In Iowa City, Iowa, on this date in 2008, University of Iowa seniors Justin Talley, 21, of Fairfield, and Ryan Thomas, 21 of Cedar Rapids, had threatening and racist remarks scrawled on the door of their apartment at 515 East Jefferson Street, apartment 16, and police are calling the incident against the black college students a hate crime. Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said someone drew pictures of nooses and Ku Klux Klan symbols, along with racial epithets, using a black permanent marker on the African-American students' door.

In Beardstown, Illinois, in Cass County on this date in 2009, a white man, Stephen W. Surratt, 51, of Beardstown, was arrested on aggravated battery and hate crime charges for allegedly attacking a black pizza delivery man at Surratt's home and allegedly yelling racial slurs at the man. Beardstown, Illinois is a confirmed "sundown town"; it had excluded blacks from residing there. In addition, it had once been a location of Ku Klux Klan activity.