A Pennsylvania homeowner is under pressure to remove Halloween decorations showing what appear to be bodies suspended from trees, with critics saying the display resembles lynching victims.
The decorations outside the unidentified resident’s Bristol Borough home include fake bodies wrapped in bags and hanging from a tree, NBC 10 Philadelphia reported.
“I’m looking at it and thinking, ‘Do you not see what’s wrong with this?’” resident Roshea Newkirk said.
The Bucks County NAACP is urging the homeowner to take down the display, arguing that images of bodies hanging from trees carry “painful historical significance” for Black Americans.
“This is not about restricting Halloween celebrations or freedom of expression. It is about historical awareness, empathy, and respect for our neighbors,” the civil rights organization said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The homeowner, who was not identified, told the outlet that he never intended to offend anyone and had purchased the decorations as part of an online display kit.
Some residents, however, said they viewed the setup as a typical Halloween decoration rather than an offensive statement.
“At first, I thought it was a little different,” local resident Mike Wade said. “But then I looked at it and thought, it’s Halloween.”
“My house is scary. My house is always scary and decorated that way. Dead bodies, skeletons—it’s Halloween,” Wade told the outlet.
Other residents said the display could bring to mind the racist lynchings that terrorized and claimed the lives of Black Americans throughout the 20th century.
The disagreement over the Halloween decorations eventually became a topic at a Bristol Borough council meeting.
Officials said they contacted the homeowner and asked him to remove the display, but were unable to persuade him.
“He feels they’re Halloween decorations and he won’t take them down. And we don’t have an ordinance against anything like that,” an official said.
According to the outlet, the decorations remained in place as of Saturday.
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