The Halloween display at the corner of Farragut and Cleveland in Bristol features a graveyard, colorful potted mums, cornstalks and carved jack-o-lanterns.
But it’s the near life-size figures wrapped in black plastic and reflective tape and hung from nooses on a tree and the claw-like hands of two 15-foot tall scarecrows that has generated controversy in one of the smallest and most racially diverse towns in Bucks County.
The display caught the attention of the Bucks County chapter of the NAACP after it received a complaint. A neighbor also urged local officials to take action against what she called imagery that is insensitive and offensive to the Black community.
The homeowner says this year is his first Halloween in the home he spent seven years building, and he never anticipated the reactions the decorations he got last year at Home Depot and Amazon would get.
“They’re just halloween decorations,” he said. “I think it’s been blown out of proportion.”
For neighbor Karla Scott, though, the decorations send a powerful message to the Black community.
“I don’t know if the person is just not educated on this, but it’s very offensive. Not just to the Black people in the community but the community as a whole,” said Scott, who is Black. “It’s not appropriate for 2026.”
Scott told the council at its Oct. 12 meeting that visitors from nearby Burlington County, New Jersey who saw the display were distressed enough they reported it to the local Baptist church she belongs to. She urged the borough take action to get the homeowner to modify the display removing the hanging bodies.
Borough officials are not happy about the decorations either, but Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said that the there is no law dictating what holiday decorations are permitted.
The borough’s zoning inspector did approach the homeowners hours after the display went up and requested it be changed, but the homeowner refused, he added. He added that the borough is continuing efforts to request a compromise.
The decorations remained in place as of Oct. 19.
Bristol Mayor Frank Peranteau said he has seen the display and confirmed that the borough has received other complaints, and they’ve been contacted by people who support leaving it alone.
“In my years in and around Bristol Borough I cannot recall an issue of this type,” Peranteau said. “That’s not to say it has not occurred before, but it has certainly opened the door for a need to have a serious conversation on the matter.”
The borough efforts are continuing to resolve the issue amicably, the mayor added.
Bucks NAACP has formally contacted Bristol Council in writing to express its concerns and urging they continue to engage with the homeowner and the affected residents. The organization is also urging the homeowner to consider modifying the display.
“This is not about taking away someone’s right to celebrate Halloween. It is about recognizing that some images carry a history of violence and terror that cannot simply be dismissed as decoration,” Chapter President Adrienne King said in a statement released Oct. 16.
Dead bodies hanging from trees evokes one of the darkest chapters in American history, when, for generations, lynching was used as an instrument of racial oppression, particularly against Black Americans, King added.
King said the organization is not suggesting the homeowner meant to communicate a racially motivated message, but that intent doesn’t erase its impact and “historically context matters.”
The Constitutional right to freedom of expression does not mean freedom from criticism or the responsibility to consider how actions affect others, she added.
“Something can be legally permissible and still be profoundly harmful,” King said.
