By Hallie Golden
Contributing Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — Police were seeking clues and leads June 12 in connection with the discovery of a burning cross at a downtown park where former President Barack Obama famously delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation’s first Black president.
The cross, a historic symbol of hate and intimidation against Black people, was found ablaze in the park this week, sending shock waves through a city where more than one in four people are Black. Some people drove or walked by, staring, and a video of the cross-burning gained traction online.
The video, taken by a motorist, shows the wooden cross engulfed in bright orange flames as it leans against a tree in Grant Park, located in the core of the city’s downtown and near Lake Michigan.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was “deeply disturbed” by the images.
“Hate has no place in our city,” Johnson, who is Black, said in a message posted on X. “Every Chicagoan deserves to feel safe, protected, and respected while going about their day or enjoying our public spaces.
“We will continue working across city government to uphold that standard and ensure Chicago remains a welcoming, inclusive, and safe place for all.”
Chicago police urged the public to come forward with any information. A community alert issued by police included an image of a person walking away from the area.
Police said the person was seen “fleeing from the scene” where an object was constructed and burned in the park. The alert provided no update on the arson investigation.
The Chicago Fire Department confirmed the flaming object was a cross and said officials put out the fire.
Officials with a local Catholic church, the Faith Community of Saint Sabina, posted on social media a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved. The Rev. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor, called the cross burning an act of hate.
“It cannot be tolerated,” Pfleger told TV station FOX 32. “I really believe it should be treated as a hate crime just like a swastika is.”
While the motive behind the burning cross was not immediately clear, cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the action “is a particularly virulent form of intimidation.”
Gina Miranda Samuels, faculty director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, said the burning of crosses may no longer create the degree of fear it did decades ago — but there’s sadness at the reminder of the level of hate that still exists.
“Burning a cross in Grant Park, personally, does not instill terror,” she said. “If it was on my personal lawn, that would concern me. This doesn’t cause me to want to flee Chicago.”
Miranda Samuels laid some of the blame on the current political climate.
“I do think we’re living in a time when we have a president that stokes this kind of thing and invites this type of stuff,” she said. “People feel emboldened and are invited to see how far they can go.”
Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and a Chicago resident, agreed. He pointed to how people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were ultimately not punished.
President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack.
“The same kind of people got the same white supremacist mentality as a cross-burning,” Chapman said. “So, they figured like they got a license now … with people pardoned and more or less shaking hands with the devil.”
Next week, Obama will be joined by other former presidents and dignitaries to dedicate his presidential library, named the Obama Center, on a sprawling complex less than 10 miles south of Grant Park. The center opens to the public on Juneteenth, the federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S.
Hallie Golden writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers Terry Tang and Corey Williams also contributed to this report.
