Ole Miss Student Indicted For Hanging Noose Around Statue Honoring School’s First Black Enrollee

By Lilly Workneh, the Huffington Post

A federal grand jury indicted a student at the University of Mississippi on two separate civil rights charges on Friday for hanging a noose and a flag depicting a Confederate symbol around a campus statue honoring James Meredith, the first African-American student to attend the university.

Statue of James Meredith, the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi.

Statue of James Meredith, the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi.

Ole Miss student Graeme Phillip Harris was indicted on one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate black students because of their race or color, prosecutors said…

Prosecutors said Harris conspired with other students and draped the racially offensive items around the statue on the morning of Feb. 16, 2014. The Mississippi NAACP described the act as a “racial hate crime.”

The FBI and the University of Mississippi Police Department are currently investigating the case, which is being prosecuted by the DOJ’s civil rights division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi.

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