Mississippi fire department roiled by noose in locker
HATTIESBURG, MISS. >> There’s little disagreement that the object found in a white Mississippi firefighter’s locker was a hangman’s noose. But as with many things in America these days, there’s deep disagreement about what it meant.
To some it was a reminder of lynchings that took hundreds of black lives in Mississippi, and it had no place on city property — though there was no suggestion that firefighter Shelton Russell had ever displayed it or used it to intimidate anyone.
To Russell it didn’t carry that meaning. If anything, it symbolized America’s lawless wild-west culture, where cowboy vigilantes meted out rough justice.
It happened in August in the town of Hattiesburg, home to two universities and about 46,000 people. About 53% of the town’s residents are black, and about 42% are white.
City officials have declined to make anyone available for interviews because it’s a personnel matter and might involve future litigation. Many details emerged during a civil service commission hearing Oct. 10 as well as documents released to The Associated Press.
On Friday, Aug. 2, two firefighters working at Station 8 saw a noose hanging in the open locker of Russell, a lieutenant and station manager.
“It was like shock at first,” said firefighter Kentavius Reed, testifying about seeing it. When the city’s lawyer asked why he was shocked, the 24-year-old African American described how nooses had been used to hang black people: “I was kind of like ‘Why would you have it in your locker?’”
The other firefighter, a white engineer named Zeb Mitelsztet, testified he was “shocked and disturbed” to find the noose and said he’d always considered nooses a representation of racial hatred.
But Russell, a 22-year department veteran, didn’t see it that way. In statements, and in talking to the commission and to The Associated Press, he described how he’d been watching a western movie with a colleague after taking a ropes course years ago.
Russell said he didn’t know how to tie a noose, and his colleague showed him how it was done. Russell said he put it in his locker and never thought about it again. He said he still doesn’t understand how it’s offensive.
“African-Americans were hung by it. So were whites. So were horse thieves and you know, I’m a cowboy. I’m out in the country. I ride a tractor every day. That’s what I go back to, cowboys and that’s how it got started, with watching the Western,” Russell, who raises chickens and grows hay, told the AP.
Both firefighters who saw the noose took photos and sent them to others. By Monday word had gotten back to Russell that people were talking about it. He went to the station to confront the two firefighters about “spreading rumors of racism,” he said in a statement. The confrontation grew heated.
Both the noose and the confrontation played a role in Russell’s punishment. Fire chief Sherrocko Stewart demoted him, suspended him without pay for a month and required him to undergo counseling. Russell appealed but the commission upheld the punishment; Russell resigned.