Authorities across the United States are investigating after racist text messages – some with references to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past – have been received by children,

Several federal and state agencies are investigating how racist mass texts were sent to Black people across the country in the wake of the presidential election this week.

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.

The messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students,