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On Aug. 25, Kenyatta Harlston, 39-year-old black man, stabbed and killed Nick Blackburn, a 24-year-old white man in the Central Avenue bar district of Dubuque, Iowa. Halston was charged with second-degree murder.

Now, according to The Des Moines Register, Dubuque police believe a small number of anonymous white supremacists may be trying to use the fatal stabbing that happened last weekend to fuel a racial backlash.

No evidence has been made public that the stabbing was racially motivated, but when one reader of a local newspaper posted multiple photographs of a lynched black man, racial tension increased dramatically. Once notified by the police, the photos were removed, the reader banned form the site, and all responses to the pictures were deleted. The police also served a subpoena for the newspaper's data about the reader and are working to identify the person.

Still, the insults spread quickly, and police were approached with rumors that the Ku Klux Klan and Hell's Angels would be descending on the town. According to the Register, a small segment of the black population fears retaliation, and a small segment of the white population fears blacks will be "ready to go up in arms if anything happens," said Tobin.

Dubugue is no stranger to racial controversy. In 1991, the city made national news with a number of cross burnings that took place in response to a city wide plan to attract more blacks and diversify the city population. At that time, 165 Blacks constituted less than one percent of the city's total population of about 58,000. The title of this plan was "We Want Change," and it was designed to attract about 100 black families over a five-year period, bringing in twenty families per year.

The community responded aggressively with cross burnings and throwing bricks into the windows of black homes. Cross-burnings also occurred in other Iowa cities, including Des Moines, Waterloo, Jefferson, and Iowa City. Hate letters and racist graffiti were sent to local black residents and white supporters of the recruitment plan. The few black students at the local Dubuque Senior High School were racially harassed, and police officers had to patrol the hallways to protect them from white violence.

In response to the stabbing, rumors, and lynch photos, community leaders like the NAACP and the City Council have held emergency meetings and released statements urging people to take a stand against racist language and behavior.

"People don't want to go back there," Kelly Larson was quoted, human rights director for the city, said Friday. "They don't want to see that happening again. Racial tensions have been a simmering issue in some of our neighborhoods for a while and this is bringing it to the fore." 

Police have been responding to the community’s fears by increasing night-time patrols, monitoring the Internet for inconspicuous dialogue about Dubuque, and keeping tabs on hotel parking lots for suspiciously marked cars. Still according to police, there is no viable evidence that white supremacy or black militant groups are coming to Dubugue.

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