Nooses In Offices: An Unnerving Trend Leads To Worker Lawsuits, Big Payouts

Soon after Keith Smith started his temp job at the Virginia Department of Transportation last November, he saw a noose hanging behind a supervisor's desk. Three weeks later, he saw a second noose attached to the wall behind another supervisor. Then he quit.

"I feared for my life," Smith told TV station WSLS. The Virginia Department of Transportation said the people involved were disciplined, but Smith still filed a lawsuit.

Earlier this year in New Jersey, three black employees at a New Jersey Siemens manufacturing plant, Barry Murphy, Solomon Daniels and Eddie Clarke, complained to management that they felt passed over for opportunities. Soon after, they went into a locker room and found a noose dangling from a shower stall (pictured above), reports the Times of Trenton.