Chicago police are investigating after a cross was burned in Grant Park.
Police said officers and firefighters responded to the 600 block of South Columbus Drive around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday after reports of an “object” on fire. Firefighters extinguished the blaze.
The “motives and circumstances” of the burning are under investigation, police said. No one was hurt, and no one is in custody.
Keinika Carlton, a lifelong South Sider, told the Sun-Times she noticed the fire on the side of the road as she ran errands with her mother-in-law and daughter.
Soon Carlton realized what it was: a burning cross or, as she recognized it, a “racist tactic used against our ancestors.”
She recorded a video she posted to social media that shows a wooden cross burning as it leans against a tree. Flames spread onto the bark of the tree trunk while someone runs away in the background, the video shows.
Burning crosses have historically been associated with white supremacy and, more specifically, the Klu Klux Klan.
“I’ve only seen stuff like that in history books,” Carlton said. “My grandmother and great grandmother witnessed things like this. I just couldn’t believe it was something I was seeing on a Tuesday afternoon downtown.”
Cross burnings have led to charges in other states in recent years.
A South Carolina man was hit with federal charges in April for an alleged 2023 cross burning in which he torched the relic in his yard after months of harassing his Black neighbors. A Mississippi man who burned a cross in his front yard to intimidate his Black neighbors in 2020 was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
Carlton said she and her family went to the movies after to clear their heads. The incident hasn’t left her mind, and she hopes it sticks with the rest of the city too.
“This is something that needs to be talked about and seen,” Carlton said. “It’s dangerous. Whatever the message, the community needs to be on alert.”