Texas Coach ‘Threatened to Hang’ Blacks

A Texas high-school assistant football coach reportedly made repeated racist comments to players, including threatening to hang them “by their toes” on a tree for misbehaving. The school district—located near Dallas—released documents to The Dallas Morning News revealing claims that the coach, Todd Campbell, told students they likely ran fast because they were eating fried chicken or drinking Kool-Aid. During an internal investigation, Campbell admitted that he told one black student he was wearing “Malcolm X glasses,” but said the remarks weren’t meant derogatorily. He called the other student accounts “false accusations.” Students said that in one case, Campbell said: “You need to be quiet. You see that rope over there, you see that tree back there? I’m going to hang you in that tree. I’m going to hang you by your toes.” A student said, “He says stuff around black players just when we are by ourselves.” Students told school officials of the comments, and Campbell resigned from his post in January.