Rasp
Senior Editor
"He's proud of his Southern Heritage"
Noose in Punta Gorda Sparks Controversy
PUNTA GORDA | Beneath a drab and tattered Confederate flag, a noose droops from a tall wooden pole, just yards from the brilliant blues and yellows of a playground on Scott Street.
For three years, neighbors shrugged their shoulders and called the noose free speech.
Now it is causing an uproar.
First Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church pastor Carl Brooks led his congregation by the Scott Street home of Michael Whiteaker on Sunday "to see this hangman's noose in the year 2007."
"It brings to the surface what I've already known: That racism is alive and doing well," Brooks said.
Whiteaker considers the display in his yard a harmless joke, said his sister. But to many blacks, including the region's NAACP director, it is not a laughing matter - especially in light of racial tension elsewhere in the country over the display of nooses.
"We know what's going on in Jena 6 is the result of a noose being hung on a tree," said Trevor D. Harvey, Southwest Florida director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, referring to the racial unrest in Jena, La., that followed the placement of several nooses in a tree.
"Some things we just don't take as a joke," Harvey said. "I would call the law and say 'Look, this guy is enticing something to happen.' "
Attempts to reach Whiteaker at his home and at work Monday were unsuccessful.
No one answered the door at his house, but his sister Donna Sheridan, who lives nearby, said they are tiring of the attention sparked by news reports.
She said she is beginning to fear for her brother's safety because of the increased traffic by his house. "They've aggravated my brother to death," she said of the onlookers and news reporters. "They're trying to make something prejudiced about it."
Whiteaker is proud of his Southern heritage, but not prejudiced, Sheridan said. He has no plans to take down the noose, which has been up for three or four years, she added.
"He don't want to and he don't have to," she said, standing in a yard nearby.
The noose, long regarded as a symbol of hatred against blacks, emerged last year as the catalyst in a violent fight between black and white high school students in Jena.
Six black students beat a white student unconscious and now face criminal prosecution. Protesters who feel the law is taking a harder stance with the students because of their race brought national attention to the case with a protest march last month.
With that case looming as a backdrop, a black professor found a noose hanging from her office door at Columbia University in New York City recently. Nooses also were discovered in recent weeks at a Manhattan post office and at a police station in Hempstead, N.Y., prompting New York state lawmakers to propose adding the noose to a law that makes painting a swastika on private property a felony.
In Florida, it is unclear whether freedom of speech laws extend to hanging a noose in one's yard.
County Commissioner Adam Cummings, who represents south Charlotte County, including the Punta Gorda area, said he understands how the noose could be construed as offensive. But he said he would have to consult a lawyer before recommending any action on the part of county government.
On Scott Street, Whiteaker's noose has caused less of a stir among his neighbors.
"It doesn't bother anybody in the neighborhood," said Joseph Byron Machuca, manager at the nearby Bread of Life Mission, which provides food and shelter to the homeless.
"He's just a redneck. Redneck people get to express themselves. This is America."
But that accepting attitude raises Willie B. Green's hackles.
"Anyplace a noose is hanging around these United States, I care about it," said Green, president of the Lee County chapter of the NAACP. "It tends to represent hate. It tends to represent the past, which is a dismal past for black people in this country."
Such a display would not be accepted in Lee County and speaks to the mindset of people in Charlotte, Green said.
"It's a short distance as the crow flies, but it's a long way, the way people think," Green said.
Punta Gorda Mayor Larry Friedman said that "virtually everyone within the city would be happier" if Whiteaker removed the noose.
Although Whiteaker's property is a couple of blocks outside the city limits, Friedman said it reflects poorly on Punta Gorda.
"It certainly does not support an image that is in line with the city's or the county's thinking," Friedman said.
Noose in Punta Gorda Sparks Controversy
PUNTA GORDA | Beneath a drab and tattered Confederate flag, a noose droops from a tall wooden pole, just yards from the brilliant blues and yellows of a playground on Scott Street.
For three years, neighbors shrugged their shoulders and called the noose free speech.
Now it is causing an uproar.
First Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church pastor Carl Brooks led his congregation by the Scott Street home of Michael Whiteaker on Sunday "to see this hangman's noose in the year 2007."
"It brings to the surface what I've already known: That racism is alive and doing well," Brooks said.
Whiteaker considers the display in his yard a harmless joke, said his sister. But to many blacks, including the region's NAACP director, it is not a laughing matter - especially in light of racial tension elsewhere in the country over the display of nooses.
"We know what's going on in Jena 6 is the result of a noose being hung on a tree," said Trevor D. Harvey, Southwest Florida director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, referring to the racial unrest in Jena, La., that followed the placement of several nooses in a tree.
"Some things we just don't take as a joke," Harvey said. "I would call the law and say 'Look, this guy is enticing something to happen.' "
Attempts to reach Whiteaker at his home and at work Monday were unsuccessful.
No one answered the door at his house, but his sister Donna Sheridan, who lives nearby, said they are tiring of the attention sparked by news reports.
She said she is beginning to fear for her brother's safety because of the increased traffic by his house. "They've aggravated my brother to death," she said of the onlookers and news reporters. "They're trying to make something prejudiced about it."
Whiteaker is proud of his Southern heritage, but not prejudiced, Sheridan said. He has no plans to take down the noose, which has been up for three or four years, she added.
"He don't want to and he don't have to," she said, standing in a yard nearby.
The noose, long regarded as a symbol of hatred against blacks, emerged last year as the catalyst in a violent fight between black and white high school students in Jena.
Six black students beat a white student unconscious and now face criminal prosecution. Protesters who feel the law is taking a harder stance with the students because of their race brought national attention to the case with a protest march last month.
With that case looming as a backdrop, a black professor found a noose hanging from her office door at Columbia University in New York City recently. Nooses also were discovered in recent weeks at a Manhattan post office and at a police station in Hempstead, N.Y., prompting New York state lawmakers to propose adding the noose to a law that makes painting a swastika on private property a felony.
In Florida, it is unclear whether freedom of speech laws extend to hanging a noose in one's yard.
County Commissioner Adam Cummings, who represents south Charlotte County, including the Punta Gorda area, said he understands how the noose could be construed as offensive. But he said he would have to consult a lawyer before recommending any action on the part of county government.
On Scott Street, Whiteaker's noose has caused less of a stir among his neighbors.
"It doesn't bother anybody in the neighborhood," said Joseph Byron Machuca, manager at the nearby Bread of Life Mission, which provides food and shelter to the homeless.
"He's just a redneck. Redneck people get to express themselves. This is America."
But that accepting attitude raises Willie B. Green's hackles.
"Anyplace a noose is hanging around these United States, I care about it," said Green, president of the Lee County chapter of the NAACP. "It tends to represent hate. It tends to represent the past, which is a dismal past for black people in this country."
Such a display would not be accepted in Lee County and speaks to the mindset of people in Charlotte, Green said.
"It's a short distance as the crow flies, but it's a long way, the way people think," Green said.
Punta Gorda Mayor Larry Friedman said that "virtually everyone within the city would be happier" if Whiteaker removed the noose.
Although Whiteaker's property is a couple of blocks outside the city limits, Friedman said it reflects poorly on Punta Gorda.
"It certainly does not support an image that is in line with the city's or the county's thinking," Friedman said.