The Seminole County Sheriff's Office is searching for the suspect behind the vandalism of a historic museum in Oviedo.
Deputies said they received a call about graffiti on the Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum just before 9 a.m. Sunday.
The graffiti included the racist "SS lightning bolts" symbol and hateful, explicit language.
"Kinda brings tears to your eyes when you hear something like that," said Kirk Hill, a longtime Oviedo resident. "It moves you."
Since then, a felony criminal mischief investigation has been launched.
Seminole County deputies said they painted over the graffiti.
"It is disheartening to see racist graffiti on this historic structure," deputies said. "Especially since Monday marks the holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King."
Judith Smith, president of the Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum, shared her reaction to the vandalism.
"It didn't shock me, that wasn't it. You know why it didn't shock me? Because we have been through so much just trying to get this project off the ground," Smith said.
Her group has been working to restore the building and turn it into a community beacon of understanding.
"It's like you've been working, working, working, and so I looked at it, 'OK, it's another problem,'" Smith said.
The project has been underway for about five years and recently received a grant from the nonprofit Florida Humanities.
The building was part of the Gabriella Colored School campus, which taught the descendants of former slaves.
The Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum shared pictures of the graffiti on Facebook and called the incident a "hate crime."
"Whoever did this committed a 'hate crime' by placing the symbols and speech," the post on Facebook read in part.