CLEVELAND — Investigations are underway in multiple communities across the state after people found racist flyers with contact information for a Ku Klux Klan group in Kentucky.

What You Need To Know

  • KKK flyers were found in Cleveland and Akron neighborhoods

  • Residents were shocked and confused by the flyers 

  • A research analyst said these flyers are used as fear tactics 

The City of Akron said one resident reported a flyer last Monday, while several of the flyers were found in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Cleveland.

“I thought it was ridiculous. The flyers said, 'arm yourselves white people against Black people,'” said Jonathan Reaze, a Hough neighborhood resident.

Reaze has lived in Cleveland’s Hough community for nearly two decades. Last week, racist flyers recruiting KKK members were found in his neighborhood. 

“I was wondering why the flyers came here when we don’t even have Caucasians in the neighborhood,” Reaze said.

“It just kind of threw me for a loop. I’ve never seen any activities of any supremacist-type group in our neighborhood. I’ve never seen any of that activity so it’s kind of odd,” said Keith Benford, a Hough neighborhood resident.

Reaze’s neighbor, Keith Benford, has lived in the Hough community for the last 23 years. They call themselves the neighborhood ambassadors because they see everything and know everyone. 

“Sure enough, some of my other neighbors said, hey, they received a flyer that was kind of like, I don’t know this KKK or whatever type, and wow. I was kind of surprised that we would have those type of telling the Caucasian community to arm themselves for this neighborhood and had the pictures that were, like, real derogatory type pictures,” Benford said.

Reaze and Benford said police knocked on their doors last week when they were notified about the flyers.

“These have been posted, kind of folded up in some cases, distributed in our neighborhood and they wanted to know did we say anything. They always want to know if we see anything. I do have cameras, and I didn’t see anything,” Benford said.

Similar flyers have recently been spotted in several neighborhoods across the country.

A senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center said these are fear tactics used by KKK groups to intimidate people and remind them that they’re still there. But the analyst said that they’re not an indication that the number of active klan groups is rising. 

“We focus more so on the positivity, so I’m not gonna run down a rabbit hole about that, but I definitely will be vigilant and keep my eyes out, but I’m not super concerned about it,” Benford said.