Kiah Morris is a former state representative in Vermont — a nearly all-white state. Morris recently stepped down because she had endured years of racially motivated harassment and threats — even local teens targeting her home.
“The last two years have been emotionally difficult for many,” Morris said on Aug. 24 when she dropped her bid for reelection just 10 days after winning the Democratic nomination for a third term.
“Political discourse, and in particular within the sphere of social media has been divisive, inflammatory and at times, even dangerous.”
A few weeks later, she resigned from the legislature, on Sept. 25, ending her tenure representing Bennington. Morris was the only Black woman in the Vermont House of Representatives. She was an outspoken advocate for racial justice.
On Facebook, Morris, and her husband, James Lawton, have referred to the racially disparaging online comments they’ve received, and also the receipt of threats.
Lawton had even posted screenshots of several online attacks. In one post, a user tells Morris, “We will continue to fight against your efforts to make our town/state look more like your ugly mongrel son.”
“There was vandalism within our home,” Morris told The New York Times. “We found there were swastikas painted on the trees in the woods near where we live. We had home invasions.”
It was the years of racial harassment, and also, concern for her husband’s health, that prompted Morris to resign.
She said in an interview with Seven Days, published on Oct. 3, that Lawton’s difficulties “are absolutely caused by that chronic stress and that level of alarm we’ve lived under for the last few years … We need this time to heal and to come back stronger than ever.”
Over three days in September, a group of teens knocked on the windows and walls of Morris’ home, banging on doors and shouting. She and her family temporarily stayed at a hotel, as they feared it was racially motivated since they’ve been bombarded threats and online harassment for years.
Lawton told VTDigger, a local news website, that although he heard no racial slurs, he had no doubt the house was targeted. Days prior to the disturbance, Lawton called the police on Sept. 19 after he saw some teens sitting on a wall across the street and taking photos of his house with their cellphones.
About two weeks before the teens attempted to invade their home, Lawton underwent triple bypass heart surgery on Sept. 11. He was just released from the hospital.
The anxiety and stress resulted in him being transported later to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center with rising blood pressure.
“That could have killed me,” Lawton told VTDigger.
The population of Vermont is just over 94 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and slightly more than one percent Black.
It was the first state to recognize same-sex civil unions, and the first to experiment with a single-payer health-care system.
“In the state of Vermont, no elected official, candidate or person should be fearful of their safety because of the color of their skin or their point of view,” Bernie Sanders, the junior Senator from Vermont, said in a statement.
However, the “progressive” nature of the state doesn’t include making room for diversity as racism still thrives there. Though it’s a fictional story, anyone who’s seen the film “Get Out” can understand that paradox.
“We face continued harassment and seek legal remedies to the harm endured,” Morris said in a Facebook post.
