How Well Do You Know This Chapter of Cincinnati History?

Five questions on the 1992 Fountain Square standoff. The answers may surprise you.

What legal event directly triggered the KKK's ability to demand a permit for the cross?

• The city lost a lawsuit over a nativity scene — Not quite — the nativity scene came after the permit battle, not before it. The trigger was a different religious display entirely.
• A federal judge struck down the city's restrictions on a Hanukkah menorah — Correct. U.S. District Court Judge Carl Rubin blocked the city's new rules that would have restricted a menorah on the square between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Once the city had to grant Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson a permit, the KKK demanded one too — and Mayor Dwight Tillery said the city legally had no choice.
• The Supreme Court ruled public squares must be open to all groups — No Supreme Court ruling is cited in this case. The decisive moment was a local federal district court ruling by Judge Carl Rubin blocking the city's specific restrictions on the menorah.
• The city council voted to allow holiday displays without restriction — City council did not vote to open the square — they were forced to grant permits after the federal court blocked their restrictions. Mayor Tillery and council said they legally had no choice.

How did the KKK arrange to put up the cross without immediately triggering a violent confrontation?

• They arrived at 6:20 a.m. under cover of darkness in a prearranged time agreed upon with police — Correct. The 6:20 a.m. arrival time was prearranged with police, who were hoping to avoid violence. It worked — 10 officers were on the square, 18 on standby, and the four Klansmen were gone before anyone else arrived. Still, within an hour, the first person attempted to knock the cross down and was arrested.
• They obtained a court injunction barring protest within 100 feet — No such injunction is part of this story. Police used physical barricades to create a buffer, but there was no court-ordered protest exclusion zone. Protesters still reached the cross — it was knocked down six times.
• They erected the cross during a city-sponsored prayer event that drew crowds elsewhere — The city-sponsored prayer event at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral took place the day BEFORE the cross went up — not as a cover for the Klan's arrival.
• They waited until a city council session kept most officials occupied downtown — No council session is cited in connection with the timing. The pre-dawn hour was coordinated directly with the Cincinnati Police Department.

Why did Police Chief Michael Snowden ultimately have the cross hauled away to the police property room?

• A court order from Judge Rubin required its removal — There is no court order for removal cited in this account. The same Judge Rubin who cleared the way for the permits played no documented role in ordering the cross removed.
• The KKK's permit had expired after 10 days — The permit was for 10 days, but the cross was removed earlier than that. The declared reason was physical safety, not an expired permit.
• He declared it a safety hazard after it was damaged and had protruding nails while children played on it — Correct. After David Miller of Loveland pulled the cross down and it was damaged and splintered, Snowden declared it a safety hazard. 'There were nails protruding and children were playing on it,' Snowden said. He noted the KKK could claim it and put it back up.
• Mayor Tillery issued an executive order overriding the original permit — Mayor Tillery had actually said the city legally had to grant the permit in the first place. No executive override is documented in this account.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who delivered the keynote at the protest rally, drew a specific contrast in his remarks. What was it?

• He contrasted the KKK's permit with the city's refusal to permit civil rights marches in earlier decades — Shuttlesworth's documented remarks focused on a different contrast — one about the nature of the cross itself and its spiritual versus legal standing.
• He contrasted the KKK's 'hate cross' — there for 10 days — with the 'Old Rugged Cross,' which he said is forever — Correct. Shuttlesworth said: 'The Klan may have a legal right to put a cross here, but not a spiritual right. Their hate cross is supposed to be here 10 days, but the Old Rugged Cross is forever.' It was a direct reframing of the KKK's own religious justification for the display.
• He contrasted Cincinnati's response with the silence of other American cities facing similar situations — It was council member Tyrone Yates — not Shuttlesworth — who noted that 'the eyes of the nation are on Cincinnati tonight.' Shuttlesworth's focus was on the spiritual meaning of the cross symbol itself.
• He contrasted the menorah that sparked the legal dispute with the cross the KKK chose to erect — While the menorah dispute is what opened the legal door, Shuttlesworth's remarks centered on the cross itself — specifically the distinction between a legal right and a spiritual one.

How many separate protests took place on the day before the cross was erected?

• One large unified march of about 500 people — About 500 people did come downtown that day, but they were not one unified march — they organized as three separate events with different sponsors and formats.
• Two — a daytime rally and an evening prayer vigil — Close, but there were three distinct events, not two. The evening rally hosted by council member Tyrone Yates was separate from both the anti-Klan march at the square and the prayer event at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral.
• Three separate events — a march, a prayer service, and an evening rally — Correct. About 150 came to the square for anti-Klan chants; a second event sponsored by Mayor Tillery and the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission combined prayer and speeches at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral; and an evening rally featured council member Tyrone Yates and keynote speaker Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
• Four — including a sit-in at City Hall — There is no City Hall sit-in in this account. Three events are documented: the square march, the cathedral prayer service, and the evening rally with Yates and Shuttlesworth.

It started with a menorah. In the weeks before December 1992, Cincinnati tried to impose new rules that would have restricted a Hanukkah menorah on Fountain Square to daytime hours. U.S. District Court Judge Carl Rubin blocked those rules, and Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson received his permit. The city had no legal ground left to stand on — and the KKK was watching.

Once Mayor Dwight Tillery and city council acknowledged they had to grant the Klan a permit too, the stage was set. The same square where Cincinnati celebrates the holidays, hosts concerts, and watches Bengals games was about to become a test case for the limits of the First Amendment in the most uncomfortable way possible.

The 10 Days on Fountain Square

• Weeks before Dec. 1992 — City imposes restrictions on Hanukkah menorah — nighttime removal required
• Before the cross — U.S. District Judge Carl Rubin blocks city's menorah rules; Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson receives permit
• Before the cross — KKK demands a permit after city is forced to grant one to Rabbi Kalmanson; Mayor Tillery says city must legally comply
• Day before — 500 people organize three separate protests downtown — a square march, a cathedral prayer service, and an evening rally
• Day before — evening — Council member Tyrone Yates and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth speak at rally condemning the Klan
• Day 1 — 6:20 a.m. — Four KKK members erect 8-foot white cross in prearranged pre-dawn operation with police present
• Day 1 — within an hour — Attorney James J. Slattery becomes first person arrested attempting to knock the cross down
• Day 1 — 10:30 a.m. — David Miller, 44, of Loveland slips past the barricade and pulls the cross down; arrested
• Day 1 — later — Police Chief Michael Snowden declares cross a safety hazard after nails protrude; cross taken to police property room
• Days 2–10 — Cross knocked down or damaged five more times; KKK replaces or raises it each time; total: 6 knockdowns, 10 arrests

The eyes of the nation are on Cincinnati tonight. We are here to say the Klan is not welcome in Cincinnati.Tyrone Yates, council member

That's exactly the weight the crowd at the evening rally was carrying — the feeling that Cincinnati's response to this moment would be watched and remembered. Thousands of Cincinnatians showed up not because the law required them to, but because they believed the city's character was on the line. They came to the square, to the cathedral, to the rally. They came the next morning and the morning after that.

David Miller of Loveland was one of them. He wasn't an activist by trade. He was a 44-year-old resident who looked at a cross on Fountain Square surrounded by children and made a decision. He pulled it down. He was arrested. He said he would do it again.

I just decided there's too many kids in this community. There's hundreds of thousands of kids in this community. They don't need something like this.David Miller, resident of Loveland

Somebody is bad off if they need the Klan to put Christ in Christmas. The Klan may have a legal right to put a cross here, but not a spiritual right. Their hate cross is supposed to be here 10 days, but the 'Old Rugged Cross' is forever.Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, civil rights leader and local pastor

The Legal and Historical Record

The city had no choice but to grant the KKK a permit.

Verdict: true

Once U.S. District Court Judge Carl Rubin blocked the city's restrictions on the Hanukkah menorah, the city could no longer legally discriminate between groups applying for permits on the public square. Mayor Dwight Tillery and city council acknowledged this publicly.

The cross stood undisturbed for the full 10 days.

Verdict: false

The cross was knocked down or damaged six separate times during its 10-day permitted run. The first attempt came within an hour of the cross going up. Ten people were arrested in total for attacking it.

The KKK framed the cross as a religious, not racial, statement.

Verdict: mixed

A Klansman said the cross was meant to 'put Christ back in Christmas,' and a sign on it quoted John 3:16. But Rev. Shuttlesworth and thousands of protesters explicitly rejected the framing, calling it a 'hate cross' regardless of the scripture attached to it.

Police tried to prevent the cross from being erected.

Verdict: false

Police did not try to prevent the cross — they helped manage its installation. The 6:20 a.m. arrival time was prearranged with police specifically to avoid a violent confrontation. Officers were present as the Klansmen put up the cross.

Three Voices on the Same Square

The cross was eventually removed — declared a safety hazard after being damaged, with Police Chief Snowden noting nails were protruding while children played on it. But 'removed for safety reasons' was never going to be the final word. The KKK was told they could claim it and put it back up. The cross went up again. It came down again. Six times in total.

What the 10 days ultimately exposed was the gap between what the law permits and what a community accepts. The federal courts said the city had to allow it. Cincinnati showed — emphatically, repeatedly, and at the cost of 10 arrests — that allowing something is not the same as welcoming it.

The Legal Chain: From Menorah to Cross

The sequence of events that led to the KKK's cross on Fountain Square began not with the Klan but with a Hanukkah menorah. Cincinnati had imposed regulations that would have required the menorah's hosts to remove it from the square between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. — essentially restricting a Jewish religious display from the city's central public space during nighttime hours.

U.S. District Court Judge Carl Rubin struck those rules down, clearing the way for Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson to place the menorah on the square without restriction. Under First Amendment and equal access doctrine, a government entity that opens a public forum to one group generally cannot exclude others based on the content or viewpoint of their expression.

Mayor Dwight Tillery and Cincinnati City Council acknowledged they were legally boxed in. The KKK's permit demand had to be granted. A nativity scene followed as well. The square that December held a menorah, a nativity scene, and a Klan cross — an unintended consequence of a legal fight that had begun with the simple question of whether a menorah could stay up after dark.

Fountain Square Then and Now

• Fountain Square: Cincinnati's Civic Center: The square at 5th and Vine has been the site of celebrations, protests, and public life for generations. The 1992 standoff is part of its layered history.
• Greg Noble, WCPO Reporter: This story is part of WCPO's From the Vault series, surfacing Cincinnati history from the archives. Original reporting by Greg Noble.

More than three decades later, the 10 days of December 1992 remain one of the sharpest tests of Cincinnati's civic identity. The legal machinery that allowed the cross was the same machinery that protected the menorah. The city could not have it both ways — and it chose, in the end, to honor the law even when the law produced something the community found repugnant.

What Fountain Square showed in those 10 days is what it has always shown: that Cincinnati's public spaces belong to everyone, that the city will enforce that principle even at a cost, and that Cincinnatians — from a Loveland father to a legendary civil rights preacher — will make their feelings known regardless of what a permit says. That's the city the cross was planted in. That's the city that knocked it down six times.

Sources & References

• Primary source: wcpo.com — https://www.wcpo.com/greg-noble