Page 24 - Florida Sentinel 11-2-18

Local
NAACP President Receives Racist, Offensive Letter
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
An article appeared in the Tampa Bay Times on Octo- ber 24th discussing the trans- portation amendment. It featured comments from Ms. Yvette Lewis, President of the Hillsborough County Branch NAACP, opposing the amend- ment.
After the article was printed, Ms. Lewis received a letter mailed to the NAACP Branch without a return address. It was addressed to Ms. Lewis and was dated October 24th.
The handwritten letter stated the following:
“Yvette Lewis,
“I’ve got a simple solu- tion to address your tax critism (sic). Gather up all your N---ER friends and family and put them on a bus to Miami. Make sure that lying, cheating, cor- rupt piece of garbage, An- drew Gillum, gets a front seat. That way, if the bus crashes he’ll be sure to go
MS. YVETTE LEWIS President, Hillsborough County Branch NAACP
through the windshield ... hurt bad or worse.
“When the bus gets to Miami, put everybody on a boat headed to Africia (sic). I’m sure when you get to Africia (sic) your other Ba- boon relatives won’t charge you any taxes. And with any luck, the boat will sink half-way there.
“Tax problem solved! Have a nice day.”
When she notified Ms. Adora Obi Nweze, President of the NAACP State Conference, Ms. Nweze perceived it as a threat and notified the National
Office, who in turn contacted the organization’s legal department. Ms. Lewis also contacted the Tampa Police Department, who took possession of the let- ter, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Tampa Office. Ms. Lewis stated that she notified Andrew Gillum’s of- fice and requested additional se-
curity around the Branch. Stephen Hegarty, Public Information Officer for the Tampa Police Department said, “We have the letter and it does not appear to be a direct threat. We are conducting an investiga- tion because we would like to see who wrote it and see that it does- n’t escalate into a threat. It is racist, yes, offensive, yes, and
nasty.”
Ms. Lewis further said,
“It’s really sad in 2018 that peo- ple have so much hatred in their hearts that we can’t disagree on one issue and come together on other things.
“There was no need to ex- press such anger and racism when we all could sit down and have a conversation.”
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2018 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 13-A