By Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston 
and David Cason, University of North Dakota 

Donald Trump is the third U.S. president to pardon a large group of insurrectionists. His clemency toward those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection – including seditious conspiracy and assaults on police officers – was different in key ways from the two previous efforts, by Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1873.

But they share the apparent hope that their pardons would herald periods of national harmony. As historians of the period after the Civil War, we know that for Johnson and Grant, that’s not what happened.

When Johnson became president in 1865 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he faced a combative Congress. Though Johnson had opposed the secession of the Southern states before the Civil War began, he agreed with former Confederate leaders that formerly enslaved people did not deserve equality with White people.

Further, as a Southerner, he wanted to maintain the social conventions and economic structure of the South by replacing enslavement with economic bondage. This economic bondage, called sharecropping, was a system by which tenant farmers rented land from large landowners.

Tenants rarely cleared enough to pay their costs and fell into debt. In effect, Johnson sought to restore the nation to how it was before the Civil War, though without legalized slavery – and sought every avenue available to thwart the plans of the Radical Republicans who controlled both houses of Congress to create full racial equality.

Johnson signed an amnesty that gave a blanket pardon to all former Confederate soldiers. However, he required formerly high-ranking Confederate officials to individually seek pardons for their involvement in the rebellion. These officials faced permanent disfranchisement and could not hold federal office if they did not seek a pardon.

When Congress was in recess, Johnson vetoed two bills that had been passed: one to help find homes for formerly enslaved people who could no longer live on the property of their enslavers, and the other to define U.S. citizenship and ensure equal protection of the laws for Black people as well as White people.

Johnson also told Southern states not to ratify the 14th Amendment, whose purpose was to enshrine both citizenship and equal protection in the Constitution.

When Congress came back in session, it continued its effort of Reconstruction of the former Confederate states – reforming their racist laws and policies to comport with the liberty and equality the Union was committed to – by overriding Johnson’s vetoes and requiring former Confederate states to ratify the 14th Amendment as a condition of readmission to the Union, but Congress could not override the pardons the president had granted.

This continued political warfare resulted in Johnson being impeached – but not convicted or removed from office. But the back-and-forth also stalled Reconstruction and efforts toward racial equality, ultimately dooming the effort.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was not covered by Johnson’s general amnesty. As a former Confederate general, he had to apply for a personal presidential pardon, which Johnson granted on July 17, 1868. Two months later, Forrest represented Tennessee at the Democratic Party’s national convention in New York City.

He also took command of the Ku Klux Klan, the unofficial militant wing of the Democratic Party. Forrest initiated the title “Grand Wizard,” a bizarre title derived from his Civil War nickname, “Wizard of the Saddle.” He became a leader of former Confederates who resisted Reconstruction through violence and terror.

After his pardon, Forrest perfected a rhetorical technique for his extremism. His biographer Court Carney described it as a multistep process, starting with, “Say something exaggerated and inflammatory that plays well with supporters.” Then, deny saying it “to maintain a semblance of professional decorum.” Then, blur the threats with “crowd pleasing humor.” It proved an effective way of threatening violence while being able to deny responsibility for any violence that occurred.

Under Forrest’s leadership, membership in the violent, racist Ku Klux Klan spread almost everywhere in the South. Records are sketchy, so it’s impossible to say how many people were lynched, but the Equal Justice Initiative has documented 2,000 lynchings of Black Americans during Reconstruction. Black women and girls were often raped by klansmen or members of its successor militias.

It’s also not possible to say how many pardoned ex-Confederates participated in the lynchings. But the violence was so widespread that just about everyone, North and South, thought the political violence was a resumption of the Civil War.

In the Piedmont of the Carolinas, klan violence amounted to a shadow government of White nationalists. Grant ordered the U.S. Army to apprehend the klansmen, and a newly minted Department of Justice prosecuted the insurrectionists for violating Civil Rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments.

After several trials that proved to be what the federal judiciary’s official history calls “dramatic spectacles,” federal judges handed down conviction after conviction.

The federal government’s decisive action allowed for a relatively free presidential election in 1872. Black voters helped Grant win in eight Southern states, contributing to his landslide victory.

But after his reelection, Grant appointed a new attorney general, who dropped the pending klan cases. Grant also pardoned klansmen who had already been convicted of crimes.

Grant hoped his gesture would encourage Southerners to accept the nation’s new birth of freedom.

It didn’t. The pardons told former Confederates that they were winning.

John Christopher Winsmith, an ex-Confederate who embraced racial equality and whose father had been shot by the KKK, wrote to Grant in 1873, “A few trials and convictions in the U.S. Courts, and then the pardoning of the criminals” had emboldened what he called “the hideous monster – Ku Kluxism.”

And a new gang arose, too: the Red Shirts, who began to murder Black people openly, not even in secret as the klan did. Two of the Red Shirts were later elected to the U.S. Senate.

Paramilitary groups established anti-democratic one-party rule in every former Confederate state, imposing discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow, which were enforced by lynchings and other forms of racial violence.

The federal government took no substantive action against this for a century, until the 20th century’s Civil Rights Movement sparked change. And it wasn’t until 2022 that Congress passed an anti-lynching bill.

Joseph Patrick Kelly is professor of literature and director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston, and David Cason is associate professor in Honors, University of North Dakota 

The post Pardons for insurrectionists lead to racial violence and turmoil appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

The Village of Lincoln Heights and members of the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church have initiated a public boycott Evendale after their frustration with the Evendale Police Department and Evendale leaders regarding the neo-Nazi demonstration that occurred Feb. 7.

The Evendale Police Department provides protection for the village, as well as the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department.

The Rev. Dr. Julian Cook, pastor of the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church, said at a Feb. 24  press conference at the church that no arrests or citations have been made by the Evendale Police Department in connection with the incident. However, he expressed appreciation for  Evendale officials’ decision to hire a third-party team to evaluate their handling of the demonstration. Lincoln Heights Mayor Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey said she and other community members were upset that they were not invited to participate in that decision or in a decision about releasing the videos.

Lincoln Heights officials are asking the public not to spend a penny in Evendale and are asking the police and leaders of Evendale the following:

• A full investigation, including all unedited footage from Feb. 7.
• Support those affected by hate, including counseling of students who were traumatized by seeing the hateful demonstration
• A comprehensive plan for safety and accountability
• Accountability and respect, including the use of the Evendale public pool by Lincoln Heights residents.

 “This is a Hamilton County issue, this an American issue. So, once again, choose what side of history you’re going to be on. Are you on the side of Nazis and hate or are you on the side of being an American,” activist and Lincoln Heights Councilman Daronce Daniels said.

On Friday, Evendale City officials said that Consulting firm 21 CP Solutions (21st Century Policing), headed by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, will be conducting their review.

“We owe it to our community and all those affected by Feb. 7 to learn from that day and strengthen trust,” said Evendale Mayor Richard H. Finan. He added all 16 hours of bodycam video from the incident would be publicly available for the community to review, and Evendale officers who assisted the Nazis demonstrators would face consequences.

Based in Chicago, 21CP has a former Cincinnati assistant police chief, Jim Whalen, as part of their team. The cost of bringing the firm in is about $70,000, according to Evendale Councilman Chris Patterson.

A dozen men carrying guns and waving flags with swastikas on them spent about 45 minutes on the overpass. Their presence drew a rapid response from residents in historically Black Lincoln Heights, creating a very charged and potentially violent atmosphere.

The demonstration ended when the White supremacists got into the back of a U-Haul truck and drove away.

“Our focus and our strategies and our efforts were entirely on public safety,” Evendale Police Chief Tim Holloway said. “Making sure everybody was safe, from the original demonstrators to the counter protesters that showed up and every motorist who just happened to be driving by and every employee of every business nearby.”

Lincoln Heights spends about one million dollars annually for policing from the Evendale Police Department. Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies also patrol the community. Lincoln Heights leaders say this may be an opportunity for the village leaders to reinstate its police department.

Lincoln Heights resident Jennifer Gray said in the 1960s she witnessed KKK members burn a cross in a demonstration in the village’s school yard. Carlton Collins, a leader in The Heights Movement, added that the village residents have been resilient in fighting abuses for many years, including enduring the constant noise from the adjacent law enforcement shooting range, which Cincinnati officials are planning to relocate at an isolated site.

The post Lincoln Heights community boycott Evendale over neo-Nazi demonstration appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

A business owner and resident of the first Black city north of the Mason-Dixon Line said he feared for his life when he was approached by an armed member of a neo-Nazi group demonstrating on an overpass on February 7 as he was returning to his fire alarm business in the Village of Lincoln Heights, Ohio, near Cincinnati.

The neo-Nazi group of about 10 members armed with assault rifles targeted the African American community during their demonstration, assembling on the overpass and hanging swastika flags and a large banner proclaiming “America for the White Man” from the overpass railings. 

Soon a number of residents from the village of about 3,000 population came down to the overpass.

Vastly outnumbered by residents shouting “no justice, no peace” and demanding their immediate removal, the Nazis quickly gathered up their White supremacist signs, under police protection, and literally ran to a near-by U-Haul and took off.

Eric Ruffin, who is a resident of Lincoln Heights and has an office there for his business, ABEL Building Systems, said he was blocked on the overpass by law enforcement and other vehicles when he tried to drive across it. He heard the neo-Nazi group shouting the “N word” and other obscenities through an amplified megaphone, and was approached by several men dressed in black from head to feet. 

“This seemed so strange. I could not believe what  was happening,” Ruffin said. “I turned my music up louder than their bullhorn as I tried to get into my music, so I would not be able to hear them and keep my head cool. I did not look at them even as they were standing outside my truck window and calling me the ’N word.’ I was concerned that they would pull me out of my truck. I was ignoring a fool, and the fool got mad. But when I pulled out my pistol, they walked away. A police officer from a neighboring community then walked up and told me to turn my radio down, and eventually I was able to pass on. This was sort of a reverse stand-your-ground situation.”

He commented that while he was stranded on the overpass it seemed like a day had passed, although he was there for only a few minutes. 

“I feared for my life,” he commented.

Ruffin and other residents in the community said the Neo-Nazi group did not belong there, and they have criticized law enforcement officials for not taking immediate action to remove them and de-escalate the confrontations. Ruffin said the officers seemed only interested in protecting the Neo-Nazis.

A day later, the Lincoln Heights residents staged a “rolling” protest of how the situation was handled by law enforcement, as they drove through surrounding communities.

Also, several members of the village’s Safety and Watch patrol, carrying assault rifles and dressed in heavy clothing and wearing face coverings due to the frigid weather, patrolled the community questioning strangers who were driving through. 

Lincoln Heights is the home of internationally recognized poet Nikki Giovanna, who died earlier this year, as well as a number of Cincinnati area leaders and professionals.

Condemnations of this White supremacist provocation were also quickly issued by the Mayor of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati NAACP, the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, the Ohio Chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. 

The following day, the administration of Lincoln Heights issued a statement: “Racism is ugly, and it was on display yesterday. This kind of activity has no place in Lincoln Heights or anywhere else. We are proud of the restraint our community showed in response to this demonstration.”

For Mayor Ruby Mumphrey Kinsey, born and raised in Lincoln Heights, it was devastating. “My heart dropped. My life will never be the same. It’s as if the devil knocked on our door,” she said. At the time, she was at work in Northern Kentucky—the only senior manager on duty, calling her boss and trying to find someone to cover her office so she could leave. As she waited, she remained in constant contact with a fellow council member, neighbors and family. 

Ruffin mentioned his father was raised near Philadelphia, Mississippi, and his father taught him not to hate, although he lived there during the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the murder of four young Freedom Riders in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  

Not one of the police officers investigated the situation, according to reports.

Community residents, however, have not remained silent. Two days following the Nazi demonstration, area residents returned to the site of the crime and posted banners proclaiming “Love Wins.” One sign read, “My father fought the Nazis and So Will I.” On Sunday, February 9, more than 300 area residents marched to the overpass, filling the street and stopping traffic, to voice their moral outrage against the violation of human dignity there two days earlier. A community meeting on the following Monday at the Lincoln Heights Municipal Center drew hundreds of concerned residents who demanded to know, among other things, why the Nazis were not identified by the police, let alone not arrested. That evening’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting continued to hear speakers denounce the Nazis and commend the Lincoln Heights community for driving them out. 

A similar Nazi demonstration in Columbus, Ohio, right after the November 5, 2024, election resulted in the same revealing and incriminating silence from law enforcement. 

Hamilton County, Ohio Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey met with residents after the Feb. 7 Nazi demonstration to hear residents voice their concerns about law enforcement showing more concern for protecting the Nazis than for the residents whom they are hired to serve. Sheriff McGuffey promised an investigation.

“I am so proud of my community,’’ Ruffin said. “We are so small and so Black, but don’t come over here playing, for you can find trouble as well as love.”

The post ‘I feared for my life,’ Black community member said of neo-Nazi group appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

A procession of vehicles made its way through Lincoln Heights and Evendale Monday to counter protest the February 7 neo-Nazi demonstration on the Vision Way overpass between the two communities.

During the February 7 demonstration, about 10  members of the hate group carried swastika flags and assault rifles and hung White supremacist banners from the overpass. They were eventually confronted by Lincoln Heights residents, the presence of Evendale police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies and left towing a U-Haul filled with their props.

Residents of the historically Black community — the first self-governing Black municipality north of the Mason-Dixon line — say they believe they were intentionally targeted. The members of the hate group wore masks and several brandished assault rifles.

The incident has left an unsettled feeling in Lincoln Heights and questions about law enforcements’ response to the hate group.

“We still have drivers cruising through Lincoln Heights wearing swastikas on their arm bands and hate signs on their cars,” said Carlton Collins, a leader in The Heights Movement, a civic organization.

Drivers involved in Monday’s counter-protest painted their windows and carried signs with anti-racist slogans and messages like “we demand answers,” a reference to the police response about the hate group

“The purpose of the caravan of vehicles Monday was to announce our effort to produce an economic boycott of Evendale businesses in response to the lack of transparency provided by the Evendale police presence here during the Nazi demonstration,” Collins said. 

“The neo-Nazi group parked their van in the Lincoln Heights Middle School/High School parking lot, which was just dismissing students, as elementary school buses coming into the same lot were letting those students off. So all of those students were seeing the whole thing going on down at the overpass. The high school students were the first to reach the overpass, with the armed neo—Nazis walking from our side of the overpass to it.

“Also, from 20 to 30 percent of our population lives in the senior apartments back of the school. So we had most of our vulnerable people witness what was happening, and all of that contributed to just how angry the people of Lincoln Heights were.”   

Collins said members of The Heights Movement have some footage from Evendale police taken during the event, but it has apparently been edited, and the members want an independent investigation of the police department concerning their response to the event. 

“We want some clarity about whether the  Evendale police were in support of the neo- Nazis presence here,” he said.    

The “rolling protest” caravan Monday has produced some positive results that are leading to accountability, Collins said. “There has been a lot of community trauma, but we are now in space where we are on the road to healing. The sooner we get answers, that will help us in that process.” he added.

Lincoln Heights residents want to know why none of the hate group members were cited for breaking any laws, and how their U-Haul truck ended up outside Lockland school after the demonstration.

Lockland Local Schools last week released security footage showing an Evendale Police cruiser pulling up to the school in the minutes after the demonstration. Shortly after, the U-Haul driven by the neo-Nazis pulled up behind it. The officer gets out, speaks briefly to the driver of the U-Haul, then gets in his cruiser, pulls into the school’s parking lot and then drives away. The U-Haul then pulls into the parking lot as well before driving off.

In the statement, Lockland Schools says it was just minutes away from dismissal of elementary school students when the incident happened and that the district was not notified about the hate group being near — and briefly on — its property.

Regarding the Nazi confrontation in Lincoln Heights, The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners released this joint statement:

“We are appalled by the hateful and racist display that took place in the Lincoln Heights/Evendale. Hate has no place in Hamilton County or society, and we stand united in rejecting those who seek to divide us.”

Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey is calling on Ohio lawmakers for stricter laws after the neo-Nazi demonstration on the overpass.

McGuffey said on Tuesday she wants state lawmakers to implement harsher legislation for “hate speech” and to make it a crime to wear a mask while carrying a firearm for purposes of intimidation.

According to reports, Hamilton County dispatchers said police responded to the scene and were working on “keeping the peace.” Evendale police said they became aware of “an unannounced protest” on the sidewalks of the overpass. Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies also responded to the scene.

Evendale police stated previously in a news release the protest, while very offensive, was not unlawful.

“It might be legally protected speech but it is not OK,” McGuffey said on Tuesday.

The post Lincoln Heights residents demand answers for response to neo-Nazis appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Dan Yount, The Cincinnati Herald and Nana Eshun, Legislative Aide, State Rep. Cecil Thomas

Last Friday’s pro-Nazi demonstration

Videos and photos poured in on social media Friday, Feb. 7, as neo-Nazis stood on an overpass in Lincoln Heights waving flags with Nazi swastikas, giving the “Heil Hitler” sign, and shouting insults at passing drivers. Lincoln Heights residents showed up in full force, and the hate group retreated to their van. On Sunday, Lincoln Heights leaders and residents led a march for strength and unity (see story on page B5).

Lincoln Heights was the first Black-governed city in the country, and it remains the largest Black community in Ohio.

The hate group started in the business district where they met a curious business owner with hateful speech, including the N-word, as several elementary students were exiting their school bus. They continued to the bridge overpass, known as Aviation Way, above the I-75 expressway.

Once there, the Neo-Nazis attached swastika symbols and separatist speech to the fence which is state property. They then used this platform to spew out hateful speech toward Black motorists as they drove across the bridge, causing a serious traffic distraction to motorists traveling north on I-75.

As word spread throughout the community, a large crowd gathered to confront the group. A minor struggle ensued, resulting in law enforcement intervening to separate the parties. Some accused some of the officers of helping the hate group, rather than protecting the citizens, and others said they saw law enforcement officers helping the group to carry some items from their vehicle. Those accusations are under investigation.

A swastika flag was taken from a member of the group and set on fire. Law enforcement escorted the Neo-Nazis back to their vehicles, allowing them to leave. 

The following day, Saturday, February 8, several vehicles that were parked in the business district parking lot were vandalized, windows shattered. The residents believe the perpetrators were members of the neo-Nazi group, retaliating for one of their vehicles being damaged. The incident is under investigation by law enforcement.

The community of Lincoln Heights deserves answers and action from the legislature, said State Rep. Cecil Thomas.

“As a legislator, and the ranking member of the Public Safety Committee, I find it necessary to address the incident described below. Since the activity occurred on the overpass that is state owned property, I will be calling for the Director of Public Safety to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. I want to know whether a citizen has a legal right to protest and or attach paraphernalia on a bridge overpass belonging to the state. If there is a violation, what authority does a local law enforcement agency have in this situation? What role does the State Patrol have, if any? Should local law enforcement have notified the state?  

“Also, I will be using this incident to introduce legislation to assist local governments in addressing these types of situations that can escalate out of control very quickly. If both sides are wielding weapons, one spark could easily cause a blood bath. Under current law, local governments and law enforcement’s hands are currently tied. They need proactive, clear legal guidance to determine when speech or action becomes inciteful, that could compel a reasonable individual to violence. They also need proactive, clear legal guidance to decide when a situation, in their judgement, has become a threat to the safety of citizens and or the community. Why did it take a minor shuffle before law enforcement decided to act?”

Tamara Lang, VP of External Relations, Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, said the disturbing Nazi demonstration on highway I-75 was witnessed by people on their daily commute and residents of neighboring communities.

She added, “For many, these acts of hate serve as a stark reminder of deep wounds that seem to never heal, and stories never forgotten. For our team at the Holloman Center for Social Justice, these symbols demonstrate a blatant alignment with hate and White supremacist ideology.

Executive Advisor to the Center, Attorney Fanon Rucker, said, “Recognizing every citizen’s First Amendment Right of Free Speech, brandishing military style weapons while using gestures and spewing hateful rhetoric clearly have the goal of intimidation, provocation and harassment. History reminds us that the unchecked belief of superiority is the tool of racial and ethnic oppression. No wonder what we saw fires up such anger and resistance.”

The Village of Lincoln Heights, the first Black self-governing community in the country, has served as a historic beacon of resilience and empowerment. The fact that this area was chosen for this hateful display was likely not a coincidence, Lang said.

She added, “The Holloman Center for Social Justice stands firmly against racism, antisemitism, and all forms of extremism that seek to intimidate and divide us. We call upon all local leaders, business leaders, law enforcement and Civil Rights organizations to join us in rejecting hate in all forms and those that threaten the safety and well-being of our communities.

“Now is not the time for empty rhetoric and promises. The fight for a just society is not limited to responding to moments like this—it is about building sustained power, strengthening protections against extremism, and ensuring that vulnerable communities are safe, supported, and uplifted. We will not be silenced or deterred by these despicable acts, nor will we allow fear to undermine the progress our communities have fought for generations to achieve.

Officer Steward Isaacs, President of the Sentinels Police Association that represents Cincinnati’s Black police officers, commented that agents of hate once again have been active in our community. “However, like our parents and grandparents of the past, we will stand tall for what is right. We know this is just the start of those who cause diversion for the sake of division. We are not amused  and we are not afraid. We will stand with those organizations that remain steadfast and shine a light on those who would terrorize our communities.”

David Whitehead, the new president of the Cincinnati NAACP, added that the NAACP is aware of the individuals waving a symbolism of hate and “we question their residency in the city of Cincinnati.”

He said the current executive orders (issued by President Donald Trump) and actions have angered many and emboldened others.

Whitehead added, “This is not normal and should not be accepted as such. We are stronger together, and we are calling on all to unify against this behavior.”

The post Lincoln Heights leaders and residents rose up against Neo-Nazi hate appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

The hate that surfaced in Lincoln Heights, often referred to as Zone 15, which encompasses Lockland, Woodlawn and Wyoming, came under attack last Friday when Nazi symbols and rhetoric were publicly displayed a chilling reminder that extremism is not a relic of the past but a growing force emboldened in the present. This incident echoes what happened in Northern Kentucky just three weeks prior, where KKK flyers were found in multiple cities, announcing a three-state rally for a blatant recruitment effort aimed at sowing division and fear.

These incidents, occurring in different yet connected communities, reveal a disturbing trend: the resurgence of White supremacist ideologies under an administration that has, at best, turned a blind eye and at worst, emboldened such hate.

During Donald Trump’s presidency, we have witnessed a significant rise in hate group activity, a trend meticulously documented by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. His refusal to denounce white supremacy outright, coupled with dog-whistle rhetoric like “stand back and stand by” to the Proud Boys, signaled to these groups that they had tacit approval. It is no coincidence that in this climate, hate groups feel emboldened to spread their messages in places like Lincoln Heights and Northern Kentucky, where communities of color and progressive activists have long fought for equity.

A Target on Lincoln Heights

Lincoln Heights, the first Black-governed municipality, in the U.S.—has a rich history of resilience and self-determination. But like many Black communities, it has been systematically underfunded and targeted, making it a prime location for racist agitators seeking to intimidate and provoke.

Last Friday, it was a quiet afternoon until it wasn’t.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., as school bells rang, children were stepping off buses or walking home. That’s when swastikas and Nazi imagery appeared on handheld flags, signs, and banners hanging from the I-75 overpass. This was more than an act of vandalism it was a declaration of intent, a warning to a historically Black community that White supremacists still aim to oppress and terrorize.

Fear and anger spread rapidly through text messages, phone calls and social media posts. The people of Lincoln Heights immediately thought of the children who might be caught in the midst of such an alarming moment.

For many, this was deeply personal. For Mayor Ruby Kinsey, born and raised in Lincoln Heights, it was devastating. “My heart dropped,” she said. At the time, she was at work in Northern Kentucky—the only senior manager on duty calling her boss and trying to find someone to cover her office so she could leave. As she waited, she remained in constant contact with a fellow council member, neighbors and family.

She told me: “My life will never be the same. It’s as if the devil knocked on our door.”

Since that Friday the Lincoln Heights Council and local organizations have been demanding answers from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, Evendale Police and others.

“There are so many unanswered questions,” Mayor Kinsey continued. “But what I do know is that our Black men are visibly protecting our streets, and I am so proud of them. I continually check on our seniors.”

Community response is unity over fear. The day after the hate filled demonstration, friends, family, and community leaders gathered for prayer, strategy and action. On Sunday, following church services, hundreds marched in solidarity, led by Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church’s Reverend Julian A. Cook, Senior Pastor. The large crowd walked back to the very place where hate dared to tread sending an unmistakable message:

Hate will not win here. On Monday at 3 p.m., a coalition of organizations, activists, and stakeholders convened a demand meeting with Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey and others. Noticeably absent? Not a single representative from the Lockland or Evendale Police Departments. Sheriff McGuffey made a commitment she would answer every question and she kept that commitment.

Yet, an Evendale police officer was seen assisting the White supremacists with their U-Haul truck. The community is demanding to know why. Who gave the order? During the meeting, Pastor Cook reminded Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey and her Department, “You are now on the clock. We need answers.”

Immediately following the stakeholder meeting, the Lincoln Heights mayor, council members, and staff held an emergency council session to address the next steps.

A community standing strong with one of those leading the charge is Carlton Collins, a dedicated community advocate deeply involved with My Brother’s Keeper, EDUCA8theWorld, and The Heights Movement. His message was clear, “Whatever the hate mongers thought they might accomplish, it was not fear. Instead, they fueled our determination.

We are steadfast in our commitment to accountability, equitable treatment under the law, and justice. This assault on the rule of law with Evendale Police actively supporting an illegal and unlawful Nazi demonstration demands consequences.

But we have reasons to be hopeful. We saw a unified community response. We acknowledged a common enemy, hate in all its forms. And we proved that people power still works in 2025. Lincoln Heights will continue to be a beacon for other communities and municipalities. Impact, in this case, is a consequence of unity.”

A disturbing trend hate is organizing. What happened in Lincoln Heights mirrors the KKK flyers found in Northern Kentucky, same playbook, same psychological warfare, same effort to intimidate and recruit. Never forget they have a 292 page playbook titled 2025.

These are not random acts. They are strategic. They are coordinated. They are meant to send a message. They are being emboldened by an America that has allowed hate to seep back into the mainstream. The real question, what will we do? Hate does not disappear, it adapts. It waits for the right conditions to resurface.

Under Trump, hate has not only resurfaced it  has been rebranded, repackaged, and has been given a seat at the political table. So now, the question isn’t just why is this happening?—it’s what are we going to do about it?

Lincoln Heights, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and the entire United States must respond not just with outrage but with action. Community vigilance is crucial. Historical education is necessary. Dismantling systemic inequities must be a priority.

When I asked Youth Pastor Darnell D. Lee, a Black millennial clergy member, how we honor the legacy of those who came before us while equipping today’s youth, his response was profound. “It is imperative that we listen, teach and involve our youth. They are the most impacted yet often the most overlooked. They’ve read about Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Huey Newton—but they weren’t there. Most of them only recently learned about Emmett Till. Perhaps George Floyd was their first conscious memory of America’s deep, dark racist past.

Now, they’re seeing hate in real time. And they’re asking, ‘Pastor, where is God in all of this?’”

A good question for sure. I was taught God helps those who help themselves. I leave you with this, “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs,”  said Frederick Douglass.

It’s time to act! No one is going to save us but us.

The post Lincoln Heights stands united against White supremacy appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State

More than 50 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the United States remains divided by issues of race and racism, economic inequality as well as unequal access to justice. These issues are stopping the country from developing into the kind of society that Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for during his years as a civil rights activist.

As a result King’s words and work are still relevant. I study the civil rights movement and the field of peace geographies. Peace geographies thinks about how different groups of people approach and work toward building the kind of peaceful society King worked to create. Americans faced similar crises related to the broader civil rights struggles in the 1960s.

So, what can the past tell us about healing the nation? Specifically, how can we address divisions along race, class and political lines?

Martin Luther King Jr.’s understanding of the role of love in engaging individuals and communities in conflict is crucial today. For King, love was not sentimental. It demanded that individuals tell their oppressors what they were doing was wrong.

King’s vision

King spent his public career working toward ending segregation and fighting racial discrimination. For many people the pinnacle of this work occurred in Washington, D.C., when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Less well-known and often ignored is his later work on behalf of poor people. In fact, when King was assassinated in Memphis he was in the midst of building toward a national march on Washington, D.C., that would have brought together tens of thousands of economically disenfranchised people to advocate for policies that would reduce poverty. This effort – known as the “Poor People’s Campaign” – aimed to dramatically shift national priorities to address the health and welfare of working people.

Scholars such as Derek Alderman, Paul Kingsbury and Owen Dwyer how King’s work can be applied in today’s context. They argue that calling attention to the civil rights movement, can “change the way students understand themselves in relation to the larger project of civil rights.” And in understanding the civil rights movement, students and the broader public can see its contemporary significance.

Idea of love

King focused on the role of love as key to building healthy communities and the ways in which love can and should be at the center of our social interactions.

King’s final book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” published in the year before his assassination, provides his most expansive vision of an inclusive, diverse and economically equitable U.S. nation. For King, love is a key part of creating communities that work for everyone and not just the few at the expense of the many.

Love was not a mushy or easily dismissed emotion, but was central to the kind of community he envisioned. King made distinctions between three forms of love which are key to the human experience: “eros,” “philia” and most importantly “agape.”

For King, eros is a form of love that is most closely associated with desire, while philia is often the love that is experienced between very good friends or family. These visions are different from agape.

Agape, which was at the center of the movement he was building, was the moral imperative to engage with one’s oppressor in a way that showed the oppressor the ways their actions dehumanize and detract from society. He said,

“In speaking of love we are not referring to some sentimental emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense[…] When we speak of loving those who oppose us […] we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word Agape. Agape means nothing sentimental or basically affectionate; it means understanding, redeeming goodwill for all men, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.”

King further defined agape when he argued at the University of California at Berkeley that the concept of agape “stands at the center of the movement we are to carry on in the Southland.” It was a love that demanded that one stand up for oneself and tells those who oppress that what they were doing was wrong.

Why this matters now

In the face of violence directed at minority communities and of deepening political divisions in the country, King’s words and philosophy are perhaps more critical for us today than at any point in the recent past.

As King noted, all persons exist in an interrelated community and all are dependent on each other. By connecting love to community, King argued there were opportunities to build a more just and economically sustainable society which respected difference. As he said,

“Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community… Therefore if I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate I do nothing but intensify the cleavages of a broken community.”

King outlined a vision in which we are compelled to work toward making our communities inclusive. They reflect the broad values of equality and democracy. Through an engagement with one another as its foundation, agape provides opportunities to work toward common goals.

Building a community today

At a time when the nation feels so divided, there is a need to bring back King’s vision of agape-fueled community building and begin a difficult conversation about where we are as a nation and where we want to go. It would move us past simply seeing the other side as being wholly motivated by hate.

Engaging in a conversation through agape signals a willingness to restore broken communities and to approach difference with an open mind.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on Nov. 16, 2016.

Joshua F.J. Inwood is a member of the American Association of Geographers

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State

Read more:

• Political assassinations were once unthinkable. Why the US killing of Soleimani sets a worrying precedent
• Martin Luther King Jr. in dialogue with the ancient Greeks
• What shaped King’s prophetic vision?

Joshua F.J. Inwood is a member of the American Association of Geographers.

Feature Image: Provided

The post MLK’s vision of love as a moral imperative still matters appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston

Lying about Black people is nothing new in political campaigning.

Despite the thorough debunking of false rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, former President Donald Trump and his GOP allies insist on repeating the lies.

“If I have to create stories,” admitted JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, “that’s what I’m going to do.”

While many political observers believe that these lies have, as The New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen described, finally “crossed a truly unacceptable line,” in fact, white politicians have told brazen, fearmongering, racist lies about Black people for over the past 100 years.

One of the more notorious lies occurred in 1908 in another Springfield, this one in Illinois. As a historian who studies the impact of racism on democracy, it’s my belief that what happened there and in other cities helps to clarify what Trump and Vance are trying to do in Springfield, Ohio, today.

Lying when everyone knows you’re lying seems to be the point.

New target, old message

Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln’s home town, was, in 1908, a working-class city of just under 50,000 people – about the same size as its modern counterpart in Ohio.

Because of the city’s manufacturing industries, Springfield was also an attractive place to live and work for Black men and women escaping the social oppression of the Deep South.

The Black population of Springfield had been growing by about 4% annually, and by 1908, roughly 2,500 Black people were living there to work in the city’s manufacturing plants. As the wealth of some Black families rose, so too did racist fears among whites that Black migrants were taking their jobs.

Rumors spread through false newspaper reports among white residents that a Black man had raped a white woman.

As the story went, a Black man broke through the screen door of a modest house in a white neighborhood. He supposedly dragged a 21-year-old white woman by her throat into the backyard, where he raped her. Or so the woman said.

A couple of weeks after the incident, the woman admitted she lied. There was no Black man. There was no rape. But by then, telling the truth was too late. The rumor had triggered a wave of anti-Black violence.

William English Walling, a white, liberal journalist from Kentucky, reported that Springfield’s white folks launched “deadly assaults on every negro they could lay their hands on, to sack and plunder their houses and stores, and to burn and murder.”

For two days, the violence raged, while white “prosperous businessmen looked on” in complicit approval, Walling wrote. Several blocks in Black neighborhoods were burned, and at least eight Black men were killed.

One of the men killed was William K. Donnegan. The 84-year-old died after his white attackers slit his throat and then hanged him with a clothesline from a tree near his home.

As a dozen different rioters told Walling: “Why, the n—–s came to think they were as good as we are!”

Telling the truth about racist tropes

At the turn of the 19th century, racial tensions were most often expressed in sexual terms – Black men having sex with white women.

That sexual anxiety was part of what cultural historians call a “master narrative,” a symbolic story that dramatizes white nationalism and the belief that citizenship and its benefits were preserved for one racial group at the expense of all others.

One of the first to debunk this rape fantasy was Ida B. Wells, the Black editor and owner of the weekly “Memphis Free Press.”

In 1892, a white mob lynched one of her good friends, Thomas Moss, and two others associated with his cooperative Peoples’ Grocery store. The Appeal Avalanche, a white Memphis newspaper, wrote that the lynching “was done decently and in order.”

In her May 21, 1892, editorial about Moss’ death, Wells told a different story about “the same old racket – the new alarm about raping a white woman.”

Wells explained that she worried that people who lived outside of the Deep South might believe the lies about Black people.

“Nobody in this section of the country,” she wrote, not even the demagogues spreading rumors, “believe the old thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women.”

Political fearmongering

What happened in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 was based on a deliberate, cynical election strategy of lies.

At the turn of the 20th century, North Carolina’s disaffected, poor working-class white Populists joined forces with Black Republicans to form what were known as the Fusionists.

In Wilmington, then the largest city in North Carolina, the Fusionists were able to vote out the white-nationalist Democratic Party in the early 1890s and became a symbol of hope for a democratic South and racial equality.

They also became a target for Democrats seeking to regain power and restore white nationalism.

The spark came in the summer of 1898 when Rebecca Felton, the wife of a Georgia congressman and a leading women’s rights advocate, gave an address to Georgia’s Agricultural Society on Aug. 11 that sought to protect the virtue of white women.

“If it needs lynching,” she said, “to protect a woman’s dearest possession from the ravening of beasts – then I say lynch; a thousand times a week if necessary.”

In response, Alexander Manly, the Black editor of The Daily Record, in Wilmington, followed the lead of Ida B. Wells and attacked the myths of Black men. Manly pointed out in his August 1898 editorial that poor white women “are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than are the white men with colored women.”

Democrats bent on stoking racial fears circulated Manly’s editorial throughout North Carolina before the November 1898 elections, decrying the “Outrageous Attack on White Women!” by “the scurrilous negro editor.”

If that wasn’t enough to stir up North Carolina Democrats, party officials sent the Red Shirts, their white nationalist militia, to Wilmington to overthrow the city’s biracial government, install all white officials and restore white rule.

To that end, a white mob destroyed Manly’s newspaper office, chased him and other Black leaders into exile, rampaged through Black neighborhoods and killed an untold number of Black men.

It was a white nationalist coup d’etat.

The great white protector

In his modern-day attempt to divide working-class white people from working-class Black people, Vance has urged his supporters to ignore “the crybabies” in the mainstream media.

“Keep the cat memes flowing!” he posted on X.

An estimated 67 million people watched the U.S. presidential debate on ABC and heard Trump angrily proclaim: “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … the pets of the people that live there.”

Once again, the old narrative is resurrected.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston

Read more:

• A white supremacist coup succeeded in 1898 North Carolina, led by lying politicians and racist newspapers that amplified their lies
• Presidents have a long history of condescension, indifference and outright racism toward Black Americans
• No, immigrants aren’t eating dogs and cats – but Trump’s claim is part of an ugly history of myths about immigrant foodways

Joseph Kelly is not affiliated with any political party. In the past, he has been a volunteer with the Charleston County (SC) Democratic Party.

The post What does Springfield, Illinois, in 1908 tell us about Springfield, Ohio, in 2024? appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

In a case that revealed the exploitation of a Black woman beginning in the 1950s and extending for 70 years, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. in 2023 settled a lawsuit that the estate of Henrietta Lacks had filed against the biotech firm for its role in what the lawsuit called “a racially unjust medical system.”

In 1951, Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, one of the only hospitals in the area that would treat African Americans at the time. During her treatment, a sample of her cancer cells was taken without her knowledge or consent. In the lawsuit, Thermo Fisher was accused of unjust enrichment and illegally profiting from Lacks’ genetic material. “Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition,” the lawsuit said.

Henrietta Lacks’ cells, known as HeLa cells, have had a profound impact on medical science since they were first taken from Lacks in 1951. Those cells have contributed to the development of the polio vaccine, research into cancer, studies on the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping and countless other scientific pursuits.

But nearly all of these advancements happened without her and her family’s approval – or compensation.

Lacks is one of the most well-known examples of medical exploitation on a Black body. It is far from the only example.

Medical abuse is a part of Black history

In 2020, the American Public Health Association declared racism a public health crisis.

The declaration, while important, speaks solely to present inequities and plans to advance racial equity in the future. But minimal attention has been afforded to the deep historical roots of anti-Black racism in the medical industry.

Medical exploitation and intentional abuse of members of the Black community is an often overlooked part of Black history. But understanding the issue is critical in order to better analyze today’s mistrust of the medical profession by many in the Black community.

As a Black scholar who uses critical approaches to study culture, communication and health, I have my own experiences and peer-reviewed research that reveal various ways the Black community experiences racism within the health care industry.

The Tuskegee experiment is one of the most well-known examples of medical exploitation in the Black community. The federal government from 1932 to 1972 lied to around 600 men about receiving treatment for syphilis. They were studying the effects of syphilis in the men, but did not, in fact, treat it in 399 of the men.

Many are shocked to find out that the study lasted 40 years.

The cautionary tale of the flawed Tuskegee experiment revolutionized how research was conducted and had various implications for the Black community.

But as revealed in medical ethicist Harriet A. Washington’s groundbreaking book “Medical Apartheid,” the medical exploitation of the Black community extended far beyond Tuskegee.

Grave robbing in Black communities

The 18th and 19th centuries ushered in a new method of medicine focused on increased anatomical knowledge and dissections.

In turn, more cadavers were needed, but the demand for cadavers far exceeded the supply. Moreover, at the time, social attitudes toward dissection and dismemberment of a corpse were not positive; they were primarily perceived as punishment for the most heinous criminals.

The solution at the time was grave robbing.

People would steal not only the bodies of the enslaved who had died but also the corpses of Black men, women and children from their graves and sell them to medical schools.

At the turn of the 18th century, most of New York City’s dissection tables were full of Black bodies, despite members of the Black community’s accounting for only 15% of the population at the time.

This practice was also extremely common in Maryland and Virginia. In fact, Virginia Commonwealth University officially apologized for this practice in September 2022.

But in early 2023, Virginia lawmakers failed to pass a resolution formally acknowledging and apologizing for this inhumane treatment in their commonwealth.

Unethical experiments on the incarcerated

From the 1950s through the 1970s, Philadelphia health officials allowed the prominent researcher Dr. Albert M. Kligman to conduct dangerous experiments on incarcerated people, most of whom were Black.

Kligman repeatedly and purposely exposed Black men to dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments. One of the most significant was testing dioxin, the toxic chemical in the biochemical weapon Agent Orange.

The city of Philadelphia and related institutions officially apologized in October 2022, but the apology does not remedy the lifelong scars and lingering health impacts from the experiments.

This practice is not only a relic of the past.

Incarcerated individuals in Arkansas were given a cocktail of drugs, including Ivermectin, to treat COVID-19. It is important to note that Ivermectin was not and has not been approved by the FDA for treatment of COVID-19.

After suffering a long list of side effects, the men were informed that one of the drugs they received was Ivermectin, a drug usually used to treat cows and horses.

This abuse of Black bodies who were incarcerated did not affect just men. Black women experienced abuse and exploitation in a different form.

They were often forcibly sterilized without their consent.

Between 1909 and 1979, California forcibly – and legally – sterilized around 20,000 women, most of whom were Black women and other women of color who were incarcerated or under state guardianship because of some perceived incapacity.

In North Carolina, sterilizations were also used against Black women in state institutions to “weed out any feeble-minded.”

Why it matters

Acknowledging the full history of America’s medical industry is crucial to better understanding and combating race-based health disparities in the Black community.

It is also important to show how racism is still prevalent in contemporary medicine and public health.

Black women continue to die during childbirth more than others. Black men have the shortest life span of any U.S. demographic represented in current data, and the Black community overall has the shortest survival rate of any racial group for most cancers.

Systemic racism and negative attitudes from medical personnel are often to blame. Black men are often viewed negatively by doctors. Many Black cancer patients are not offered the opportunity to participate in clinical trials that could help them.

A groundbreaking study published in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences in 2016 revealed a somber truth: Some medical professionals still believe there are biological differences between Black and white patients.

In turn, they are less likely to treat Black patients for pain. The study further found that nearly half of the medical students in the study believed Black people have less sensitive nerve endings.

It’s my belief that revealing the dark history of medical racism is key to making sure that past injustices do not recur.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Deion Scott Hawkins, Emerson College

Read more:

• Settlement with family of Henrietta Lacks is an opportunity to reflect on inequalities in genetic research
• The hidden world of medical racism in the United States
• Leading American medical journal continues to omit Black research, reinforcing a legacy of racism in medical knowledge

Deion Scott Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The post Medical exploitation affects black communities deeply appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

Donald Trump’s controversial appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention in Chicago may have been even more of a disaster than most had anticipated. The nasty vitriol the twice-impeached former president immediately brought should only heighten calls for the hierarchy of NABJ to resign.

The disgraceful event began with tension as well-respected ABC News journalist Rachel Scott asked Trump about his past racist comments and why Black voters should trust him. “First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump responded. His statement was met with audible gasps from the audience, setting a combative tone for the 34-minute discussion that followed a nearly hour-long delay.

During the discussion, Trump, among his many rant-filled and off the rails diatribes, questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity, asking, “Is she Indian or is she Black?” He falsely claimed that Harris, who has long identified as Black and attended a historically Black university, previously identified as Indian before “all of a sudden” becoming Black. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned Trump’s comments as “repulsive” and “insulting,” asserting that “no one has any right to tell someone who they are.”

The 34 times convicted felon and former president also reiterated his openness to pardoning January 6 rioters, stating, “If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.” When Scott drew attention to their convictions, Trump dissembled by asserting falsely that pro-Palestinian protesters had attacked the Capitol last week, confusing it with the recent protests at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.

Throughout the panel discussion, which included Scott, FOX News personality and Trump apologist Harris Faulkner, and Kadia Goba from Semafor, Trump continued to clash with the audience and the panelists. He labeled Scott “nasty” for her questions, prompting shouts of “false” and boos from the crowd.

Trump also addressed his running mate, J.D. Vance, downplaying the significance of a running mate following Vance’s controversial remarks about childless women. Toward the event’s conclusion, Trump declared his intentions to “close the border” and lower energy prices and interest rates if re-elected. “I want people to come into our country, but they have to be vetted, and they have to be checked,” he told the crowd. He also doubled-down on his insult to African Americans by stating that illegal immigrants were taking “Black jobs,” to which the audience again hissed and booed.

The aftermath of the event has led to significant fallout within the NABJ. Karen Attiah, a Washington Post columnist and co-chair of the convention, resigned in protest over the decision to invite Trump. In her resignation announcement on X (formerly Twitter), Attiah expressed disappointment over not being consulted about the decision.

Prominent members of the journalism community also voiced their disapproval. Jim Trotter, a sportswriter for The Athletic and NABJ’s 2023 Journalist of the Year, called the decision “difficult to put into words.” CBS Sports analyst Ashley Nicole Moss, journalist-turned-publicist Dave Jordan, and media strategist April Reign joined the chorus of criticism.

Ameshia Cross, a Democratic strategist and political pundit, and former NABJ journalist of the year Ernest Owens highlighted the irony of inviting Trump, given his history of attacking Black journalists and efforts to undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. “Shame on you NABJ,” Owens tweeted. “A disgrace. Defund and divest.”

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) also condemned the invitation, with NNPA National Chair Bobby Henry and President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis denouncing the decision as harmful and contrary to NABJ’s values of inclusion and solidarity. “They invited him to disrespect a Black woman and did nothing to protect or back her up,” journalist and author David Dennis Jr. tweeted. “The single most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen at NABJ.”

Harris communication’s director Michael Tyler also denounced Trump’s hostile engagement with NABJ.

“The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Tyler stated.

“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency – while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch, he left us in. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us. “Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign.”

The post NABJ faces backlash over Trump invitation appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .