Ace Hardware franchise investigating after only Black employee was pranked with noose on Juneteenth

A Texas hardware store has opened an investigation following an incident in which the only Black employee was allegedly the victim of a racist noose prank on Juneteenth, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

"Devondrick Hartsfield, who had only been working at Ace Hardware in Arlington for four months, said he saw a backpack hanging from the ceiling along with a noose and rope after his manager told him to look up while he was at the back of the store," reported Brooke Leigh Howard. "Hartsfield said the manager told him it was a joke and that one of the other employees left his backpack at the store."

The manager later apologized, according to the report. Nevertheless, Hartsfield said, “I took it as a Black man being hung, dismembered. The bag... looked to me like a Black man who was hung and dismembered. I really feel like that was a message.” He said he is unsure whether he wants to continue working at the hardware store.

Ace Hardware is a franchise, similar to McDonald's, where each location is independently owned but uses the same branding.

Juneteenth, which has been celebrated for over a century as a day of freedom for Black Americans but was only made a federal holiday in 2021, commemorates when the troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas on June 19, 1865, to free the last people still enslaved.

Since the federal designation, many politicians and commentators have taken a more active role in marking the day, although some, like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), have been criticized for missing the point of the anniversary, and others, like right-wing activist Candace Owens, have outright attacked the idea of it.