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For me what's more important is what the noose meant to those who placed it there and what [their intent was]. What they appear to have intended is exactly what it means for me: intimidation, fear, racism, danger. What's also alarming is that, as high-school students, how could they possibly remember the times (pre-1960) when this symbol was the norm? So, where did they learn the significance of the symbol?

—G. Herring

A noose is a trap that is designed to take one's life. Presented in advance, one has the opportunity to go the other way. Staying the course could get you killed.

—Eugene Talley

In the mid/late '90s, I recall seeing a noose that seemed made of dense rope, thick enough and large enough to hold a 200-plus-pound man easily, as I passed a photocopy shop on the skyway in downtown Minneapolis. It was there for several years. I think I was so "shocked and awed" I didn't know what to make of it, as that was my reaction to much of what I saw/experienced racially/socially in this Midwestern city, which was equal parts circus, lab, zoo, nursery and safari. Some days I could believe neither my eyes nor my ears, and I couldn't figure out how black people could bear living there. The racism is so public and "in-your-face." The noose was a first for me as was a myriad range of near-daily racial affronts, being touched in public by strangers, being photographed in public by strangers (without consent), shouting (apropos of little or nothing except being seen in public), ad nauseum, ad infinitum. All of which was in my view inclusive of the noose, Jim Crow 20th-century style.

—Karen Unaka

The noose represents lawlessness, particularly throughout the United States, not just in the South. It represents the mob mentality, and finally it represents a mob of lawless whites who have set a course to destroy whatever it is that they want to destroy: other whites, blacks, Jews, whoever.

—Wiley Huff

I am a white women old enough to remember the days of segregation. A noose is wrong anytime, anywhere. How can we go backward in the year 2007? The people of Jena need to take a hard look at themselves and step up to the plate! This is very wrong.

—Joanne Irving

It represents the threat of lynching, simple as that. A racist, terrorist threat to instill fear in anyone who sees it.

—Cathy Campbell

I am so exhausted by the rampant racism that abounds in America and white people pretend everything is OK. We are all the same inside and only our color and cultural differences make us unique. What about color makes for such hatred and a need to denigrate and look down upon another race or ethnic group? A noose represents hatred and killing. One day very soon the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

—Donnettal McCall

Within the past few days in Germantown, Tenn., (a suburb of Memphis) at the Performing Arts Center, three Caucasian male employees made three nooses on one of the stages supposedly to lift the ropes off of the floor. An African-American employee complained to management how the hanging of the nooses was offensive to him. The three white male employees were immediately terminated. Now the terminated employees are complaining about how unfair the terminations were and that they didn't mean anything by it.

—Karen Jeltz

A noose signifies the means by which death was inflicted on blacks since slaves were brought here to America. It is so sad to see that it is still being used as a threat. 

—Pat Johnson

It vividly brings to mind the image of crowds of white people, yelling and jeering, young children on their shoulders also yelling, learning how to hate just like daddy as a black human being hangs swinging from a tree. It is the symbol of the very worst in humankind.

—Sondra Bolte

Having been a victim of having three nooses hung in an elementary school where I was the first minority principal and the only black adult, it brings back memories of lynching, murder, threats of violence. We are still fighting the battles of racism our parents and grandparents struggle with. For blacks, equity and equality does not exist. There are more overt actions of racism present today as it was in the 1950s. The Klan put on suits and ties and went to Washington ... now they have created laws that make it very difficult to win a case dealing with discrimination. 

—Berthena Nunn

A noose is a tangible, visual, silent and deliberate threat intended to indicate hatred and bring about fear, terror and panic. The anonymity of a noose hanging in a tree or in a public area makes the area seem unsafe and terribly violent in its quiet movement and from its unknown source. Because of its anonymous nature, it appears violence is coming from everywhere and accepted by all. Unless the community as a whole addresses the issue together by publicly announcing that they will not tolerate nooses and other forms of terrorism and intimidation, the town can never heal. In that spot, the tree where it happened, students and intelligent speakers must bring this to a level of discussion and healing. Unless that happens, Jena cannot move from this era. It will be held as if in suspended animation until it does.

—Mimi Segal

To me, a noose is a symbol of killing and death, but a noose as a symbol or icon of racism is really not a factor. A noose also represents impending doom ... since the only thing a noose is used for is [as] a tool for killing or some other "abrupt end." Attaching a "white" or "racial" connotation to a noose in this day and age (or last 25 years) is pretty weird.

—Paul Hughes

For me, what's more important is what the noose meant to those who placed it there and what was their intent. What they appear to have intended is exactly what it means for me—intimidation, fear, racism, danger. What's also alarming is that, as high-school students, how could they possibly remember the times (pre-1960) when this symbol was the norm? So, where did they learn the significance of the symbol?

—G. Herring

[Seeing a noose] tells me first of all that they are cowards ... I also believe that people who do these hate-type crimes are weak, evil and wicked-minded people, who got that way from their parents.

—Shirley Williamson

This is just another example of why we need diversity ... it should be law that everyone have diversity training ...make it a class beginning in early childhood learning.

—Donna Shepard

Jena would do well to invite the group Not In Our Town to come and lead healing discussions and to help create an action plan to unite people in making it clear that nooses and other such acts of terrorism are intolerable.

—Judy Kirmmse

A noose is equivalent to a burning cross. A noose is equivalent to a swastika, which does not require any qualification or explanation to be condemned.

—Judith Garcia Quinonez

It may be a symbol of racial hatred, but a symbol is not going to put anyone in a hospital and generate medical bills. Those black Jena students escalated it from the symbolic to the physical level when they violently assaulted that white student. I would much rather view a symbol of [hatred] towards my race than be ganged up on by a bunch of thugs.  The Jena 6 don't deserve freedom. There are no laws against being rude or insulting someone, but there is a law against violently assaulting someone in a 6-on-1 gang attack. Anyone who takes advantage of superior size or numbers is a bully and should be taken out of society.

—John Hill

John Hill, if you think the Jena 6 don't deserve their freedom as you stated, then you obviously live in a different world. In your world, you don't have to go to work everyday and be reminded that you are black. You don't have to walk in a store and be followed because you are black. You don't have to constantly hear and see a person of your race be mistreated, given harsher sentences, or even passed by for a job position ... So you see, Hill, your comment goes to show that you don't live a life that would allow you to see and feel the anger of not only the Jena 6 boys but others of their [peers]. Try putting yourself in their shoes to see how such an act would feel to you.

—Lisa Copeland

American history and a part of taming the West along with the six shooter, lever-action rifle and barbed wire.

—Mark McClain

The person hanging the noose on the tree and the person intended to find it there both recognize that it means the same thing it has meant in America for well over 200 years, i.e., intimidation, violence and death. If the noose hung on the tree in Jena was not intended to intimidate the African-American students, then why did it only find its way to the tree after the dispute between the students?

—EJ Williams

This is a sick reminder of how evil people were in those days. We must remember that this represents diseased people and some will never be healed. And we know that God is not in this because He is LOVE.

—Peggy Leggett

A noose represents hatred. A symbol of intimdation, fear, control, degradation of the heart and soul and annihilation of the flesh. Search the American history of the United States and read what has happened right here in this country less than hundred years ago. 

—Uganda Wesley

A noose represents a racist act. Not just a passive historical marker intended to intimidate African Americans but a racist act intended to be a reminder that the past is still alive and can and will be re-enacted any time these bigots want with impunity. It says in broad daylight, and in this case, on public property, that things have not changed much at all!

—Cynthia Cooper

Although I grew up in southeastern Virginia during the '50s through the '70s, I did not experience the intense kind of racism that would cause me to react to seeing a noose at school or in the workplace. I have never experienced either, at least not yet. Having said that, however, I am now sensitized to this because of all the recent publicity about nooses being used in the workplace or in schools to convey racist sentiments and to intimidate African-American people. I abhor the display of any symbol of racial hatred, regardless of who the target group might be.

—Rhomie Heck III

A noose represents death ... immediate danger ... crowds of angry white mobs unwilling to talk, just destroy ... not just hitting, but mutilation ... burning, suffocating, butchering like an animal.

—Sharon Richmond

Personal feelings—[a] noose reminds me of lotsa cowboy movies.

—Andy Reibson