Noose found at construction site at a Johns Hopkins building in Baltimore

“We know that incidents like this – wherever they happen – can cause or reinforce trauma for members of our community, especially our Black and Brown colleagues, students, and faculty,” Caldwell said. “That this has happened at a moment when there has been such pain over racially motivated violence means we must lean in and offer the support our community needs now, and that we must become better, more informed allies in the urgent work that needs to be done to fight against racism in all its forms.”

In the message he emailed to community members, Daniels underscored what makes racist imagery such as a noose “horrifying and repugnant” and “a direct threat to the Black community at Johns Hopkins and in Baltimore.”

“The noose stands as a deliberate symbol of the murderous terror of thousands of lynchings perpetrated against Black people in America since the beginning of this nation,” he wrote. “It is a singular and terrifying image that through to the present traumatizes and dehumanizes millions of Black people.”

At what he called “a watershed moment in America,” Daniels said the university has been working with faculty, staff, and students for several weeks to deepen its “work against racism and in support of racial equity and inclusion” and would continue to do so.

The university will communicate its next steps in dealing with the incident and its implications beginning early next week, Daniels added.