Federal and state authorities are working to find the origins of racist text messages sent to Black people across the country threatening them with slavery and telling them they were “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.

Officials and universities in a growing number of U.S. states are condemning racist text messages that were sent to Black residents this week. The messages, which began appearing Wednesday, were received by people in at least 20 states and the District of Columbia,

The NAACP civil rights group and the White House condemned racist text messages referencing slavery that were sent anonymously to Black Americans this week as a contentious U.S. election drew to a close in the United States.

Racist, anonymous text messages were sent to Black people across the U.S. telling them to report to a plantation to pick cotton, according to law-enforcement officials and civil-rights leaders. Black people in states including Alabama,

Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” – have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election.