities management workers later scrubbed the tar from the bench after Sgt. Sara-Jane Raines of Campus Police, who will be handling the investigation, inspected the scene for further evidence. By noon, few traces of the morning's incident remained.
As of press time, Campus Police was uncertain about whether a connection exists between the mock lynching and Wednesday afternoon's Black Student Alliance protest in President Nan Keohane's office (see story, p. 1).
But Trinity senior Tobie Wilder, president of BSA, said his organization is not responsible for hanging the doll from the tree. "There's been no strategic planning yet as to how BSA will respond [to the display]," Wilder explained. "This will certainly continue the dialogue that had been sparked last spring."
Keohane, who responded to the incident in the midst of the BSA protest, refrained from hypothesizing about who was responsible for the scene, but instead addressed its presence as "offensive" and reminded the University community of efforts currently in progress "to make Duke a welcoming and inclusive community for everyone."
"While the apparent motivation of those who hung the black doll on a West Campus tree was to symbolize the lynching of African Americans associated with another era in American history, this demonstration was extremely hurtful and offensive to many members of the University community of all races," she said in a statement. "This incident is a reminder of the depth of feelings among some members of our community."
Major Robert Dean of Campus Police, who said that Burton's call about the doll came into the department at about 7 a.m., declined to label the incident either a political statement or a hate crime. Although officials have reached no conclusions about the mock lynching, they have classified the tarring of the bench as vandalism.
"There's an apparent message trying to be made here," Dean said, "but I just can't speculate about what that might be."
Nevertheless, several members of the community, including Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson, have interpreted the incident as an act of hate speech.
"I don't know whether this was meant to be a political statement or not, but my first response was that it felt much more like a 'hate crime' that offended rather than informed, and I was prepared to be part of a group that would take it down," said Dickerson, who arrived on the scene just after the doll had been removed but saw the full report of the incident.
Minnie Jones, secretary in the Duke Student Government office, noticed the doll hanging from the tree on her way into work early yesterday morning. She said her first reaction was "utter shock."
"If this wasn't meant to be a hate crime, then it was a very bad way to present whatever it was they were trying to say," she said. "The race relations on this campus aren't the best, but they certainly aren't the worst either. This will only antagonize the issue, particularly if this wasn't meant to be a hate crime."
DSG President and Trinity senior Lino Marrero said he was surprised when he heard about the incident, because he "didn't think the situation on this campus was so bad that something this horrific could happen."
"This was probably the most blatant disrespect for one another that I've seen since I've been at this school," he said.
Dean said police will continue investigating the incident, adding that anyone with information should call the department or access the anonymous tips web site on the Campus Police home page.
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