To most white Americans, the noose is but a shameful symbol abandoned along with America’s racist roots. For Black folks, the noose is used as a regular reminder that they face death because of their race.
There is certainly no shortage of incidents involving nooses in 2021 alone: eight nooses were found in an Amazon warehouse under construction in northern Connecticut; a Black electrician found a noose hanging in his workspace in Long Island; a Black family near Los Angeles discovered a noose hanging from a tree in their backyard; and a woman in Huntsville, Alabama, has suffered through a string of racist attacks on her home, including finding a stuffed animal monkey with a noose around its neck on Valentine’s Day.
And now, add to the list a Black contractor who on Aug. 5 found a noose hanging from a tree branch in the backyard of the Benton Park house she’d been hired to rehab in the 2800 block of Lemp Avenue in St. Louis.
“I think it’s probably quite commonplace, the ideas that led to a noose being hung in one of our neighbor’s yards.” — Inez Bordeaux
The property’s owner, Julia Ho, said she bought the residence several years ago and in recent months began construction so that she could eventually move into it. She currently resides in Dutchtown and said she’s previously experienced racist harassment as an Asian American — particularly in the last two years.
Ho’s contractor did not want to be identified for safety reasons, but Ho confirmed she is a longtime resident of Benton Park, where her construction company is registered.
“She was there with her crew — they were just totally speechless and shocked,” Ho said. “Originally, they were supposed to work on the foundation over the weekend, but they didn’t. I didn’t want them going back there until they felt safe.”
Ho said she was out of town at the time the noose was found but based on when the contractor was last at the property, she believes the noose was hung between July 29 and Aug. 5. It was found on a branch about 20 feet from the ground in the backyard near the alley.
It was wrapped around the branch two or three times, and whoever hung it most likely required a ladder to do so.
The property belonged to a white man, Ho said, before she purchased it several years back. She believes this was a specific attack on her and her contractor.
The neighborhood’s alderman, Dan Guenther, said the incident is under investigation by St. Louis police and the FBI hate crimes field office here in the city. Guenther has represented the ninth ward for just over four years, and was reelected for another term in April.
“[My] initial reaction was shock, anger, [fury] — add as many synonyms that you want — outrage,” he said. “And I would say that it’s a shock because I’ve lived in the neighborhood almost 20 years and I sought out the neighborhood — and I know a lot of neighbors seek out the area — because of the diversity and because of the fact that we all pride ourselves in being a very open and inclusive neighborhood.”
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” The agency is careful to note that hate itself is not a crime.
Guenther, who is white, said that in his four years in office he’s witnessed dog whistles in the community and other more passive acts of racism, but nothing so overt as hanging a hate symbol in someone’s yard.
“That is something that I have never seen,” he said.
Ho said she has her suspicions of who is behind the noose, as her family has owned a building on Jefferson Avenue for years in which they and their Black business tenants have suffered racist harassment. She’s handed those names over to the police.
Inez Bordeaux is the manager of community collaborations for ArchCity Defenders and the ninth ward’s committee woman. She said she was horrified for Ho and her contractor, but not surprised.
“I think it’s probably quite commonplace, the ideas that led to a noose being hung in one of our neighbor’s yards,” she said. “I think a lot of times we let the Black Lives Matter signs that are in people’s front yards and hanging in their windows kind of lull us into a sense of complacency.”
She said she doesn’t know if the police will solve the case but she also doesn’t believe their reactionary function keeps communities safe in the first place.
“But I do believe that we keep our neighborhoods safe by getting to know our neighbors and having relationships with the people in our community,” she said, later adding: “We have to make racists afraid again.”
Ho has taken the situation into her own hands, mobilizing the community to show its support and solidarity. Neighbors came together at Arthouse St. Louis and painted anti-racism signs, one of those signs now hanging on the tree where the noose was found. Ho said a group of residents also plans to canvass Saturday in order to distribute signs and talk with people about the incident.
“I am not surprised that this happened because I feel like there is definitely a racist culture in Benton Park overall and that there are other times that are much less blatant … [but] still very much racially charged where I felt hostility from neighbors in the area,” Ho said. “So, although I was definitely disgusted and I was shocked that this happened, I wasn’t really too surprised, I feel like something like this could happen anywhere.”
The United State Department of Justice tracks hate crimes across the country. Surprisingly, racially motivated hate crimes saw a notable decrease in Missouri from 2017 (79) through 2019 (52). Data for 2020 was not available.
However, from 2018 to 2019, hate crimes based on sexual orientation in the state doubled (from eight to 16) and those based on religion increased more than four times (from three to 13) in the same time frame.
St. Louis police declined to comment on the case but confirmed officers did respond to the Lemp Avenue property after the contractor found a noose hanging from a tree. Ho said they took the noose as evidence.
They also asked that anyone with information contact Crimestoppers at 866-371-8477, where callers can remain anonymous if they wish.
The FBI St. Louis field office did not immediately return a request for comment on the investigation.