It is unclear who is behind the mass text messages, what motivated them or how they obtained phone numbers for swaths of Black people. But some of the anonymous numbers appear to be tied to TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to obtain ...

A wave of racist text messages summoning Black people to report for slavery showed up on phones across the United States, prompting the scrutiny of the F.B.I. The N.A.A.C.P. said that messages were received in nine states, and attorneys general in two other states reported the same on Thursday.

Racist texts referring to ‘picking cotton’ sent to Black people across US after election Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – have been received by children,

Jennifer Green said her 16-year-old son received a text that said he was "selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation," the day after Election Day.