Hate crime against Black couple jolts beach town known for tolerance

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hate-crime-against-black-couple-jolts-beach-town-known-tolerance-n1245602

Hate crime against Black couple jolts beach town known for tolerance
Johnny and Ann Parham have received a groundswell of support from residents across Fire Island but are still grappling with the incident and its aftermath.



Even though they were the only Black homeowners in town, Johnny and Ann never felt even a tinge of racism in Ocean Beach.

“This has always been a magnificent place for us,” Johnny, now 83, said.

But then came the weekend of Aug. 22.

Just before 5:30 p.m., Ann Parham returned from a walk with her 12-year-old grandson to find a racial epithet scrawled on the footpath in front of their home.

“F--- [N-word],” read the words written in yellow chalk.

Ann was shocked. “It didn’t seem real that that would happen to us,” she said. “We’ve always felt so very comfortable here.”

The incident has shaken not just the Parham family and the nine-block town where they are seen as community pillars. Residents across Fire Island have expressed support for the Parhams and denounced the racist act.

But the police have yet to make any arrests despite the existence of surveillance footage that captured blurry images of the presumed suspects: three young white men. The Parham family, meanwhile, is still rattled by the act of hate as well as a series of other incidents that followed.

For Johnny, who was active in the civil rights movement, the most troubling aspect of the crime is the likelihood that it was committed by someone who was not a day-tripper or short-term renter.

“This had to be manifested by someone who knew this was a house owned by African Americans, which would suggest to us that this was someone local,” Johnny said.