I woke up on Friday to an email from my friend, Jaye (below). The Klan was coming to town. So I went to see what they had to say. The event was scary and sad. There were about 50 people in the audience. It appeared to me that the majority of people found the message and the messagers to be distasteful. But it was also obvious that others were listening with intent and agreement. As one woman said, "You know, you have groups like the AARP and all. Why can't we have a group that celebrates us being white? There aint nothing wrong with that?"
There was lots of bible quoting on both sides of the issue. Many people became Rhoads scholars on the issue of who Jesus loves and doesn't love. Verses were quoted and counter-verses were shouted back. Chaos of opposing opinions broke any semblance of a meeting into a hate fest.
It is so hard to believe that so many people can be so filled with fear and hate.
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Bridget, a proud moment for Cecil County - you have a lot of work to do!
| Wilmington News Journal 12/20/2013, Page A01 |
TOPSTORY CONFEDERATEWHITEKNIGHTS
Klan group to gather Cecil County officials not supporting idea By Esteban Parra The News Journal A rebranded arm of the KKK is holding a meeting tonight at the Cecil County Administration Building in Elkton, Md., attempting to attract new members. The Confederate White Knights of Rocusion sedale, Md., says on its website that its message is no longer based on skin color. But its criteria for membership demands that joiners not be affiliated with either Jewish or Muslim faiths. They also must be “100% heterosexual,” of European heritage and born in America. “Join us for a peacful meeting and dison what we can all do to better our country,” states a message board on the Site of the group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. (Peaceful and discussion were misspelled on the website). The group were granted permission meet inside the Administration Building of the county seat in Elkton. But officials there are not embracing See KLAN, Page A2
Continued from Page A1 for permission to use the group’s presence, especially since Ku Klux Klan activity in Cecil had diminished in recent years.
“A controversial meeting such as this will undoubtedly draw attention to Cecil County,” said Bonnie Grady, president and CEO of the Cecil County Chamber of Commerce. Community leaders have been focused on projecting a positive message to draw new businesses to the county, Grady said. And while its unknown what this sort of meeting would do to discourage business or visitors, it’s not welcomed attention. “I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion that any press is good press,” she said. Especially since the group, according to their website, is not inclusive. “When they exclude entire segments of our society, whether they’re based on race, religion or any other factor, that’s not an inclusive group,” Grady said. “And Cecil County is striving to be inclusive and welcoming.” Members of the Confederate White Knights could not reached for comment Thursday. But in an interview on The Cecil Whig website, CecilDaily.com, Richard Preston, imperial wizard of the 2-year-old group, said the meeting will focus on illegal immigration and President Barack Obama. “Barack Hussein Obama is an illegal president,” Preston was quoted as saying. “He needs to be removed from office. We also want ‘Obamacare’ shut down. It’s against citizen’s rights.” “On top of that, we want the laws toughened on immigration,” he added. “We’re flooded with illegal immigrants and our people can’t find jobs.” Family tradition The Klan was born after the Civil War, when “night riders” terrorized blacks in the former Confederate states. It was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tenn., but spread to different parts of the country, including Delaware and Maryland. But the roots that the KKK could not establish in Delaware grew deeply in Cecil County, including in Rising Sun, Md. That town in the western part of the county became the home base of the United Klans of America in 1960, drawing its membership from the families of Klansmen who had belonged to the old Elk Klan Klavern. Tradition is how most people end up in the Klan. That is how Cecil County native Chester J. Doles was drawn into the Klan, where he rose to become imperial wizard of the Territorial Klans of America. Doles was a fifth-generation Klansmen who eventually directed the activities of more than 400 Klansmen. But in 1993, Doles and Raymond Edwin Pierson, a county Klan leader, assaulted a black man who was driving a pickup truck with a white woman. Doles was sentenced to seven years in prison. Pierson got 15. Doles was released in 1997 and returned to the Klan, but he soon left the group and moved to Georgia where he became a unit leader of the white supremacist National Alliance. In March 2004, Doles was sentenced to five years and 10 months in federal prison, with no possibility of parole. Earlier marches Activities by deemed hate groups continue in both Delaware and Maryland – usually peacefully. About 100 Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacists marched through Newark in 1993 chanting “white power” while some of the 2,500 observers threw snowballs and cursed them. Klan members peacefully marched in Wilmington in 1997, where about six people dressed in robes rallied before a crowd of 300 onlookers. Residents near Newport reported in 2011 that the Klan was recruiting members by targeting predominantly white neighborhoods in the town. The Klan left cards in sandwich bags filled with rocks and threw them onto lawns and driveways. Also that year, a Sussex County couple who believe racial and ethnic minorities should be expelled from the country received state approval for their neo-Nazi group, National Socialist Freedom Movement Nazi Party, to adopt a rural roadway west of Lewes. Despite seemingly peaceful or positive acts, these people promote hate, Delaware State University political science professor Samuel Hoff said. “That’s sort of revisionist history to the max,” Hoff said. “You can dress it up different, sugarcoat it and put a smile on it, but the legacy of that group is such that it was formed for one reason and it remains and that is to promote the advocacy and superiority of one race over another.” How they’ve done this has been through murders, violence and intimidation, he said. “Just because they do it with a smile, doesn’t mean that the message isn’t as dangerous as it always has been,” he said. Constitutional rights Confederate White Knights organizers told the Cecil County newspaper they chose to hold the meeting in Cecil County because of its “conservative mindset.” Al Wein, Cecil’s director of administration, cited Constitutional reasons the meeting room. “The First Amendment recognizes the right of organizations such as the applicant to peacefully assemble and to engage in free speech, even when the message is offensive,” he said in a statement. “The First Amendment also prohibits local government from discriminating against an organization’s right of free speech and assembly on public property, no matter how offensive the message may be. “As custodian of facilities owned by the citizens, the County has a legal duty to make those facilities available for the exercise of First Amendment rights, free from threats or violence. Peaceful and ordered use of the County’s meeting room by the applicant is consistent with the exercise of legally protected speech and assembly, and is not an endorsement of the applicant, or its message, by Cecil County, Md.” The Klan has successfully sued when their civil rights were violated. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled in 1992 that Elkton town officials violated the Klan’s First Amendment rights when they denied the group a parade permit that year. Cecil County President Robert Hodge said he plans not to attend the meeting at the countyowned building because he did not want to give the group more publicity. “Don’t give them the time of day,” Hodge said. “Let them talk to themselves.” He encouraged others to do the same. “If they don’t get publicity, if they don’t get controversy, then they are not going to survive,” he said. “I believe they live off of that – controversy and publicity. That’s what they are doing this for. That’s their goal.” Hodge doubted many people would show up at the event. The group held a “rally” in September at Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, according to a Baltimore Sun report. Only eight Klansmen attended. Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com. 
Members of the Confederate White Knights hold a rally at the Antietam National Battlefield in September near Sharpsburg, Md. The group, which is meeting in Elkton, Md., today, held the rally to protest against the administration of President Barack Obama and the U.S. immigration policies. GETTY IMAGES 
The website of the Confederate White Knights, a Rosedale, Md., group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. 
Counter-marchers express their opinions as the Klan walks down Main Street in Elkton in 1992. NEWS JOURNAL |
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