Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am your host, ramses Jah, and yes, I know I've been promising q Ward. We'll be back in the studio for probably three weeks now, and I can assure you with great certainty we are working on getting him back in the studio, but for now, have no fear. We are joined by a special guest. She goes by the name
of Charen Sierra King. She's a journalist, public speaker, and former radio host, a lifetime member of the NCNW, an organization that is very near and dear to our heart for those unfamiliar, that as a National Council of Negro Women, as well as the NAACP, where she is actively engaged in policy advocacy, voter protection efforts, and racial justice initiatives
at both local and national levels. And also a resident of Lincoln Heights, Ohio, the place that is making national headlights for the Nazi demonstrations and the community response, which is exactly what we want be talking about today. So welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me it's an honor and a pleasure.
Well, we are very much looking forward to the conversation that we were going to have. As I mentioned, you know, and for those who may not be, you know, familiar with this story, this was right around the time of the inauguration of the current administration. There was one notable Nazi demonstration that took place in Ohio that got tons of news coverage, and you know, people were concerned about
the police response. People were concerned about this community, which was a black community, and this intentional display of hate with what historically would have been a very vulnerable population. Later in the show, we'll see that they're less vulnerable than people may know, but still very vulnerable. And we are going to get into the weeds of this story.
So stick around for that and so much more. But first we are going to discuss some Ebony excellence and today's Ebny excellence we're going to share from the source magazine, you know, shout out to Miami. It is a pleasure to be on the air in Miami and of course at the Beat in Miami and elsewhere in the country. But this is Miami Dade's own story. So Miami Dade County commissioners have officially approved the renaming of several streets
in honor of hit songs by Miami artists. The initiative, spearheaded by Commissioner Keon Pardiman, aims to celebrate the city's deep musical roots while bringing a sense of pride to local communities. After facing initial resistance earlier this month, the proposal has now passed with a ninety three vote, drawing national attention for its unique approach to cultural recognition. Hardiman emphasized the significance of music in Miami's neighborhoods and the
power of this move to inspire change. Quote, we need to try something dramatic to really change the neighborhood. People in these communities take music very seriously. This according to Hardeman himself. As a result, several streets in Liberty City will now bear the names of classic Miami anthems, paying tribute to artists who have shaped the city's hip hop legacy. Among the newly renamed streets are City Girls Street, which is Northwest sixty sixty third. Streets are born in Rays
Street Northwest sixty seventh Street. We the best terraces Northwest sixty eight Terraces Trick Love, the Kids Street, ninety six Terrace Northwest, ninety six Terras, and many others. Additionally, individual artists are being recognized with street names dedicated to treat It Still, the Baddest Balgreases, I Deserve It All, and Luther Campbell's It's Your Birthday Moves further cements Miami's reputation as a city where music and culture are woven into
its very streets now quite literally. And you know again, because this show we target hip hop stations around the country. Anytime that we get to combine some ebony excellence with some hip hop culture, it is just a feather in our cap. Shout out to Miami doing the right thing. Okay, back to the lecture at hand, Charenzi, Eric.
King, Yes, that is me.
Do us a favor. I gave a brief introduction when we first, you know, started the show, of who you are and the business upon which you stand. But you know your connection to Lincoln Heights runs quite deep. Yes, and you are I know that you have you live a very very full life. I know that I've known that since we met at the at the convention in Maryland. But you are the right person to have this conversation as well, So do us a favorite again for our listeners.
Talk a little bit about yourself and sort of what qualifies you to have this conversation. And then I also want you to discuss your deep roots in Lincoln Heights.
Well, thank you again for having me, and I'm thankful for those roots. I was born too, a single black woman. She chose to have me. She kind of left my dad at the altar and she forged her way. I am fortunate in the fact that my mother bred into me and my brother's advocacy from infancy. We had drills in our house because she was very involved in some radical goings on. We had drills of how to get out the house, where to go. We talked about collaboration,
we talked about advocacy. It was like food for my soul. I was an avid reader as a child, and I lived in a community called Avondale just for one year. It was called the heart of Jewelry because it is where a lot of the Russian and German Jews landed and started their own businesses. So I also had an exposure to Jewish people of Jewish faith and how they were able to escape hate their generations later and how they forged together. So I saw it on both sides.
And I was a quiet child. You would never think I would grow up to speak because I was always reading and I was always listening to my mother. She didn't believe in leaving us at home with babysitters. She took us to the meetings. So I think a lot of it filtered into my soul by sitting there at my coloring book listening to adults. We were not to speak. I didn't know I was listening to the revolution, but I'm so thankful that I did.
And that translated to your work with the NCNW because up until recently you were holding a formal position with the NCNWS to talk about that as well.
Yes, NCNW we have sections, and I was the second vice president of the Cincinnati Section. I was pleased and proud because again in my upbringing, I belong and was baptized and to mout Morale Missionary Baptist Church one one sixty nine Simms Avenue. It was called the Mother Church. It was also a place of advocacy and Sister Mamie Hall founded the chapter and Cincinnati. She was one of the charter members and she was the first president, so I got it. I had a three hundred and sixty
look degree. Look, it wasn't one eighty. It was three sixty of women, specifically black women doing the work. So I only knew that no matter where I went. And then from Avondelle, I went to whitten Terras, which was is now called the Bricks. For me, it was a lifeblood. It was still multiracial, but I had teachers who taught who were concerned. I still refer to them in my
writings where I write for the sin Sint Harold. My third grade teacher, missus Gregory, she was like, she taught me lessons through education, so she has listen, read the entire paper and then follow the directions. The directions were at the end of the paper and it said write your name on the right hand corner.
And then you're done.
Yeah, So I absorbed all of that when I moved. We moved. My mother was able to buy her home when I was in fourth grade, and it had to be outside the city in order to get the most house for the most land. And I started school there. My mom went to the Prince of the boy and said there was only five of us in that school. African Americans. She said, my children are not perfect, but you're not to spat them until you call me at work. So I thought, my mother's giving them permission to swot me.
She doesn't spank me, but there are lessons and learned less and the reasoning, and of course that happened. They tried to swap me and I fought them and my mother had to call the NWCAP. So early I learned the value collaboration, collaboration with organizations they were advocating for me.
So I think in some of these stories, I'm hearing that there's a strong sense of community, not just in Lincoln Heights, but you know, in the surrounding areas in Ohio. So before we get into this story, talk to us about your like familial connections to Lincoln Heights specifically.
Wow, I use my last name King on everything and I will never change it, married or not married, because my family name matters. Lincoln Heights is bordered by Woodlawn and Lachlan and it's called Zona fifteen because the zip code is four FI two one five. And anywhere in the world that you go oh and you hear Zone fifteen, you know they're probably related to one another, or you went to school with one another, or someone you married, or someone had a child by So it's the familiar
congregation of love. We support each other whether we live there or don't live there. I still have family members who live in Lincoln Heights Lachlan while Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn we're three four generations deep. Now yeah, so yeah, I am totally connected. It would always be my life blood and good. The family that I have is not always blood family, but they're my family.
Now, you mentioned something to me. You mentioned that Lincoln Heights was a bit of a refuge for people that were migrating out of the South, out of the South, and I believe it was your grandparents.
Yes, my grandparents.
As it is, they were part of that migration.
They're part of that migration. The migration started before they moved there, but it was a continuation of migration. You would come to Cincinnati, you get a job, and then you send for your family, You send for your brother, you send for your cousin. You got in. My grandfather worked for the aviation company Gie. His brother, my uncle's worked for Seagrums. And when you got in, you bought other people with you gotcha. So the migration was real.
It doesn't happen as much now because we don't have that familiar ties, not just Lincoln Heights, but we as a community, we've grown, we've accomplished, and sometimes people don't look back.
Well. I think that this story, in this thing that is taking place, is all the more important because now that we've established that this town has deep roots, there's historical context for this town, and we see sort of the why Nazis would target this town for their demonstration. It makes sense why there was this national lens placed onto Lincoln Heights. It's not just a place where a lot of black folks live. It's not the run down
part of town. It doesn't sound like at least, it's a place with strong roots, where there's a strong sense of identity, is a strong support among black people, and it, dare I say, is a community where black folks can thrive. And so we'll get into the story now. So I'll share a bit from CNN. Now bear in mind that this part of the story is from February ninth. We're going to talk about the community's response a little later in the show, but right now we're talking about something
that was from last month. So you know, I want you to understand that we know that. Okay, So from seeing and local residents confronted and drove off neo Nazi demonstrators waving large swastika emblazoned flags along a highway overpass on Friday between Lincoln Heights and Evandale, Ohio, home to a historically black community that has endured a long history of racism. White nationalist groups in Ohio have recently grown
increasingly brazen in expressing hateful rhetoric and racist ideologies. Last November, Hate Club, a newly formed white supremacist organization, paraded through a Columbus neighborhood, waving swastika flags and shouting racist slurs. About a dozen neo Nazis wearing all black clothing and red face masks. The marchers in Columbus also wore were
seen on traffic cameras waving the swastika flags. They also pinned red swastika banners on the fence of the overpass and a sign reading America for the White Man, according to photos shared with CNN, So you know, we talked a little bit about, you know, why the Nazis wanted to go there, specifically, you know, what was what was your reaction when you first saw the story? Was what was people's reaction when they first found out.
My phone was ringing off the hook. I was not in Ohio, as you know. I also have a home here. My home in Lincoln Heights is my home in Sinci. It is not in Lincoln Heights, but my life is my church is I was really not surprised, and I say that with complete honesty, because where else would you go. There is Avondeale, which is where I lived for that one year, which is a thriving Avondale community. We just got our first black grocery store, but it's too close
to the police station. It's too close to vital White communities use the hospitals there, the hospital that I don't want to name their name because I don't want folks. But there's a lot of thriving community this surrounds Avondale, so it would have bought police from everywhere. Lincoln Heights is kind of isolated because we are in a recommissioning of properties and we have an African American builder building there. But we are governing overseen by the Hamilton County Shrift Department.
I'm not saying they don't do a good job, but they're not us. And so they came to where they thought they can have a great exit because the overpass leads to Evendelle, which is a middle class, affluent white community with their own police force as well. I looked up the numbers and if they are strategic, like I would be strategic that I would want to know that
I have some help if things go bad. Because as they did this at two point thirty in the afternoon, and our children were getting out of school and thank goodness that someone was driving over that that overpassed which is fairly new by the way, and got immediately on social media, and folks who lived in Lincoln Heights still, and folks who used to live in Lincoln Heights still, and those folks who worship in Lincoln Heights because we
have a very concentrated community of churches showed up in droves. And I'm on the phone. I'm getting phone calls and I'm getting texts. I'm like what, and they're sending me pictures And because you know, I thought, wow, this is
really happening, and they were right on point. They first scattered at the babies I actually called the mayor because we grew up in church together and she was in Kentucky a bit of ways and not able to leave immediately because she was the only person color and the boss, and she didn't leave right away. But there were others like Carton Collins, who you know, I said we could bring into the conversation. He is a co founder of the Heights Moovement along with two other young men, and
they it just really mobilized right away. They mobilized, they confronted, but the Evendel police were there protecting not us the Nazis, but the neo Nazi group.
So so that's what I wanted to talk about because that's what a lot of the initial response looked like, and like in terms of the online response and some articles too.
Uh.
You know, there were people that were saying, okay, so the Nazis left peacefully.
Okay, great, they didn't come in peace. They came to agitate, right, came agitate, but you know, no arrest were made, no arrest.
Right, And so so I remember seeing this comment that the police were protecting their own and and you know, one of the things that we know to historically be true is that a lot of times, people that feel the way Nazis feel, the people that feel the way clue clubs, clan members feel, those people often live double lives. They'll be a Nazi on Monday through Friday, and then Sunday they'll be you know, at the courthouse, or they'll
be you know, driving the patrol car. Right, it's the same, prim I are you.
They're a Nazi every day of the week. Yeah, they put on the uniform of a police officers peacekeeper. And I know this for a fact because where I grew up from fourth grade on. And yes, it was very disturbing for me to be told at that time, miss Charin. I have three names, Auntie, miss Charin, that's normally for my community engagement, and coach. So if they're calling me miss Charin, I know one is respectful and two is because of my community engagement, mis Charenne. They're letting them go.
I'm like, what do you mean? They're letting them go? Who's there? Who's there? What's going on? So? I was getting to play by play this entire time, and I knew immediately, okay, what can I do? You know? I'm you know, how many thousands of miles away, But I will give credit to my community, the heightst movement, the churches that folks who don't even live in Lincoln Heights who may not have come from Lincoln Heights showed up and the basis was not here, not today, not ever.
Now I want to say this. I know that this is a direct response to the election of Donald Trump. I know it's a direct response to Elon Musk. You know, Elon Musk's twitter feed historically speaking, has looked exactly like a neo Nazi's Twitter feed.
It does.
And then he got on stage and did a Hitler salute twice in front of everybody's face. And somehow people are just people on that side are surprisingly cool with it. Goes to show you exactly what they stand for. But there's a question I have for you. If hate groups were to target a community, whether through intimidation, recruitment, or misinformation, what protective steps should residents take to protect themselves or
push back against extremism and strengthen their communities' resilience. And this we want to teach lessons that can be replicated as the vulnerable communities around the country.
So your thoughts, well, from the beginning my life was about being prepared. I need us to teach each other. This can happen in any dainty moment to any of our communities. That's the first thing. Teach one, teach many, and work on preparation. You need to build collaborative partners folks who are going the same direction with the same things issue. They may not look like you all the time.
They may be brown, tan, indigenous, but if you're living in the same community, then it's going to affect you to so. And if you don't want to be a part of the solution, than you are the problem and you were just left out. We need We had a phone bank because we didn't have you know, mobile, I grew up with a phone because something was happening. We had it within our church and it's just like enslave times,
whether it was a song or signals. We need to develop a way to communicate with each other in a quick fashion like social media. Yeah, like social media, and that's exactly what happened. But we also need to make sure our seniors are protected because I actually do a lot of work with our seniors to make sure that they are knowing what's going on. We need to make sure that we're inclusive to our seniors. We need to make sure that everything that we do is intentional, So it starts there.
Okay, Well, I know that there are communities around the country that where things like this happen. And because we get the stories here on the show, and we obviously can't cover them. We have an hour show one day a week and we get ten stories.
A day, So.
Excuse me. It's good to have just kind of some general advice for folks that are, you know, up against these sort of problems. But one of the things that historically, I think to your point, historically has really served the interests of black communities in particular, but marginalized communities is places of worship. You know, those can be great cultural watering holes, places where information can get out, places where strategies, strategy meetings can take place, and just really a show
of force. I think that's really what we saw in full display and Lincoln. It's a show of force. Everybody coming out and saying no, in a full out, loud rebuke of that type of display by a community in mass I think that is just the most decisive type of maneuver possible.
And I thank you for making note of that, because it takes and even though Lincoln Heights is in a village, it does take a village, and some people think that might sound right. We cannot do this alone.