This blog is closing now, thanks for following along. You can find all of the latest US elections stories here.
The NAACP on Thursday condemned racist text messages referencing slavery that were sent anonymously to Black Americans this week as a contentious election was coming to an end in the United States.
The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, the NAACP said in a statement.
The FBI said on Thursday it was in touch with the US justice department and other federal authorities about the “offensive and racist messages”.
“These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement from the organization, which advocates for racial justice and rights for Black Americans.
High school and college students were among the recipients, the Associated Press reported.
Johnson said the messages were a reflection of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory on Tuesday.
Updated
