By Oyintari Ben
A noose was discovered on Thursday at the Obama Presidential Centre building site, with the Illinois Governor denouncing the discovery as a sign of racial animosity. But Chicago police are now looking into the incident.
According to the construction consortium that is constructing the centre, the event caused a temporary pause in work.
In an email, police spokesperson Alex Aguas stated that the Chicago Police Department was aware of the situation and was looking into it.
The Obama Presidential Centre, which will be a museum and community gathering place honoring Barack and Michelle Obama, the nation’s first African-American president and first lady, was being built when the noose was discovered and reported to police by the Lakeside Alliance, a construction team of Black-owned businesses.
The noose is a representation of the lynchings that occurred in the Jim Crow era after slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865.
Thousands of former slaves and their descendants were sought down, slaughtered, and frequently hanged from trees.
J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, stated on Twitter that “the noose is more than just a symbol of racism; it is a heart-stopping reminder of the murder and horror imposed on Black Americans for generations.”
The Lakeside Alliance is offering a $100,000 reward to help identify the perpetrators, according to a statement provided by an alliance at the site.
“Any kind of bias or hatred is not tolerated at our workplace. Our onboarding procedure includes anti-bias training, which is also reinforced at site-wide gatherings. In order to provide all staff and workers with another round of these trainings and dialogues, we are ceasing all operations on the premises “declared the alliance.
The centre is scheduled to open in 2025, and construction on the site started in 2021.
