Dan Moore Jr., president and CEO of the APEX Museum, called the discovery of a rope hanging from a tree outside the historic institution in downtown Atlanta a deliberate attempt to instill fear and evoke racial trauma.
The rope, which had a loop at the bottom, was found on Wednesday afternoon near the museum’s entrance on Auburn Avenue, a street once known as “The Richest Negro Street in the World.”
The museum, founded in 1978, is the city’s oldest cultural center dedicated to African American history.
Atlanta police and Georgia Homeland Security responded to the scene. Investigators said the rope was too small to be officially classified as a noose, but the symbolism wasn’t lost on the museum staff or the surrounding community.
Moore issued a statement calling the act “an attempt to transform a site of learning and remembrance into a place of fear.”
He added, “It aimed to transform a site of learning and remembrance into a place of fear, which is precisely why this should not…MUST not happen in our time.”
“For Black communities in the United States, a noose is a symbol of terror representing lynchings, hatred, racial violence, and a system that once publicly sanctioned the murder of Blacks to enforce white supremacy,” Moore said. “Placed beside a museum dedicated to Black life and resilience, the rope reads as an act of intimidation: a clear message intended to wound…silence…and to remind people that the same threats and violence of our country’s past can be conjured in the present.”
He urged communities to reject these acts using both legal means and moral clarity.
“Such symbols of hatred in or near these institutions are a travesty that dishonor the work of scholars, activists, descendants, and survivors who have labored to turn historic stories full of pain and achievement into education and hope for the future,” he said.
The museum is currently preparing an exhibit on the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, adding emotional weight to the rope’s appearance.
Atlanta police released a brief statement saying, “Officers are investigating the circumstances. At this time, there is nothing significant to report.”
Homeland Security has since removed the rope for evidence and determined it did not meet the technical definition of a noose.
The incident comes amid national scrutiny following the death of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a Black student found hanging from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Mississippi.
While local officials have said there is no evidence of foul play, Reed’s family, represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, is demanding an independent investigation.