Editing Howell, Michigan (section)

===20th century===
The Howell [[Home Rule Cities Act (Michigan)|Home Rule]] City Charter was adopted in 1955.<ref>[https://www.cityofhowell.org/residents/city_ordinances_charter/index.php Howell City Charter index page], accessed 31 December 2020.</ref>

The [[Ku Klux Klan]] first took hold in the area in the 1920s, and membership in Livingston County increased during the American [[civil rights era]].<ref name="Walker1994">{{cite news |last1=Walker |first1=Sam |title=Michigan Town Battles Image of Racism |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1994/1003/03071.html |access-date=21 August 2024 |work=Christian Science Monitor |date=October 3, 1994}}</ref> Since the 1970s, Howell has had a national reputation for being associated with the Klan. White supremacist leader and Michigan [[Ku Klux Klan titles and vocabulary#Grand Dragon|Grand Dragon]] (1971–1979) [[Robert E. Miles]] held gatherings on his farm 12 miles north of the city in [[Cohoctah Township]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Counts |first=John |date=21 March 2014 |title=A tale of two towns: Newest racial incident has Howell facing its past |url=http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale_of_two_towns_newest_rac.html |access-date=2016-01-05 |website=MLive}}</ref> Miles died in 1992, but the gatherings, including the burning of crosses, continued.<ref name="Walker1994"/>

The Livingston Diversity Council, founded in response to a 1988 [[cross burning]] on the lawn of a Black family,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Livingston Diversity Council|url = http://www.livingstondiversity.org/history.html|website = www.livingstondiversity.org|access-date = 2016-01-06|archive-date = 2016-01-31|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160131113501/http://www.livingstondiversity.org/history.html|url-status = dead}}</ref> has been promoting diversity and inclusion in the county.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Livingston Diversity Council|url = http://www.livingstondiversity.org/index.html|website = www.livingstondiversity.org|access-date = 2016-01-06|archive-date = 2016-01-20|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160120214244/http://livingstondiversity.org/index.html|url-status = dead}}</ref> While they are numerous in [[Metro Detroit]], as of 2011, Howell was not listed as an active home to any [[hate group]] by the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://michiganradio.org/post/report-35-hate-groups-michigan#stream/0|title=Report: 35 "Hate Groups" in Michigan|first=Mark|last=Brush|website=michiganradio.org|date=23 February 2011 |access-date=3 May 2017}}</ref>

On October 22, 1994, less than a dozen Ku Klux Klansmen from outside Howell held a rally on the steps of the historic [[Livingston County Courthouse (Michigan)|Livingston County Courthouse]]. According to a reporter for the ''Livingston Post'', the town may have been chosen because of its reputation for intolerance. Ben Bohnsack, the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in nearby [[Brighton, Michigan]], at the time, described the approaching rally as an "assault on the values" of the community. On the day of the rally, the courthouse was put under the protection of 174 police officers from every law enforcement agency in the county. An 8-foot-tall chain-link fence was erected around the courthouse, with two additional sections raised on Grand River Avenue to contain protesters and observers. The fence was dismantled after the rally, and on the following day, citizens assembled with brooms, mops, and buckets for a symbolic cleansing of the courthouse steps.<ref name="Stuart2019">{{cite news |last1=Stuart |first1=Maria |title=25 years ago: When Livingston County told the KKK where it could go |url=https://thelivingstonpost.com/25-years-ago-when-livingston-county-told-the-kkk-where-it-could-go/ |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Livingston Post.com |date=22 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407050820/https://thelivingstonpost.com/25-years-ago-when-livingston-county-told-the-kkk-where-it-could-go/ |archive-date=7 April 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>