‘This is extreme': Black leaders get racist, threatening letters during protests

Local leaders in Charlotte, N.C., well-known for their positions on social justice and equity, received hate mail riddled with threats and racial slurs earlier this month

vilma-leake.jpg

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake, right, poses for a photo with supporters during an event in 2014. Image: Facebook

The Charlotte Observer
By Alison Kuznitz

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Vitriolic, racist letters were sent to at least two prominent local Black elected officials days after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

A single-page, anonymous letter was sent to Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake and Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston in early June. The letters, shared recently with The Charlotte Observer, were sent from Charlotte addresses to the Government Center.

I feel like the public needs to know what’s being said and how cowardly people operate,” Leake said in an interview. “It grieves me to know that they still have that embedded superiority about themselves. There’s something in the atmosphere that is creating this feeling of ‘make America great again.’ ”

Riddled with racial slurs in all caps, the letter claims that the Black Lives Matter movement foments violence and “self-serving rhetoric” among African Americans, while causing discomfort in the white community amid “inflammatory street chants.”

The letter also invoked stereotypes about Black people, saying their lips contain enough bacteria to ignite another global pandemic.

“This is extreme — you never know of the person’s intent,” Winston said Thursday. “I would just tell that person that I’m here to destroy (and) dismantle the systems that you covet.”

Leake was sent a single-page letter, postmarked June 2 from “Song of the South Ln.” in Charlotte. “Song of the South” was a 1940s Disney movie musical that the company has not made available for over 30 years because of its racist imagery, the New York Times reported last year.

Winston received additional hate mail within a single envelope, postmarked June 6 from “Snow White Dr.” in Charlotte.

Winston was arrested after a tense first night of protests in West Charlotte on May 29. Scrawled below a typed second message to Winston was: “If you Live By The Sword, you’ll DIE By The Sword.” The word “die” is underlined twice in black ink.

‘All is still not well’

Leake’s District 2 stretches from the Beatties Ford Road area to Steele Creek. She has championed race issues, including fair access to healthcare and education, in Mecklenburg’s historically undeserved areas for decades.

Her advocacy is oriented around equity for all residents, not just those who are Black, she emphasized.

All is still not well in Mecklenburg County,” Leake said. “If people want to send that kind of mail, why not be forward and say who you are so there can be some dialogue and discussion. What do they intend to gain? What is the ultimate goal?”

Winston, an at-large representative who has urged the City Council to view policy-making through an equity lens, led the successful push last week to ban CMPD from buying chemical agents in the coming fiscal year. The action came following an incident — now under state investigation — in uptown on June 2, when police officers boxed in and deployed chemical agents against people protesting Floyd’s death.

https://twitter.com/votebraxton/status/1269443942136807424

“It is not good enough to just change individual polices,” Winston said Thursday. “I wake up and go to work every day as a City Council member trying to dismantle the system embedded in racism, class-ism and every other -ism.”

Earlier this week, the City Council and county commissioners declared racism a public health crisis, saying systemic inequities in healthcare, education and other institutions require urgent solutions and funding.

‘Have her back’

During the county commissioners meeting Tuesday, Leake read a proclamation recognizing June 15-20 as “Racial Inequality Awareness Week” in Mecklenburg. Yet hours later, county commissioners once again grappled with prejudice, apologizing to Leake when they learned about the contents of the racist letter.

“We have her back. We stand on her shoulders, as she’s someone who’s been a soldier in the field for many years,” Commissioner Mark Jerrell said.

Last August, Leake had the FBI investigate a threatening letter sent to her and other Black elected officials. That correspondence, which Leake read aloud during a public meeting, said, “Black Democrats should be tarred and feathered and run out of town.”

At least 12 local elected officials, including Black county commissioners, City Council members who are people of color and the Black chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board, received similar letters in 2019, the Observer previously reported.

It is unclear if this latest letter was sent to other Black elected officials.

Winston said he was not aware of any other City Council member who received one. A city spokesman did not know if Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles was targeted.

City Council member Malcolm Graham told the Observer he regularly gets “interesting” letters and phone calls. Graham said he’s been “policing” those communications, but would involve law enforcement if threats “get to that point.”

George Dunlap, chairman of the Mecklenburg County commissioners, and Jerrell said they have not checked their mail recently at the Government Center due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s always going to be an element in our community that’s resistant to change, and that should not impede our work,” Dunlap said Thursday. “This is not the first time, and it certainly will not be the last.”

(c)2020 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU