
Hate signs also discovered a day before runoff between Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy, who is black
Read more Chuck McIntosh, a spokesman for the state department of finance and administration, which oversees the capitol, said the nooses and signs were found on Monday shortly before 8am, on the south side of the grounds.
The matter was under investigation, he said, adding that he did not know what was on the signs. A local television station showed photos of the nooses hanging over tree limbs, and described the rest as hate signs.
In her second year as a state senator in 1999, Hyde-Smith sponsored a bill to rename part of a highway after Confederate President Jefferson Davis (the proposal ultimately failed). In 2007, Hyde-Smith authored a resolution praising a Confederate soldier for fighting to “defend his homeland,” CNN reported on Saturday. She worked on the resolution with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that promotes the revisionist historical position that “preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor” in the Souths fight in the Civil War.
Later on Monday, investigators said that the handwritten signs referred to the states history of lynchings and to the forthcoming election.
Mississippis Republican Senate candidate is under fire after its revealed she attended a segregation academy and celebrated the Confederacy
The Senate runoff on Tuesday is between the Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy, in a race that has increasingly taken on racial overtones.
In a public comment earlier this month, Hyde-Smith referred enthusiastically to a public hanging, a remark which immediately caused controversy in a state where racially motivated lynchings were common. She has also been linked to Confederate imagery and favourable expressions about Confederate troops and leaders.
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Espy would be the first African American senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, after the civil war and the abolition of slavery.
Drug companies and tech firms are among those withdrawing support and seeking to pull back campaign contributions from Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in the final hours of her Senate runoff as her public hanging comments reverberate.
The sudden pullback from major corporations comes amid public pressure, even as President Trump heads to the state Monday to try to prevent the stunning upset that would come from the potential loss of a Senate seat in conservative Mississippi.
Drug giant Pfizer is among the parade of firms who no longer want to be associated with Hyde-Smith, the appointed Republican senator who is in a runoff with Democrat Mike Espy.
We condemn racism and bigotry in all its forms, the firm told the Washington Examiner. We are withdrawing our support and have requested a full refund of our contributions, Pfizer said.
Appointed Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has faced blowback from corporations for her public hanging comments
A spokesman for AT&T told the New York Daily News: We are no longer supporting Senator Hyde-Smith and have requested a refund of our campaign contributions.
GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is a white supremacist, claims Mississippi Rhodes scholar Jaz…
On Sunday, Major League Baseball, said it wanted its $5,000 contribution back. The contribution came in following Hyde-Smiths comments, but the organization said it had been from an earlier fundraiser.
The contribution was made in connection with an event that M.L.B. lobbyists were asked to attend, said an M.L.B. spokesman. M.L.B. has requested that the donation be returned.
Others asking for their money back include Union Pacific railroad, Boston Scientific, Amgen, according to a list compiled by the Examiner.
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Trump enters fray for crucial final vote amid furious race row
President Donald Trump defended Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as he prepares to campaign for her in her run off election