The FBI is investigating allegations that a public works department supervisor in Jefferson Parish intimidated black workers by displaying in his office two nooses, a bullwhip and a dart board with a black man as the bull’s eye.

A black worker made the allegations Wednesday, saying he was fed up with the display of racist symbols in his superintendent’s office at a sewage lift station and decided to take his case to the NAACP.

“I’ve been in this department six and a half years and when I got to the department they were there,” Terrence Lee said of the nooses and other items. Lee appeared in his blue work uniform and brown ball cap at a news conference in the offices of Danatus King, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s New Orleans chapter.

“I know I’m going to get fired, but I have to stand up,” Lee said. He said his motivation for going public with the allegations is to achieve “equal rights for everybody.”

When he complained about the racist symbols to his foreman, Lee said his concerns were dismissed. “From the way he explained it to me, he called it a ‘kicker,’” Lee said. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.”

Jim Bernazzani, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans office, said he assigned the case to his civil rights division.

“We take these complaints very seriously,” Bernazzani said. “We’re seeing if it rises to the level of a federal hate crime.”

Lee’s superintendent could not be reached for comment.

Officials in Jefferson Parish, a bedroom community of New Orleans, said the case was being looked into and that “appropriate action” would be taken. The parish said it does “not condone or tolerate any form of intimidation of employees for any reason.”

The investigation in part will be based on photographs Lee took in 2005 of his superintendent’s office. Those photos were shown to reporters Wednesday.

In the photos, the rope nooses dangle from a wooden contraption that reaches to the ceiling. A bullwhip hangs from a wooden post, upon which a sign reads: “Bill’s whipping post.” A black man stands at the center of the dart board and his groin area makes up the bull’s eye. All of the items are in one corner of the office.

The allegations come at a time when racial tension is high in Louisiana following the case known as the Jena Six. That case involves six teens accused of attacking a white student at Jena High School in LaSalle Parish. The school had been in a state of racial tension when the attack occurred. In one incident, a hangman’s noose was hung in a tree on campus.

The Jena case became a rallying point for black civil rights leaders and in September tens of thousands of people marched on the small central Louisiana town. It was one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in years.

King called on Jefferson Parish to remove all racist symbols from its property and fire any worker responsible for exhibiting racist symbols.

“If those steps are not taken, the people of America are called upon to march on Jefferson Parish the same way we did on Jena,” King said.

King said he plans to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of Lee seeking compensation for the emotional trauma he has suffered.