Idavox’s original article here: Spinning a Hard Black Song.

By term

“I woke up from a nap and saw that there were neo-Nazis in my backyard, and I tore out of my house to confront them ‘cause that’s the only way to deal with this violence”. –Cincinnati Resident

A Neo-Nazi group, “Hate Club”, showed up on Friday (2/7/25) armed with long guns and flying swastika flags on an I-75 overpass in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, just north of Cincinnati. They showed up in the wrong damn neighborhood.

A historically Black community, Lincoln Heights is home to generations of residents committed to a strong sense of community and culture, impactful civic engagement, and self-organization – especially as the first self-governing Black community north of the Mason-Dixon line. So when armed neo-Nazis showed up here there wasn’t even a question they were going to get run out. Within minutes of arriving on the I-75 overpass, neo-Nazi group “hate club” got sent packing as community members, angry that Nazis had come armed to terrorize them in their own neighborhood, showed up to tell the fash they weren’t having any of it. 

As this community action took place and gained momentum, Evendale police arrived to attempt to “de-escalate” the situation, shutting down the nearby roads and highway off-ramps, which – ironically, if unsurprisingly – helped these neo-Nazis escape without being held accountable by the community or the law. Before they made their predictable and cowardly escape, though, a “Hate Club” member’s swastika flag was taken and burned. As well, one of their cars, inaccessible to them at the time, sadly took damage to some windows and tires. Surely, police will investigate this violent property damage, since they are not busy pursuing the “Hate Club” members they helped to escape.

As “Hate Club”  escaped in a U-Haul, police attempted to disperse a crowd of over a hundred, all of whom had turned out in mere minutes to confront these outside agitators. Unsettled and perplexed by this action, community members demanded to know why these cops were seemingly helping the escaping neo-Nazis who entered their community uninvited, armed, and carrying swastika flags.

Over the following days, residents remained committed to community defense, including legally armed defense. Community members continued open carrying weapons for several days, while also collectively, but as an autonomous group, organizing within and among their community to remain on guard against possible retaliation for their solidarity and their refusal to tolerate neo-Nazi fash-trash in their neighborhood.

The story is still developing as video has come out appearing to show an Evendale police officer helping the armed Nazis with their u-haul on school grounds drawing condemnation from the school and leading the Lockland Local School District to demand an independent investigation of both police departments involved that day and sparking calls for a boycott of Evendale from the community.

There’s sure to be more to this story but Lincoln Heights and Cincinnati are gonna keep doing what we do. Reach out to us at [email protected].