A Colorado Springs mayoral candidate's sign was vandalized by a racial slur and a burning cross — and authorities are trying to figure out who did it, reported FOX21 this week.
"The video shows Yemi Mobolade’s campaign sign spray painted in red with a racial slur and a cross lit on fire in front of it," reported Alina Lee. "Mobolade said he is aware of the video but does not know if the video was real or if it was staged. 'Either way, it’s reprehensible,' said Mobolade. 'This is not the Colorado Springs we know and it is likely the actions of an unhealthy individual.'"
The Colorado Springs Police Department has confirmed an active investigation into the incident.
"In response to the video footage, the Rocky Mountain National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called on Southern Colorado law enforcement to protect citizens," said the report. "'We’re asking law enforcement step up to the plate to be able to make sure that, you know, all citizens are protected,' Rashad Younger, Press Secretary of Rocky Mountain NAACP. The organization also encouraged the community to cast their ballot in the runoff election."
Burning crosses are a historical symbol of white supremacy, first popularized in the 1915 Ku Klux Klan propaganda film "Birth of a Nation" — the original Klan that emerged during Reconstruction had not burned crosses, but it became a commonplace act of racial terrorism after the film prompted a revival of the movement in the 1910s and 1920s.
Today, such terror acts occasionally still happen. In March, a Mississippi man was sentenced to federal prison for burning a cross on his front lawn to try to scare a Black family out of the neighborhood.
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