NAACP 'Deeply Concerned' About Halloween Display In Bristol

BRISTOL BOROUGH, PA — The Bucks County NAACP is calling out a neighborhood Halloween display showing simulated bodies hanging from a tree.

The county branch said it is "deeply concerned" about the display after the organization received a complaint from a resident last week.

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The display shows several stuffed black bags wrapped in silver tape — resembling what appear to be dead bodies — hanging from a tree.

"For Black Americans, this imagery carries a painful historical significance rooted in lynching and racial terror," the organization said. "While we recognize that Halloween decorations are often intended to frighten or shock, intent does not erase impact."

The Bucks County NAACP said it has reached out to borough leadership about the display and is hoping there will be a "voluntary reconsideration" of it.

The organization is asking the homeowner to remove it, but the homeowner says no change will be made and declined a request from borough officials to take the display down, according to KYW News Radio.

Mayor Frank W. Peranteau Sr. told Patch on Monday that he has seen the display and so have members of the Bristol Borough Council.

He said the borough has received numerous complaints about it as well as people voicing in favor of it.

"With my 52 years of experience in law enforcement and the judiciary, I have been trained not to rush to judgement but to look at both sides of an issue," the mayor said. "In my years in and around Bristol Borough, I cannot recall an issue of this type. That's not to say that it has not occurred, but it certainly opened the door for the need to have a serious discussion on the matter."

The mayor said that efforts are still ongoing to try to resolve the matter, and that he is offering his years of experience and expertise to try to resolve the matter amicably.

"Something can be legally permissible and still be profoundly harmful," the NAACP said.

"This is not about restricting Halloween celebrations or freedom of expression," the organization said. "It is about historical awareness, empathy, and respect for our neighbors. We cannot change our history, but we can choose how we respond when that history is invoked in our communities today."