Noose Drawings at IUP Not Racist

Some chalk drawings depicting hangings on trees on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus have been misconstrued as racist.

Tiana Reid, the vice president of the IUP Black Student League, tells KDKA-TV she was "outraged" when she first saw the drawings. Many other students jumped to the conclusion the drawings were racially motivated because they were discovered a day after a tolerance rally on campus.

But it turns out the drawings were put there by another campus group trying to do a good thing. Members of the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition say they did the drawings -- and some chalk sketches on university sidewalks -- to call attention to genocide in the African country of Sudan.

They say when rain washed away the sidewalk drawings, the tree drawings were viewed out of context.