As the legendary poet Nikki Giovanni said in prose (who sadly passed away in December and we paraphrase in our headline), “And you will understand all too soon that you, my children of battle, are your heroes.” Hate Club learned that the hard way yesterday as they got schooled in Giovanni’s hometown! 

When a hate group marches in any given city, the group is often challenged to march in the .223 caliber predominately Black part of town. An armed group of neo-Nazis took that challenge Friday afternoon curiously during Black History Month, by going Lincoln Heights, Ohio, the historically Black suburb of Cincinnati that was the home of Nikki Giovanni and the Isley Brothers. The visit ended with the group jumping into aU-haul and speeding away with police protecting them from the community that was coming for them.

According to news reports, About 13 neo-Nazis from the group Hate Club, wearing black and red masks, some armed, were seen on an overpass over I-75 between the towns of Evendale and Lincoln Heights hanging a banners and flags. It did not take long for over a hundred predominately Black residents, many just on their way back home from school and work, to muster to confronted them on the bridge. They walked up to the Hate Club members, angrily demanding that they leave with police officers between the two groups. As if they were taking the hint, Hate Club quickly got into a U-Haul box truck and left. Video shows from the scene it was once that hatch was closed and the truck began to drive off they began chanting, “Bow down, [n-word]!”

A flag with a swastika emblazoned that was left by the nazis were set ablaze. An unknown person placed .223 caliber rounds on the ground where the charred remains of the flag was, using them to form the initials LH – for Lincoln Heights.

 Anthony Altick of St. Louis, Missouri formed Hate Club late last year. Altick works with both Blood Tribe and the Goyim Defense League attending their rallies and producing propaganda videos for them. On Thursday, the city of Springfield, Ohio filed a lawsuit against Blood Tribe, its leaders leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz and seven unnamed followers in federal court, accusing them of campaign of racial harassment and intimidation against the city’s Haitian community after the Presidential Donald Trump targeted them during a debate in a racist anti-immigration where he accused them of eating dogs and cats of their neighbors, which was untrue. 

In 2015, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and assault after a shooting, at his St. Louis Hills apartment, left Darryl T. Simms, a Black man, dead and two others injured. Altick ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years in jail. At the time, he was on probation for burglary and theft offenses.

Hate Club was last seen in November in Columbus, Ohio when they staged a flash mob style rally there. They were at one point during that march they detained by police which information about its members to be obtained.

Lincoln Heights Council Member Deronce Daniels said that this protest will be top of mind at the next council meeting. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said “It was shocking and disgusting to see swastikas displayed in Evendale today. This is not what we stand for, and it will never be what we stand for.”