Noose left in front of black family’s house

VIDEO -- The holiday weekend was marred by racial threats in one Cleveland, OH suburb. Kids heading back to school would routinely be the talk of West 223rd Street in September but not this year...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

The holiday weekend was marred by racial threats in one Cleveland, OH suburb.

Kids heading back to school would routinely be the talk of West 223rd Street in September but not this year.

“I am totally shocked and sick to my stomach over it,” a neighbor said.

Instead the discussions sound more like what you would hear at a time in American history most would rather forget.

“Racism is obviously never going away but I think people need to realize we’re in a new day and age and everybody needs to get along,” said Christina Ciara.

Police and investigative reports indicate a clothesline in the shape of a noose and about two feet long was laid at the base of this tree in Frederick Howery’s front lawn.

The Howery family is African American. They moved here just nine months ago.

Darrell Mayo is a husband and father of three. He and his family were some of the first African Americans to move to West 223rd Street.

“Am I personally offended by it? To a certain extent yeah, but you know they have the freedoms to express their feelings,” Mayo said.

He’s trying to keep it in perspective.

“That person is probably no more a threat than a sex offender living in the neighborhood,” Mayo added.

With the noose was a note telling the Howery family to get out, signed the Aryan Knights of Fairview Park.

Police say the group doesn’t exist here or anywhere else they’ve looked.

“I don’t know if it’s a joke but I think it’s just someone being ignorant,” one local resident said.

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