A student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, had her art project featuring six rainbow-colored nooses swiftly removed from a tree by campus police Tuesday.
The female student, whose art project elicited complaints less than an hour after it was put up on Monday, said she did not intend to be insensitive to the gay or black communities.
“My intention with my sculpture project was to address the cycle of death and rebirth that is represented by the arrival of spring,” the student was quoted in a statement released by the university. “I had no social or political statements in mind. I did not take into consideration that nooses are a racially charged symbol, for that I am sorry.”
Reuters reports the student’s art professor had approved the initial project idea but had expressed concerns about how the project might be interpreted. According to a 2015 Equal Justice Initiative report, thousands of blacks were lynched in Tennessee and many other states between 1877 and 1950.
“This incident is deeply disturbing and is hurtful to our university community,” university President Alisa White wrote in an apology statement. “I am saddened, and I am sorry for the hurt and offense this has caused.”
Some speculated the rainbow-colored nooses were meant to allude to the rainbow-colored flag of the LGBTQ movement. Others took it as a hate symbol.
School administrators planned a community forum for this afternoon to discuss the incident and answer students’ questions.
