On Friday, a group wearing masks and carrying flags emblazoned with swastikas attempted to take over an overpass.
A historic Black community near Cincinnati is calling for more accountability after a group of white supremacists staged a protest on an overpass near their town.
On Friday, Feb. 7, a group of masked men claiming to be Neo-Nazis while waving large black flags with red swastikas near Cincinnati clashed with community members from the Village of Lincoln Heights, the first all-Black self-governing city north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
The demonstrators had also pinned red swastika banners on the fence of the overpass along with a sign that read “America for the White Man,” according to CNN and Fox 19.
According to multiple outlets, including CNN affiliate WLWT, the incident was over nearly as quickly as it started, but not before the masked protestors fired off racial slurs and other derogatory language at the community members.
Officers from the Evendale Police Department arrived on the scene around 2 p.m. as community members approached the group. As the officers remained between the two opposing parties, the masked demonstrators hopped into a U-Haul box truck and drove off, leaving the scene. The community members managed to grab one of the protester’s flags, throw it to the ground, and set it on fire. The counter-protestors also may have slashed the tires of a Jeep believed to belong to someone in the hate group.
The ordeal unfolded on the Vision Way overpass, which connects Evendale to the village of Lincoln Heights. In the aftermath of the incident, community members are calling for more accountability from the authorities who referred to the protest as “very offensive” but “not unlawful.”
“We are underestimating the dangers of the police not even attempting to identify them. Who are they trying to protect? Because it isn’t us,” local resident Kachara Talbert, who confronted the masked men, told CNN. “It could be another Hitler behind those masks. It could be a school shooter behind those masks.”
Talbert, who claims the protestors had guns and were calling them the N-word as they approached, said, “We will not hesitate to protect our community. And after the show they put on, every Black community that you can think of is going to show up for us 100%.”
She noted that word of the protest spread rapidly through the community and she was on the scene within 15 minutes of learning about it.
CNN reported white nationalist groups are on the rise in Ohio and are growing increasingly “brazen.” Last November, Hate Club, a newly formed White supremacist organization, was seen marching through a Columbus neighborhood, waving swastika flags and shouting racist slurs, dressed similarly to Friday’s group on the overpass.
Referring to the “America for the White Man” sign the protestors had, Talbert said, it makes her question why they think they are “more entitled to America?”
She added, “This country was made of Black blood, sweat, and tears, so why do these colonizers feel so comfortable?”
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department responded to the incident and released a statement, per CNN, saying, “Lincoln Heights residents are understandably upset.”
The statement continued, “We continue to work with the community and emphasize that there is no place for hate in Hamilton County.”
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval also condemned the display in a post on X where he said it was “shocking and disgusting.”
“Messages of hate like this have no place in our region,” he added. “This is not what we stand for, and it will never be what we stand for.”
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