Silicon Valley NAACP calls doll hanging from noose in SJ bar 'offensive'

A doll hanging by a noose at the western-themed Old Wagon Saloon and Grill in San Jose is being called offensive by the Silicon Valley NAACP.
 
The doll hangs from the ceiling high above the bar and is dressed in western garb with a noose around its neck.

The president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP said a member who was in the bar on Martin Luther King Day was offended by it.

"It's a symbol of the deep South, of hatred, of oppression, of being lynched or murdered just because you are black," said pastor Jeff Moore of the Silicon Valley NAACP.

The bar's general manager said the doll is supposed to be the owner of the establishment.

"This is a saloon. This is his kind of way of trying to be quirky and funny," explained Jason Alvear of the Old Wagon Saloon and Grill.

KTVU went into the bar Thursday night to find patrons upset by the doll, but couldn't find a single person who was bothered.

"I'm not offended by that at all, because it's not black, the doll's not black," said Julie Chiszar of San Jose.

Devoir Funches of Milpitas said, "If that doll was African-American then I would say, 'What is that,' but it looks like a cartoon."

Joe Seavey of San Francisco said that hanging is a form of capital punishment and he didn't necessarily see it as it being a bad thing.

Two blocks from the bar is St. James Park. About 79-years ago, an angry crowd broke into the San Jose jail and took two men suspected of kidnapping and murdering the son of a department store owner and hanged them in the park.

David Lively of Los Gatos said he thought the hanging doll represented that history.  "To me that represents the hanging of the kidnappers of the Hart family in the park over in St. James, no more, no less," he said.

Whatever the reason the NAACP wants the doll to come down.

"If we need to pull it down that's something we will consider," said Alvear.

Moore said if the bar doesn't take it down then he will have to see what other steps need to be taken to change the culture of the whole strip.

Moore said he called on the mayor to look into the matter and if need be he will seek a boycott of the bar.