Kross Out: the Sequel

FIRST IT WAS UP. THEN IT WAS DOWN. THEN UP, then down. Up again, down again. Then up one last time before Cincinnati was finally rid of the specter of a cross raised by the Ku Klux Klan. The hate group's permit to display the cross finally expired a day before New Year's Eve. For nine days the cross inspired a festival of civil disobedience. Four times the Klan put it up, and three times protesters knocked it down. The list of those arrested for anti-Klan actions included seven whites and six blacks. Ironically, the Klan was backed by a federal court decision requiring the city to permit the placement of a Hanukkah menorah in another part of Fountain Square. Now some residents wonder if a beloved local gathering place will ever be the same. Reflected one: "Fountain Square has been a place where we only celebrated those things that brought us together." The day after the Klan's cross disappeared, a local group raised another, to "bring dignity back to the cross that has been taken away by the Klan."