WASHINGTON (AP)- President Bush honored Georgia Congressman
John Lewis and others Tuesday at an event marking Black History Month at the White House.

In his remarks, Bush took aim at a resurgence in the display of
nooses as misguided and disturbing type of prank. The President
said it indicates that some Americans may be losing sight of the
suffering that blacks have endured across the nation.

Bush said "The era of rampant lynching is a shameful chapter in
American history.'' He said the that a noose "is not a symbol of
prairie justice, but of gross injustice.''

He said displaying one is "not a harmless prank'' and "lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest.''

In addition to Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement who
organized freedom rides, sit-ins and voter registration drives,
Bush honored William Coleman, the first black American to be a clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court and who served as President Ford's
transportation secretary.

The President also recognized Ernest Green, one of the nine black students in Little Rock, Arkansas, who were escorted into the
city's all-white Central High School following the historic Brown
vs. Board of Education of the mid 1950s, and Otis Williams, a
leader of the vocal group "The Temptations.''