Please Read: University Of Pittsburgh Professor Threatened

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'Shocked and horrified' black Pitt professor finds noose on lecture room desk'

Thursday, December 05, 2002

By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Stefan Wheelock speaks frankly to his University of Pittsburgh students about race. But he's not accustomed to lecturing them about something as painful and personal as what he discovered the other night.

Someone had left a noose on his desk.

Stefan Wheelock, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, recently found a noose on his desk as he entered his empty lecture room just before class. The English department has asked campus police to investigate the incident. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

Wheelock, an assistant professor of English who is black, found it as he entered his empty lecture room just before class. Someone had fashioned a miniature noose from cord and placed it behind his lectern, next to a copy of "Invisible Man," a book by an African-American author that students are required to read for Wheelock's literature course, Introduction to Critical Reading.

"I was shocked and horrified," Wheelock, 31, said yesterday.
He departed from his planned lecture to tell his students what he had discovered that evening, how it was a symbol of lynchings of blacks and why he was so disturbed.

"I asked them if anybody knew about this," Wheelock said. "No one knew."

The English department has asked campus police to investigate whether one of those students placed the noose there on Nov. 21 or if it was left by someone else.

David Bartholomae, a professor and chair of the department, said he viewed it as a violation of the university's anti-harassment policies.

"A noose on the desk of an African-American professor is a moment of just supreme American ugliness that we wish would go away," he said. "We wish we didn't have that history. But of course we do."

Incidents involving race occur at Pitt from time to time, but it's unusual for a faculty member to be the target, Bartholomae said.
He notified the department's faculty Monday in an open letter. "I am sickened and angry that this should have happened in one of our classes," he wrote.

The noose resembled material from a window pull cord, Wheelock said. Bartholomae, who saw it, said it "was carefully fashioned ... It was somebody who knew how to make a noose."
Wheelock said he turned the noose over to a plainclothes campus police officer who spoke to him at the request of the English department. But Pitt spokesman Robert Hill yesterday would not say if Pitt police had decided to pursue the matter.

"The university is investigating. I didn't indicate which agency," he said. "We are interested in knowing just what happened here, and who was involved. Then we'll go from there."
Wheelock came to Pitt in fall 2001 from Brown University, where he finished a doctorate in English, Bartholomae said. Wheelock specializes in African-British literature, 18th century British literature, 20th century African-American literature and some political philosophy.

Wheelock said he doesn't shy away from race in his Thursday night class, which is an introductory literature course. But he insisted that he doesn't use it to promote his political views, and that the course is primarily about literature.

In addition to "Invisible Man," written by Ralph Ellison, the class's other required reading is Homer's "The Odyssey."
Raheem Dawson, a Pitt senior and political action chair of the Black Action Society, called the incident disturbing.

"I think it reflects a problem on campus. There is definitely a problem with racial interaction," he said.

"It can be taken a couple different ways," he said. "It can be a flat-out threat. It could be a practical joke with racial overtones."
Wheelock said he's not aware of tension with any students in the class of 22, nearly all of whom are white. He said he doesn't know if the noose was left by someone else who may have some unknown grievance.

"I'm not afraid of the perpetrator of the crime. That's not how I feel," he said. "But I do feel a sense of sadness and disgust at the act."

Bill Schackner can be reached at bschackner@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1977.