For Denise Williams, the 70-year-old head of Springfield’s NAACP chapter, the past few weeks have been particularly challenging. Last month, flyers advocating for mass deportations of immigrants were distributed by the Trinity White Knights, a group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, in predominantly Black neighborhoods in south Springfield. “I’m telling people: do nothing – don’t approach them. But it’s not easy for people to see this,” she said. “I think that is what a lot of folks cannot understand – why do we have so much hate?”
Approximately 22% of Springfield’s residents are African American, according to the US Census Bureau. “People are mad. African Americans here don’t understand how this is allowed. We just have to take this for a minute. I know it’s hard.” The Trinity White Knights, based in Kentucky, had also been spotted distributing flyers in Covington, a Cincinnati suburb, in July, which included a PO box address in Maysville, Kentucky, and a phone number.
Since Donald Trump made a baseless claim during a televised debate on September 10 that immigrants in Springfield were eating people’s pets, there has been a noticeable rise in far-right extremism in the area. Recently, several members of Blood Tribe, a neo-Nazi group established in 2020, were observed standing in front of the Springfield mayor’s house with swastika flags. That same weekend, individuals were seen outside the city hall offices holding signs that read “Haitians Have No Home Here” in both English and Haitian Creole.
In another alarming incident, a volunteer with the Clark County Democratic Party faced verbal threats from Proud Boys members last month, as reported by the Dayton Daily News. The Proud Boys, associated with far-right movements, have re-emerged in recent months as supporters of Trump. This follows a public gathering by Israel United in Christ, labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which took place in south Springfield on September 21.
“They feel emboldened by the former president. They feel like it’s OK to do this,” said Williams. “He gives them the green light. By him saying hateful things and falsehoods, they feel comfortable in speaking the way they are speaking [and] coming in here doing what they are doing.”
The surge in hate group activities has not been limited to Springfield. In Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a flyer attributed to the Trinity White Knights was recently shared on Facebook, warning against “3rd world immigrants” allegedly destroying cities. Charleroi’s borough manager, Joe Manning, noted that there are around 700 Haitian immigrants in the town, many of whom have been there for years without being noticed until Trump criticized their presence.
Manning remarked, “We’re a pretty small community here in western Pennsylvania, and to be identified by name [by Trump], that sort of set off this whole firestorm.” He expressed belief that the increase in KKK-linked flyers was directly connected to Trump’s comments.
Further instances of hate were evident in Wyoming, where graffiti supporting the white supremacist group Patriot Front was found, and a banner promoting the group was removed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, shortly after Trump’s debate remarks. A recent event at the University of South Carolina featuring Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes drew around 150 attendees.
“Springfield is not happening in isolation. We have tracked four other incidents, such as targeting the Haitian community in Alabama,” noted Rachel Carroll Rivas from the Southern Poverty Law Center. “We’ve also seen the sharing and pushing of racist and antisemitic great replacement theory in various campaign and hate group messaging recently.”
For Williams, the increase in KKK and other hate group activities in Springfield has taken a personal toll. She reported receiving threatening text messages from someone claiming to represent Blood Tribe and has heightened her personal security. After the group was seen at the mayor’s home, the local police chief dispatched security to her residence. “I’m looking over my shoulder,” she said. “You would think that this would be over – I don’t get it, in 2024.”
