Are racist cotton picking text messages real?

On Nov. 6, the day after the election, multiple people on social media from all across the country claimed they or someone they know received a racist text message telling them to report to the nearest plantation to either pick cotton or become a “house slave.”

The messages appear to include iterations of the following text:

You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 1:00 pm SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation. You are in Plantation Group C. good day.”

A VERIFY reader sent us a screenshot of one of the messages circulating online and asked us to confirm whether they are real.

Are racist text messages telling people to report to plantations to pick cotton real?

Yes, racist text messages telling people to report to plantations to pick cotton are real.

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Racist text messages telling people to report to plantations to pick cotton are real, according to the FBI, attorneys general in Virginia and Washington, D.C., and Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland.

The agencies and the school system confirmed that they are aware of the offensive text messages circulating across the country. In a statement, Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares added that he “unequivocally condemns” them. 

Spokespersons at the FBI’s Norfolk and Houston field offices said that, per policy, they “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.” However, they ask anyone receiving the messages to report them to the FBI or local law enforcement.

Sam Burwell, a photojournalist at WVEC, a VERIFY partner station in Norfolk, Virginia, also confirmed that he received the message from an unfamiliar phone number on Nov. 6, the day after the election. The text message read:

You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12 pm sharp with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you in a brown van. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation. You are in plantation group W.”

Burwell says he also knows other people who received the message.

“I have a cousin up in Richmond who received the same text message, but I found it weird that in my text message, it had a different group number than his, and they both had our names,” Burwell said.

Deidre Simmons, a spokesperson at the University of Alabama, confirmed in a statement to the university’s student-run newspaper The Crimson White that some Black students there reported receiving similar messages on the same day.

“It is our understanding that individuals across the country have received these disgusting messages. This has been reported to authorities, and we’re asking anyone who may have information regarding these messages to report it to the appropriate authorities,” Simmons said.

VERIFY partner station WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.