A spokesman for Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX-30) provided new details to The Tennessee Star about the alleged hate crimes the Democrat experienced as an undergraduate student in Memphis around 2002.
Pressed for details about the incidents, Crockett’s spokesman told The Star, “they consisted of racist slurs and hate mail that were put in her and 17 other students’ campus mailboxes,” and Crockett “described them as using letters cut from newspapers and magazines.”
Crockett’s office did not reply to The Star‘s inquiry seeking to determine whether Crockett and the other students filed police reports.
The spokesman additionally referred The Star to a 2021 article in The Texas Tribune for more information about the alleged hate crimes, but the article does not appear to mention the allegation or Crockett’s time at Rhodes College.
Crockett claimed in 2020 and 2021 interviews that she and other black students at Rhodes College, where she attended from about 1999 to 2003, were victims of multiple hate crimes, including vandalism of vehicles.
She did not offer further details of the alleged crimes in the 2020 interview, but did claim the school enlisted The Cochran Firm made famous by its founder Johnnie Cochran Jr, who successfully achieved an acquittal in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995.
A spokesman from The Cochran Firm in Memphis told The Star he has “no idea” whether Crockett’s claims are accurate, as the Memphis branch of the law firm has changed ownership since 2002 and the majority of senior attorneys working at the firm more than two decades ago are no longer living.
The Cochran Firm was not mentioned by Crockett in her 2021 interview about the alleged hate crimes, but the outlet she spoke to reported Crockett was “the victim of racist hate mail while attending undergrad at Rhodes College,” referencing her prior claims.
After asserting that hate and bias are not welcome at the school, Rhodes College did not respond to a second inquiry from the star The Star that sought to establish whether the college has records of any hate crime investigations during the time Crockett was an undergraduate.
The school likewise did not clarify whether it has records of retaining The Cochran Firm during the same time period.
Neither Crockett nor The Cochran Firm were able to identify the female attorney the Democrat claimed became her “shero” during the period the alleged hate crimes were committed.
Rhodes College and Crockett similarly neglected to explain the resolution to the alleged “series of hate crimes,” including why the presence of The Cochran Firm was necessary.
The Star was unable to find any contemporary reports of the alleged hate crimes, including in the Fall 2003 issue of Rhodes Magazine. Rhodes College was actually named a “top-10 activist” college in 2002 by Mother Jones Magazine, according to the school website.
Political scientist Marcus Pohlmann similarly failed to mention any alleged hate crimes or racial animosity in 2007 remarks to CBS News, when he declared Memphis was “not as polarized as it used to be” by race.
The response from Crockett’s office comes as the lawmaker continues to claim remarks about her false eyelashes by Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) were racially motivated, declaring to CNN on Monday that the Republican engaged in a “racist trope” during their profane argument in the U.S. House.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rep. Jasmine Crockett” by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. Background Photo “Rhodes College Campus” by Rhodes College.
ill take things that never happened for 1000$ alex
Yeah, and I was abused at birth, when the doctor slapped me on the butt. Where do I file?
This clown should be sweeping floors in a nail salon in Pittsburgh.
My goodness only 22 years required for her to say something. She is a disgrace to Texas.