Photo provided | Covington Neighborhood Collaborative

Ella Blackwell, a resident of Covington’s Eastside neighborhood, was visiting a friend when she first noticed the leaflet.

It had been placed on top of her car. The flyer bore the image of a hooded Klansman, pointing at the reader.

“You can sleep sound tonight,” the flyer’s text read. “The Klan is awake!”

Blackwell looked around. There were leaflets on other cars on the street. So, she took to social media to inform others and learned that a similar distribution of Klan flyers had occurred on a nearby street about two weeks before.

“I want everybody in Covington to know what’s going on because this is our town,” Blackwell told members of the Eastside + neighborhood association on Wednesday. “I’ve been here all my life, and I couldn’t sleep that night.”

Eastside residents at the meeting on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky

Members of the neighborhood association met to discuss what to do in the face of the Klan literature distribution that occurred in July, talk about ways to inform the community and build support. Neighborhood residents, police officers, candidates for public office and other community leaders all attended the meeting.

The flyers bore the name of the Trinity White Knights branch of the Ku Klux Klan. They sported a phone number with a (606) area code, asking readers to report “crime and drug dealers.” Blackwell actually called the number on the flyer, and it went to someone in Maysville.

Last year saw the distribution of Nazi stickers in Covington’s Mainstrasse village. July’s flyer distribution also occurred around the same time an Erlanger resident, Catrena Bowman, reported that someone had deposited a paper scrap covered in racist epithets and Nazi symbols in her yard.

Covington Community Liaison Officer Rachel White discussed their investigation into the case for the attendees. The Trinity White Knights splinter group has been around for about 10 to 15 years, White said, and they sporadically distribute flyers throughout different communities every few years before disappearing again. White said the last major distribution took place around 2015. Identical flyers have appeared in Ohio and West Virginia.

Sergeant Rachel White speaks to Eastside residents on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky

White said they use the flyers as a recruiting tactic, and there are often long periods between distributions. Although the group has occasionally held protests and demonstrations, there didn’t seem to be a threat of violence in this case.

“My assumption is they don’t get a lot of traction with this, which they haven’t for the last 25 years,” White said. “It’ll die off, they’ll leave it alone for a while, and then they’ll try again in a few years when somebody else decides to try to take it up and do it again.”

There were questions from attendees about what the police could do and what options people had in the event of a hate crime. White said that flyer distributions and the like were protected by the First Amendment, but if someone damaged property or engaged in targeted menacing, then the police could intervene.

John Fisher, a representative of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, spoke about hate crime laws in Kentucky and what people could do.

John Fisher speaks to Eastside residents at the meeting on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky

To begin with, Fisher said, don’t ever engage with someone distributing racist literature or anyone who’s clearly a member of a racist organization. Oftentimes, he said, they will deliberately push people’s buttons to generate an emotional response.

“Don’t do anything that could land you in jail with these people,” Fisher said. “So, be aware of them and be strong, but don’t give them any bullets to shoot you with when you do something wrong or fly off the handle with them.”

In cases where their actions were protected by the First Amendment, it was better to bring the issue to as many people’s attention as possible. One way to do this, Fisher said, was to go to a city commission and city council meeting where one could describe the problem in detail on the record to local leaders.

Jerome Bowles, president of the Northern Kentucky branch of the NAACP, also attended the meeting. He had similar advice, saying that it was important to find support among neighbors, local leaders, business people and the media to send a message that that sort of behavior was not acceptable.

In cases where violence, property damage or harassment occurs, like if someone burns a cross in a front yard, Fisher talked resources besides local police where people could seek redress. Hate crimes and terrorist threats, like burning a cross, usually fall under federal jurisdiction. He distributed a flyer with phone numbers and other information to the attendees so they could have ready resources in the future.

Fisher discussed a case in 2004 in Burlington, where a trio of perpetrators burned a cross on the front lawn of a Black family that had recently moved to the city. To make matters worse, after the burning, the perpetrators returned and threw bricks through the family’s car windows. Although the trio was eventually caught, and the family was able to get legal redress via a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, the experience was too painful. The family moved away after only six months of living in their Burlington house.

“The issue that happened down in Burlington and why that family moved is that nobody came to help them,” Fisher said. “Nobody in the neighborhood, no elected officials, nobody came to say, ‘We’re so sorry this happened to you.'”

“We need to let the Black community know that they are not alone and that the rest of us are behind them,” said Eastside + President Melissa Kelley.

Discussion continued and by the end of the meeting, the neighborhood association voted to present their experiences to the Covington City Commission at a later date.

Additionally, the group brainstormed ways to build support among the rest of the city’s neighborhoods and residents. There was also talk of possibly demanding additional sensitivity training for city officials.

Check out some links and phone numbers for resources related to hate crimes: