|
Chicago Police said there were no reports of injuries and that
they are investigating the motive and circumstances around the
“object on fire."
Keinika Carlton, 43, was driving home from running errands with
her daughter and mother-in-law when they saw the cross on fire.
She said she felt a combination of shock, sadness, disgust, as
well as curiosity.
“Is this a racial thing? Is this a religious thing?" she said.
“As Black women, of course, our first thought is racial, because
burning crosses are known to be used as a tactic, an act of
violence toward Black Americans in the South.”
Carlton estimated the cross was at least 6 feet (1.83 meters)
tall. The experience was new to all of them, including Carlton's
mother-in-law, who grew up in Kentucky.
Carlton said as they slowed down to shoot a video of the flames,
she saw around her other cars slowing down and people walking
nearby, staring at the cross burning.
While the motive behind the burning cross was not immediately
clear, cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as
“symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the
history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme
Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross
burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the
action “is a particularly virulent form of intimidation.”
Alyna Carlton, 22, said she never thought she would see
something like that in her lifetime.
“It kind of really opened my eyes, had me realize that I’m not
that far removed from the past.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights
reserved |
|
