Authorities in the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catching” and “cotton picking” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – were received by children, students and working professionals from phone numbers not recognized in the presidential elections.

The president of the NAACP warned on Thursday of possible wider implications of hate speech reported in more than 20 states in new york in California again District of Columbia. The general prosecutors of both parties are condemning messages and vow to eliminate their senders.

“The unfortunate reality of electing a president who has historically embraced and sometimes encouraged hatred is unfolding before our eyes,” NAACP CEO. Derrick Johnson said. “These messages represent an alarming increase in hateful and hateful rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hatred and fan the flames of fear many of us feel after Tuesday’s election results.”

Donald TrumpHis presidential campaign “has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages,” her spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Students at at least three historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) — Hampton University in Hampton, Va., Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina — reported receiving the text messages, according to university statements.

It was not immediately clear who sent the messages, and there is no complete list to whom they were delivered. At least some seem to have been sent TextNow in what the company “believe(s) … is a widespread, coordinated attack,” it told CNN on Friday.

“As soon as we became aware, our Trust & Safety team acted quickly, quickly deactivating the related accounts in less than an hour,” said the company, whose service allows people to sign up anonymously using an email address and to send texts that appear to be coming. from a randomly generated phone number.

“The texts appear to target black and brown individuals, including college students,” the New York attorney general said.

The Federal Communications CommissionThe Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the texts, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced. “These messages are unacceptable,” she said, adding: “We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

“The FBI is aware of offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals across the country and is in contact with the Department of Justice and other federal authorities on this matter,” the agency said in a statement. statement Thursday.

Talaya Jones, a black resident of Piscataway, New Jersey, was “shocked,” then angry and saddened, to receive a racist text Wednesday telling her she had been “chosen to pick cotton from the nearest plantation” and referring to “executive slave catchers”. “, she told CNN.

“I thought it was a joke,” said Jones, who forwarded the text message to loved ones and shared it with CNN. “It really shows that we haven’t come as far as everyone thought we had as a nation since slavery was still a thing.”

“It became sad when I realized that young people get it, like elementary and middle school students,” Jones later said. “Why would you want to intentionally hurt someone you don’t even know?”

A day after receiving the text message, Jones also received an email addressing him with the N-word and containing a similar message about being “selected to pick the cotton.” “Who is doing this and how can they come back?” she asked. “You don’t feel safe in anything you do because you don’t know who is doing it. You don’t know how far they’ll take it.”

The “emotional and psychological impact” of texts

The FBI and law enforcement in Maryland are aware that students and others are receiving the texts, Montgomery County Public Schools said in a statement, noting that “police in some areas have announced they are treating the messages as low-level threats.”

“We recognize that the emotional and psychological impact on our students, staff and especially our communities of color is profound,” the school board’s statement said. “We stand in solidarity with those who feel targeted and hurt by these actions.”

The text messages harken back to the era from the early 17th century to the end of the Civil War in 1865, when millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the United States and forced to work on plantations.

Many they had to live and work on cotton plantations, considered a top commercial crop. They picked cotton for long hours and endured heat, humidity, unsanitary conditions, untreated disease, malnutrition and rape.

Enslaved people were often auctioned off and sold to other slave owners, leading to families being separated. slave catchers, known as slave patrolsthey were legally charged with controlling the enslaved population. Their duties included looking down and apprehending runaway slaves and returning them to their masters, enforcing stationing, and beating and terrorizing slaves who were rebellious or disobedient.

Recipients shocked by “villous” messages.

At the University of Alabama this week, honors freshman Alyse McCall was in tears and wanted to go home after receiving a text saying she had been “chosen to pick cotton from the nearest plantation” and should ” be prepared to be searched”. her mother, Arleta McCall, told CNN.

“It’s strange that it’s the day after the election. It’s strange that it came to my daughter’s personal phone. It’s weird that it’s only going to address black students,” McCall said. “Her group of friends mapped their way to class so they could go together and stay safe.”

The University of Alabama acknowledged that “people across the country have received these disgusting messages” and urged anyone with information about them to report it, it said in a statement.

“Racist and vile spam text messages” have also spread in Louisiana, Republican state Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday through X. “We have directed the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation to fully investigate the origins of these disgusting texts that are only intended to divide us,” she said, urging anyone affected to report the messages to her office.

Anyone who sends racist text messages uses anonymizing software to hide their location, Murrill told CNN on Friday.

At least some of the messages were sent using an email service that routes traffic through Poland, but that doesn’t mean that’s where the sender is, the attorney general said.

“For all we know, it could be coming from Napoleonville, Louisiana. We don’t know where they come from,” Murrill said.

The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are “still trying to track down where this all actually came from,” she added.

Murrill herself, who is White, received one of the racist messages on her personal email account this morning, she said.

“It’s racist and divisive,” Murrill said. “I think it’s just meant to try to create division. We condemn it.”

Condemning the messages as “disgusting and unacceptable,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said “the texts appear to target people of color and brown, including college students, and may include personal information about the recipient, such as the name or their location. “, she told X. “I unequivocally condemn any attempt to intimidate or threaten New Yorkers and their families.”

Students and residents of a suburb in Hartford, Conn., and in New Haven County were also targeted, CNN affiliate WFSB reported.

“How did they come up with a recipient list?” Kenneth Gray, a lecturer at the University of New Haven and retired FBI special agent, told WFSB.

“They did some real research, not only came up with their target list, but they also created a message that contained information that made it seem real,” Gray said.

Black journalist addressed by name in text

In Virginia, a black photographer at the news station WVEC-TV He received a text message from an unknown phone number, addressed him by name and told him he was “selected to pick cotton from the nearest plantation,” he said.

“I feel like it’s a spam message,” recipient Sam Burwell said in a story posted by the station. “I feel disappointed by the message I am sending a day after the election.”

The Virginia Attorney General’s office is “aware of these text messages and condemns them unequivocally,” spokeswoman Chloe Smith said, noting that “anyone who believes they are under threat should not hesitate to contact local law enforcement as well as the office FBI location. .”

A racist text message from an unknown number also arrived in the name of Laura Bass-Brown’s 15-year-old daughter Black. told CNN affiliate KHOU 11 News in the Houston area. At first it seemed automated, but after reviewing screenshots from her daughter’s friends, she found that the sender often responded when students responded, Bass-Brown said.

The Nevada Attorney General’s Office is working with law enforcement to investigate “the source of what appear to be robotext messages,” the office said. in a statement on X.

And in Washington, DC, the attorney general’s office is also “aware of the racist text messages being sent to residents there, unequivocally condemning them,” said spokesman Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein.

“Anyone receiving these messages should contact our civil rights section by calling 202-727-3400 or emailing [email protected]. If you believe your safety is at risk, please contact local law enforcement,” he said in a statement to CNN.

TextNow is “working with our industry partners to uncover more details and continue to monitor patterns to actively block any new accounts attempting to send these messages,” the company told CNN on Friday. “We do not condone or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages, and we will work with the authorities to prevent these people from doing so in the future.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Alyse McCall’s first name.

CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis, Hanna Park, Alayna Treene, Andy Rose and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report, which has been updated with additional information.

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