More than a dozen city leaders, all of them African American except for one, received a letter in the mail to their respective offices that was threatening and racist. Now, police are taking a close look.

"If I can assume the intent, the intent was to intimidate," Councilman Braxton Winston said.

Other WRAL Top Stories

He was one of the people who received the letter. Winston said two weeks ago he was opening mail at his office at the Government Center in uptown when he started reading a hateful message.

"We get hate-mail all the time," he said. "But this one was unique ... It was pretty intense, pretty intense, [and] pretty well thought out."

Click here to read more from WCNC.com.