Dem
47
GOP
53
This is not the kind of thing we'd usually write about for this feature. However, given both the historical and present-day context, we decided to move forward with it.
Some readers will presumably be familiar with the term "sundown town." These were municipalities where Black people were welcome during the day (as workers), but were expected to be gone by the time the sun went down. Sometimes this expectation was enforced by local codes (which were on the books, in some places, at late as 1968). Sometimes this expectation was enforced by custom and social pressure.
Southwest Ohio, being very near the formerly slave-owning states of the South, was home to several well-known sundown towns, among them Greenhills, Reading and Fairborn. Indeed, much of Hamilton County (where Greenhills and Reading are located) was pretty sundown-ish, including the county seat of Cincinnati. Cincinnati was too large to impose full nighttime segregation, but Black people knew where they stood, nonetheless. So, many Black workers whose jobs were in Cincinnati or other hostile towns founded the city of Lincoln Heights, which is about 10 miles to the north of Cincinnati.
Lincoln Heights has been around, at this point, for about a century. And it remains predominantly Black (89.8% of residents, at the last census). That is undoubtedly why a bunch of Neo-Nazis chose to demonstrate there on February 7, staging a march, and putting "literature" on many residents' automobiles, replete with swastikas.
As you might imagine, the people of Lincoln Heights are not expecting the federal or state governments to offer much in the way of protection or assistance. And Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, who is white, expressed sympathy for the folks in Lincoln Heights, but also said that the Neo-Nazis did not violate any laws. So, her posture is passive, at best.
All of these things being the case, the people in Lincoln Heights decided to organize their own neighborhood watch—albeit one backed with guns. Undoubtedly, armed Black patrols are not what the pro-gun lobby had in mind when they persuaded the federal government and the Ohio state government to embrace a very liberal open-carry philosophy. But that's the law of unintended consequences.
Again, we don't particularly like to support people whose activities are backed by the threat of violence. But the fact is that the residents of Lincoln Heights feel they are threatened by their fellow Americans, and that they have been abandoned by their government. These are not unreasonable conclusions. And their parents, and their grandparents, and their great-grandparents got the same treatment—that's why Lincoln Heights exists in the first place. So, there is something to be said for these folks standing up for themselves, and doing what they can to make sure they are not the victims of the sometimes-violent racists that are feeling empowered right now, thanks to the words and actions of the Co-Presidents.
And on that somewhat somber note, have a good weekend, all! (Z)