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,

Racist, anonymous text messages were sent to Black people across the U.S. telling them to report to a plantation to pick cotton, according to law-enforcement officials and civil-rights leaders.Black people in states including Alabama,

The messages tell recipients they have been selected "to pick cotton" or “chosen to be a slave", authorities say.