LAWNSIDE, N.J. (CBS) — It was last Thursday when Dawn Hines got a call from her neighbor, telling her that someone had vandalized her fence in Lawnside, New Jersey. But Hines was shocked when she saw a photo the neighbor sent of the graffiti.
“I was like, ‘That’s not just graffiti, that’s a hate crime,'” Hines said. “I’ve been here for 20 years. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me.”
The hateful message was spread across her fence, which faces busy Evesham Avenue running through town. It was a devastating blow to the predominantly Black town, which holds the mantle as the first self-governing African-American municipality north of the Mason-Dixon line.
“This township is predominantly Black,” Hines said. “We have the Peter Mott house here. The underground railroad ran through here.”
Hines’s neighbor, Mark Jay, has lived in Lawnside all his life. The retired police officer says while he can remember some instances of racism he experienced while growing up, nothing like this has happened anytime recently.