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 racist text messages were sent to Black men and women across several states and told them they had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”

These offensive messages have been reported in more than a dozen states, including California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama.