Burning Crosses, Hanging Monkies

Burning Crosses, Hanging Monkies. No, not quite the title of a new Wire Fu movie starring Chow Yung Fat. Just the latest chapter in St. Louis’ never-ending story of racists behaving badly.

On the same day that a special House committee heard testimony on why the State of Missouri should finally apologize for years of recognizing Africans as the legal property of others, two reports highlight the struggle for racial harmony that still exists today.

The FBI was notified this week of a cross-burning in the nearby town of Belleville, IL.

From the Post-Dispatch:

Police here are investigating a burning cross that was found Saturday in a black man’s yard on the 3600 block of Sheridan.

Police said a neighbor had seen the 5 foot cross about 11 a.m. Saturday. The resident had not seen a cross when he got home at 1 a.m. the night before. The bottom of the cross burned, and racial slurs were written on it with a black permanent marker.

And in the recently beleaguered St. Louis fire department, where tensions have been high for weeks following Mayor Francis Slay’s removal of the city’s first black fire chief, a stuffed toy monkey was found hanging in an engine house.

Chris Molitor, head of the predominantly-white firefighters union, Local 73, played down the incident, telling the Post that the stuffed animal was found at a fire several weeks ago by firefighters at the station.

“It was put on the coat rack because it was wet and it was drying,” Molitor said. As for the rope, he said, it “has been attached to that coat rack for several years.”

Despite Molitor’s explanation, the black firefighters union and the new fire chief, Dennis Jenkerson, are said to be taking the incident “very seriously.”