COLUMBUS, Ohio — Morgan Hughes spends a lot of time on the Olentangy Trail. He walks his daughter to daycare and then continues on to his office in Franklinton.
But he said what he saw on the trail Monday morning made his blood boil.
“It was one of those things where you look at, and you’re like, surely this can’t be, this can’t be real,” he said. “It was right there, right in front of my face.”
Hughes said he saw the N-word, spray-painted in large, black letters, right in the middle of the trail. Just a short distance later, he found the word again, and then again a third time.
“That was put there very specifically for everybody to see as a way of normalizing bigotry and hatred,” he said.
So, the next morning, he took paint with him on his morning walk, and he stopped to cover each of the three racial slurs.
“I didn’t want to take any chances, you know,” he said. “I don’t want any kids walking past and thinking that that’s normal. I don’t want adults walking past and thinking that that’s normal. That’s not normal. It’s awful, it’s hateful, it’s not welcomed in my community, in my city, not on my watch.”
And that was the message he posted on Twitter later that day, writing, “Attention bigots. I have an endless supply of paint and my favorite hobby is covering up racial slurs.”
Spencer Hackett, who lives in Harrison West, also commented on that Twitter thread. He told 10TV that he has regularly seen similar racist graffiti on that trail, as he rides it three to four times a week.
He said he first reported the sightings to 311 last summer. Within a few hours, he said the graffiti was covered up, but it would be back the next day. And he said this happened almost every ride for the next few months. He’s also seen white nationalist propaganda near the intersection of West Third Avenue and Olentangy River Road.
10TV reached out to the city to find out how often this type of graffiti is being reported. Columbus Recreation and Parks reported that, between March 8, 2020, and March 8, 2023, the city received 219 complaints about graffiti at a city park or community center.
Those figures could not be broken down further to determine which involved racist graffiti. However, the city did provide two recent complaints to 10TV, one from this week and one from last month, that did focus on racist slurs being reported.
“I think that they count on us not saying anything,” Hughes said of those responsible for the graffiti. “And I don’t play that game, and I will never play that game. And the more people that see you not playing that game, the more likely we are to defeat that kind of hatred.”
City leaders advise those who do see racist graffiti to report it to the city via 311. Those calls are prioritized, and the goal is to have crews out there the same day to take care of it.
Leaders also ask that citizens not take it upon themselves to paint over the graffiti because they would rather be able to power wash it off completely, which is made more difficult when there are multiple layers of paint.