NAACP Involved In Noose Investigation

The NAACP is demanding answers after a noose was discovered at a Gulf Coast fire station.

Captain Rodger Mann, the Moss Point Fire Department's highest ranking black firefighter, says he found the noose in his living quarters at Moss Point's central station.

Mann hasn't been to work since he made the discovery 17 days ago. "I'm not going to sleep there, and I'm not going to co-mingle," he says. "You can deal with someone better when they present themselves and you know where they stand as opposed to someone whose being a coward.

In his sixteen years with the Moss Point Fire Department, Mann insists he's experienced racial tension. In March 2009, he wrote a four page letter to the fire chief outlining what he called "major problems."

The NAACP got involved Wednesday after the city's Board of Aldermen refused to pay Mann for time off work while the noose is under investigation.

"The act was repulsive and very cowardly," said Curly Clark, president of the Jackson County NAACP. "For him to feel like there is some type of racial animosity there, we feel that is very alarming."

Mann says he'll eventually have to return to work, but he insists he will not sleep at the fire station.

Moss Point's mayor did not respond to our request for an interview.