University of Richmond police are investigating the simulated lynching of a miniature black doll as a possible hate crime.

"When I actually saw what had been done, it took my breath away," said Walter Schoen, chairman of the university's department of theater and dance, who discovered the figure hanging by a noose in a small studio theater.

Schoen described the green and red elf-like character as a Christmas decoration that has been around for at least the past two years. It was brought to school by a student as part of a fraternity initiation ceremony that involved giving a present, he said.

Just under 2 feet tall and considered female, the figure had become a good-luck charm, Schoen said, that was kept in the lighting booth.

"Some of the kids would even talk to it," Schoen said.

But on March 6, Schoen discovered the black-faced doll, with black woven-wool hair, hanging from a coiled noose with a note beneath it reading: "Art is dead, long live art."

"Whatever was intended, if it was some sort of sophomoric prank or whatever, has no meaning given what this image stands for," Schoen said. "There is no escaping what it stands for."

March 6 preceded by a day spring break; the incident comes in close proximity, also, to an upcoming production of "The Meeting," a two-person play that depicts a meeting between Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The play will be staged April 12 and 13 and overlaps with the inauguration of the university's new president, Edward L. Ayers.

University spokesman Brian Eckert said yesterday that the investigation is continuing and that the display has been discouraging.

"This is not what the University of Richmond is about," he said.

Six percent of the student population at UR is black, according to the school.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.