Noose on display near voting booths in southwest Missouri county draws protests
Missouri Democrats on Friday condemned the display of a noose near voting booths in Stone County, Mo., calling it “clear intimidation” of Black voters.
A county official said the noose is part a historical exhibit in place for years marking the last legal hanging in the state and that it is now covered up.
A photo released by the state Democratic Party shows two voting booths in a room with a noose hanging in a corner cabinet next to what appear to be old photos. Stone County Clerk Cindy Elmore said the display was put up several years ago outside the election office in the county building in downtown Galena.
“It’s just a display out in the hallway that’s out there, but it has nothing to do with the election office,” Elmore said.
Voters do cast ballots outside of the election office near the display, but Elmore said the noose was covered up Friday morning. She also said the noose was a replica.
Clem Smith, acting chair of the Missouri Democratic Party, said the noose’s display next to voting booths amounted to intimidation of Black voters and said in a statement that this “symbol’s purpose is to stoke the fires of racial prejudice and strike fear in the hearts of people of color.”
“It is a painful reminder of the murders and lynchings of Black Americans,” Smith said.
Stone County, in southwest Missouri, has a population of about 32,000. The county was the site of Missouri’s last legal hanging, in 1937, when Roscoe Jackson was executed for the murder of salesman Paul Bozarth.
