FILE PHOTO: NAACP President Derrick Johnson speaks at the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal and state authorities are investigating a wave of bigoted text messages sent anonymously that have spread alarm among Black Americans across the country this week, officials and recipients told Reuters.
The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, an offensive reference to past enslavement of Black people in the United States.
