By Elaine Magliaro
Andrew Shain of the News & Observer reported today that South Carolina state officials had confirmed that the Ku Klux Klan is planning to hold a rally at the State House next month. According to Shain, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have requested that the rally take place from 3-5 p.m. on July 18th.
Arturo Garcia (Raw Story) said that “the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which calls itself the ‘largest Klan in America,’ filed a permit saying they expected between 100 and 200 people to attend the event on the north side of the building, where the Confederate battle flag is currently being flown.”
Governor Nikki Haley and other state political and business leaders have called for removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds where it has flown for more than 50 years. The South Carolina Legislature is scheduled to take up “bills on the flag’s removal on July 6.”
Schuyler Kropf of The Post and Courier said that the KKK has been approved to hold the protest rally against removing the Confederate battle flag. According to Kropf, the group called accused mass murderer Dylann Roof a “young warrior.”
James Spears, the Great Titan of the Loyal White Knights chapter, said that the group would be rallying to protest “the Confederate flag being took down for all the wrong reasons.”
Kropf:
Brian Gaines, spokesman for the S.C. Budget and Control Board, said the state provides rally space at the Statehouse site when space is available or previously not reserved.
The move was not endorsed by Gov. Nikki Haley. “This is our state, and they are not welcome,” she said in a statement issued by her press office.
On Monday, Robert Jones, the grand dragon for the group, said that “the Klan is a civil rights organization dedicated to white culture and history as symbolized by the rebel banner.” Jones reportedly gave words of support for Dylann Roof during a telephone interview–saying that Roof “erred in going after black people while they worshipped.”
Jones added, “He was heading in the right direction; wrong target…He should have actually aimed at the African-American gang-bangers, the ones who are selling the drugs to white youth, the ones who are robbing and raping every chance they get.”
Shain said that the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are based in Pelham, North Carolina. He said that the front page of the group’s website “includes a message opposing efforts to ban the Confederate flag, which have taken off in the days since nine African-American churchgoers were shot and killed on June 17 in Charleston in what authorities have called a hate crime.”
The website message reads: “If you can’t tell, they are trying to wipe us out of the history books. Tell this Marxist government they better not dishonor out [sic] ancestors graves.”
SOURCES
KKK plans S.C. Statehouse rally, says Dylann Roof ‘was heading in the right direction’ (Raw Story)
Ku Klux Klan to protest removal of Confederate flag on July 18 at Statehouse (The Post and Courier)
KKK plans South Carolina State House rally (The News & Observer)
KKK chapter to hold rally on South Carolina Statehouse grounds (Politico)
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
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Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
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Terry Welshans
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Flowers For Socrates 
Yeah, It’s a southern heritage thing. So where did that raised arm salute come from? I used to pass by a statue of Robert E Lee everyday and I don’t recall that.
All the boys have come out to play
I guess they need a symbol of their heritage of slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow laws, etc. in order to bolster their current views.
From it’s inception the KKK was a domestic terrorist group, made up of cowardly traitors hiding behind masks and attacking defenseless citizens en masse. Yet they have been lionized in a movie called for years among the greatest of films and have gotten publicity in the media far beyond the KKK’s actual numbers. In these days of hyper active defense of homeland security, you would think they would rank along with any radical Muslim group…….Oh, but wait…..they’re Christians………never mind.
Their current and past views of white supremacy.
“The Confederate flag is directly tied to the Confederate cause, and the Confederate cause was white supremacy.”
This article explains the deception behind Nicki Haley’s seeming acceptance that the battle flag should be removed: http://www.alternet.org/theyre-still-fighting-civil-war-and-still-lying-about-confederate-flag
This post illuminates what I said on the picture of the day thread. Now the KKK has an excuse to celebrate what Mike Spindell said clearly … my hope is that almost no one shows up. The KKK is pretty much eliminated in my state and should be everywhere…that they carry that flag says it all.
Just to be clearer…the flag is a piece of cloth and its meaning is the interpretation people give it. I don’t object to the flag per se, just the interpretations. The SC legislature has the option to remove it from public edifices and move it to private property, and I’d hope they eventually will…given the sudden sponsorship of such as the KKK.
It beggars belief that a sizeable number of persons resident in the Southern States still take such pride in the Confederate Flag, a symbol that the civilised world equates with slavery, white supremacy and the misguided belief that it is ‘OK’ for human beings to be owned as if chattel and treated as if beneath humanity itself.
I suppose that there is some truth to the old adage that, in the South Carolina sun, even shit turns white after awhile.
“It beggars belief that a sizeable number of persons resident in the Southern States still take such pride in the Confederate Flag, a symbol that the civilised world equates with slavery, white supremacy and the misguided belief that it is ‘OK’ for human beings to be owned as if chattel and treated as if beneath humanity itself. ”
Kell,
Well put, with succinctness and clarity. I’m astounded that some of those on this thread who I know to be perceptive, fail to see this obvious truth, or understand its affront to people of color.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/30/survey-votes-remove-confederate-flag-south-carolina/29504065/ Looks like the two thirds needed is there but it will be close.
Mike S:
Like a lot of folks, I do see the affront to some people of color, but I also see the affront to other people of heritage whose concerns seems less important to those arguing for banning the flag from the capitol grounds. The government is not in the business of picking winning or losing philosophies especially if both are protected expressions. Imagine if a Palestinian group demanded a symbol of the Jewish faith be banned because it offended their sensibilities. What would we say then?
The government is not in the business of picking winning or losing philosophies especially if both are protected expressions.”
Mark,
Having the Legislature a political entity, mandating flying that flag on equal footing with the America flag is not protected speech but using the government to put forth a political position that is an anathema upon a large segment of a State’s population. Do you ignore that point intentionally when you talk about winning and losing political philosophies?
Agree with what Mike A says. Further it is an insult to be flown on a capitol grounds because it not only insults those who fought and died for both sides in a losing amoral war, instigated by the Confederacy, costing 600,000+ lives, but because it still stirs up trouble…witness the KKK’s plans for this weekend. If it were me I’d not honor defeat nor the immorality of slavery. Next, why does the KKK crew wear hoods like ISIS terrorists wear scarves and masks?
T^his is beyond my comprehension. If some individual wants to fly it on his own property, so be it…that’s free speech, but our government was founded with the ideal that the “tyranny of the majority” even in places they exist is not to oppress the minority…it represents all of us.
Mike S:
“Having the Legislature a political entity, mandating flying that flag on equal footing with the America flag is not protected speech but using the government to put forth a political position that is an anathema upon a large segment of a State’s population. Do you ignore that point intentionally when you talk about winning and losing political philosophies?”
*******************************
The flag is not on “equal footing” with the American flag. It’s located on the Confederate Monument on the north side of the capitol. Also, on the east side there is the African-American History Monument which details the suffering and accomplishments of that group. Elsewhere are monuments to George Washington, Confederate women, and law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. The American flag flies from the dome of the Capitol on the highest point of the campus. ( I commend anyone to visit both Columbia and the seaport city of Charleston, SC)
Flying the flag is clearly free speech by the government as the battle flag was installed by act of the legislature — the South Carolina Heritage Act of 2000. Much like displaying African-American accomplishments. A commemoration of Confederate history is not an endorsement of slavery thereof any more than commemorating African-American heritage is an endorsement of slavery.
Ari:
” Further it is an insult to be flown on a capitol grounds because it not only insults those who fought and died for both sides in a losing amoral war, instigated by the Confederacy, costing 600,000+ lives, but because it still stirs up trouble…witness the KKK’s plans for this weekend.”
****************************
Is your criterion for exercising free speech whether or not it “still stirs up trouble”? I think conservative rhetoric by Rush Limbaugh “still stirs up trouble.” Can I ban him? How about rap concerts? They get out of control sometimes. Banned! Those soccer matches are rowdy. How about banning them? I recall trouble brewing when civil rights activists clashed with those who opposed them? Do those groups go, too?
You might want to rethink your statement — or consult with your mentor, nick, over at RIL. He knows everything. Just ask him.
mespo,
Now who is getting emotional about this flag issue?
Mespo727272 … now you know full well that is NOT my criterion….I said clearly that private individuals can fly it if they choose. Rush Limbaugh is a clown I never listen to, and was mocked right here for saying so. If the flag, flown only in Virginia during the war so I’m told, was on private property there’d be no KKK rally forthcoming. I’ve mentioned my passing & inadvertent experience with the KKK and worse here and elsewhere before and my absolute detesting of them. If Mr Limbaugh lands a government job, I’d say “Yes” ban his butt if he runs off art the mouth as I’m told he does. The government represents us all, wherever the “we” might be, not just a majority in some precinct. I’m not from SC so I have no say, there, except my words on line. And I have no “mentors” not Nick or anyone else at RIL or elsewhere…I say what I think and you should already know that. Charleston SC has a black population who are not represented by that flag, as a memorial or otherwise…and they do have a right to object as individuals. The fact they showed amazing grace in response should speak to all of us. If you’ve read much of anything I’ve said here or elsewhere you know I’ve spent most of my life as a minority in the populations I’ve lived in, here and on the other side of the world. I found ways to get along and I always will.
Ku Klux Klan plans rally as black churches burn
The Sidney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/world/ku-klux-klan-plans-rally-as-black-churches-burn-20150701-gi2hnc.html
Excerpt:
Charleston: The Ku Klux Klan plans to rally in South Carolina, even as black churches have been warned to take “necessary precautions” as authorities in southern states investigate several church fires over the last week.
The Loyal White Knights chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Pelham, North Carolina, said it will rally at the South Carolina on July 18.
“We’re standing up for the Confederacy,” James Spears, the chapter’s “great titan,” said on Tuesday.
He said speakers would address slavery, then the Klan will hold a cross-lighting, or cross-burning, ceremony on private property. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group also known as the KKK, is known for its history of violence toward African-Americans.
Advertisement
Citing a series of arson attacks that struck black churches across the South in the 1990s, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) used a Twitter hashtag that went viral this week, tweeting on Tuesday: “Almost 20 years later, we must again ask, #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches?” Hours later, another historically black church went up in flames.
The Klan’s Vile Post-Charleston Recruiting Spree
Towns across the country have reported the appearance of KKK fliers with bags of candy on residents’ lawns.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/24/the-klan-s-vile-post-charleston-recruiting-spree.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page
Excerpt:
Days after the massacre at a black church in South Carolina, some Americans woke to a vile surprise: KKK fliers with candy on their lawns.
The propaganda—stuffed into plastic baggies with pieces of peppermint and Tootsie Rolls—included a phone number for the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Planted under the cover of darkness, the fliers were distributed in California, Kansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.
It’s not something local police departments are taking lightly, and some have even reached out to the FBI for assistance. The Rockdale County sheriff’s department in Conyers, Georgia, collected more than 80 fliers and is investigating whether anyone can be charged with criminal trespass or littering.
“Whether it was a joke or from an organization doesn’t matter to me,” Sheriff Eric Levett told The Daily Beast. “The fact that it was done during this time is ignorant and cowardly.”
A message on the hate-spewing hotline, based in North Carolina, salutes 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who was charged with murder for the killing nine people in Charleston. Roof penned a racist manifesto before the June 17 mass shooting and wanted to start a “race war.”
“We in the Loyal White Knights of the KKK would like to say hail victory to … Dylan S. Roof who decided to do what the Bible told him,” a man chirps in the recording. “An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. They [black people] have spilled our blood too long. It’s about time someone spilled theirs.”
Mespo, even some of the sausage man’s buddies over at RIL are turning their back on him. This morning a commenter told him not to “piss in the wind” after he made a very nasty comment about trolls. I was quite surprised and pleased someone on the ‘right’ basically called him on his behavior. Gives me hope for humanity.
“I recommend you pee downwind. How’s that for unsolicited advise?”
Mespo,
Sorry, I misquoted this person, here is his exact quote to the sausage man. No more mention of the sausage man today, please excuse me bringing him up in response to Mespo. Mea Culpa, Basta!
I find it sad we must resort to name calling, when all we have are different opinions. I said what I thought to Mespo without pejoratives, and I think he simply misunderstood me…now or in the past. Either way, I’d rather engage honestly than with anything else. It may be just me.
Elaine … this rise anew of the KKK is extremely repugnant. The vile holding of Roof up as an example is the worst of it…actually it is only the surface. They are far worse…but haven’t the guts in most cases to act out, so of course they revere Roof who was merely insane. And, again, that is from from a conservative just so others know we are not all nuts. 🙂
I should add that I consider “Nick” a friend on line and when we disagree it is amicable, as it should be. This disparaging of others is silly. We can’t always agree but we can get along.
Free speech is a bitch sometime. He may be your friend, Aridog, but in that you are certainly in the minority. After some of the vile shit that imbecile has said to or about many of the authors and posters here? He’s not only not welcome here, he’s fair game.
Fuck that troll Nick.
Not to put too fine a point on it.
Part of the reason this blog was formed was Jon not only allowing his persistent attacks, but his demand that we take no action in defense (or retribution).
And that is what I have to say about that.
Can I get a list of the salient points of “Southern Heritage”?
Then I could assess what that heritage has to do with the battle flag, and why it’s only been associated with that flag for the last 50 years, coinciding with the Civil Rights movement, on.
Paula Deen’s food, maybe, for a start?
What are the rest?
Thanks!
Aridog,
It’s not always correct, but you’re known by the company you keep. Your “friend” should take your advice.
Ari:
I just quoted what you said. If causing a ruckus isn’t your criterion for banning the flag on the capitol’s grounds (as you clearly said) just what is it then? I’m all ears.
PS nick thinks he’s your mentor. Too bad we can’t ask him here since apparently he made an ass of himself and got bounced. In fairness though, nick thinks he’s everybody’s mentor or pal.
Also, I’m sure the Klan would be causing trouble elsewhere if this convenient target to manufacture press hadn’t presented itself. Causing trouble is just their M.O.
Damn, Gene! I wanted to post that photo–if only I thought of it.😀
My granddaughter says that not only looks like me, it IS me. I have no idea what gave her that idea, but she loves me, so what can I say?
“My granddaughter says that not only looks like me, it IS me.”
Chuck,
Funny, you don’t look Jewish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Interesting_Man_in_the_World
Some people are your friends….right up to the point you disagree with them. Then you become the hated enemy. Or is that enema?
Btw, tell me Ari where was the name calling? I simply challenged your breathless, seat of the pants screed and asked you to check in with your online “friend” for a lifeline if you needed one. I thought you conservatives were the big opponents of false victimhood.
Chuck:
I think the latter.
How about those folks in South Carolina flying the Union Jack as part of their ‘Heritage?” After all, their ancestors fought and died under that banner too.
It would still be the Union Jack if my ggg-grandfather and about 1,100 of his closest friends and family members hadn’t gone over there and kicked some South Carolina Loyalist ass one October afternoon in 1780.
“I should add that I consider “Nick” a friend on line and when we disagree it is amicable, as it should be.”
Ari,
Gene described the circumstances of our leaving and they related to the fact that Nick would attack us nastily and Turley didn’t allow us to reply in kind. The ironic part of it is that Nick did all of us a real favor, because I’m having much more fun writing here and I was becoming disenchanted with Jon’s new point of view.
As for you feeling friendly towards him I have no complaint. The thing is though you seem much more intelligent than little Nicky and you haven’t the same scatological bent. Taste is a very funny thing and one person’s ignorant loudmouth, is another persons bosom buddy. Humans are funny that way.
Mike,
It must be the grey beard.
Mespo … I was NOT referring to you calling me names, just some others who have a bit of anger toward someone else. So he’s banned here, and in the judgement of this board, that seems righteous. That’s okay…I am banned at “Legal Insurrection” a blog I really enjoy…but came to contretemps over how the Word-press aspect was managed and even cited a friend of Prof Jacobson’s, and mine, as a guide…she has no issues with Word-press that she doesn’t handle smoothly and seamlessly…e.g., you never notice. He decided I was not worth the bother and it was adios’. So be it. I still read his site. No bitterness. I do not need a “forum” to learn from others.
Truth is I often read your posts and find them interesting or challenging, both a good thing from my perspective. As I. Annie can tell you, and alluded to about my “two sides” a while ago, and she was right. But I think we’ve both changed and moderated our presentations. I have had to change my manners and I’d hope she’s beginning to see the difference.
My “breathless screed” as you called it is simply to assert that black minorities have some rights in SC too…and I tend to agree with Bob Kauten that the stars and bars didn’t become an issue until 50-60 years ago, as that has been my experience…particularly in the north (go figure).
The “ruckus” I cite isn’t the flag itself causing it, it is the people who insist it is a “heritage” of some kind that still seems to reek of favoring slaver. I could be wrong. Heck, I want to be wrong…but those white sheets and hoods don’t encourage me. I try these days to form no “enemies” on line, 90% of them are virtual after all, and I’ve fought my wars and need no more of them, literally or virtually. I try to make no more enemies anywhere for that matter. There is no point in dialog on various sites if not to learn from them.
As I have said repeatedly I’ve seem to always live as a minority in various populations, here and elsewhere, and I’ve found a calmer approach has always worked…e.g.,I want to learn about them, and in the doing, perhaps they something about me. I now live in a mostly Shia’ community neighborhood and do puzzle if the prognosticators are right…that we may be attacked in some manner, large of small this weekend by Sunni Salafists. I doubt it will occur here, but a bit of caution never hurts….although to do so would cause greater focus (there is already plenty) on their “hiddey holes” if they are among us here. I’ve been through a very ugly riot long ago here and found no good come of it except that there’ve been no riots here since those days.
That is why the response in Charleston, the ones who were attacked violently by a maniac, moved me as it obviously has…it is the direction I’ve chosen for my self and hope to stay on it.
I hope my explanation is enough. Most here have been very courteous to me as a “new guy” who came here out of curiosity, not to start fights. I’d suspect most here ignored the “we don’t cotton to you kind, boy” by one commenter….I did not respond to that.
Thanks for listening.
Ari:
No animosity here for you. I simply thought you premised the exercise of free speech on how little it disturbs the listener which is antithetical to my way of thinking. No one has the right not to be offended. To your point about “hate not heritage,” it seems most of the American population (57% according to CNN) views the battle flag as a symbol of pride not prejudice. That’s my experience, too. We don’t run around down here hating on people and displaying colors. Sure there is the lunatic redneck fringe but they’re about as persuasive to regular people as Rush Limbaugh is to the ACLU. So there is hope for a detente on the issue. Move it off government grounds sure, but banning its display on monuments and museums is plain hating on Southerners for no reason.
That mirrors my experience as well, Mark.
mespo
I believe that the flag has no business being flown from or incorporated into the state flags of southern states. However what people want to put on their pick-up or fly in their yards are up to them. If others want to shun them that’s their right.
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on facebook by people (and one ex) using words like history and heritage and I know some of these people don’t really know anything about history. To many the history of the flag is that Lynyrd Sknyrd had it behind them on stage while playing “Freebird”. To many it’s just “a southern thang”.
I realize many see the flag as a symbol of racism, that’s why I don’t fly it, but that’s just me.
Mespo … my experiences in the south reflect yours. I think you got my comment backwards….which would be my fault for not saying it better. I know more reasonable people there (the south) than haters. This whole thing would not be front page news were it not for the muckrakers, certainly not the members of Emanuel AME Church. Vacuums always seem to draw a filler and this time its the KKK and/or their supporters. It is such nonsense. Just “what” cause are they supporting? We know but wish we didn’t. If 40 odd states have active KKK elements, that is 40 too many. Some how now and then an issue stirs them up and here we are. Fly the flag in their yard if they believe it is a “heritage” symbol….but I am not certain that “heritage” is admirable….but on private property, it is free speech.
The Confederate Flag Is a Racist Symbol. Just Ask the KKK.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122216/confederate-flag-still-flying-today-because-kkk
Excerpt:
n July 18, on the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse, a Ku Klux Klan group plans to hold a rally in support of the Confederate flag. It’s a reaction to the ongoing debate over whether the flag should be taken down from its current place above a Confederate memorial near the Statehouse in the wake of the racially motivated Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting.
Many have argued that the Confederate flag isn’t a symbol of racism so much as one of southern heritage. This is an impossible case to make, and the KKK’s support of the flag is only confirmation of its violent, racist past. In fact, the KKK’s association with the flag may be the reason it is flying in South Carolina today at all.
Decommissioned Confederate soldiers founded the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee in the mid-1860s. The group was initially intended as a fraternal social organization, and early on, members were known to play tricks on freed slaves, like pretending to be dead Confederate soldiers raised from the dead. Their symbols at the time included white hoods and white sheets, which may have been connected to such pranks. But the group’s antics quickly escalated into violence and murder. By 1870, Congress passed several “Enforcement Acts” aimed at suppressing the KKK’s tactics of violence, intimidation, and interference, seeking to protect black Southerners who were registering to vote, voting, serving on juries, and holding political office. Many consider the Ku Klux Klan America’s “first true terrorist group.”
The KKK was significantly diminished for the next few decades, but saw a tremendous resurgence in 1915 due to the film The Birth of a Nation, which has been called “the first ever Hollywood blockbuster.” Released on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the film was based on a popular novel called The Clansman, which celebrated the Klan and the way of life its members sought to defend. A scene in the movie inspired the group to adopt cross-burnings as a part of their tradition and symbolism going forward. According to Euan Hague, a professor at DePaul University, this was the height of the Klan’s popularity, in part because it came during an “anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Black” era. David Cunningham, a professor at Brandeis, agrees. “There were hundreds of thousands of members all over the country—Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, and well as in the South. They had a strong national presence, and influenced national politics.” By the 1930s, though, the group was in decline again.
There were some small local Klan resurgences through the ’50s, says Cunningham, “but then after the Civil Rights movement started … the resurgence in the 1950s and ’60s is really about resistance against the ‘imposition’ of northern and federal government on the southern way of life.” This is when the Confederate flag sees a major comeback. “The flag wasn’t absent,” says Cunningham, “but it had not been front and center as a political symbol. It was not shown or treated as a central symbol … Then the battle flag becomes this really direct symbol associated with the Civil War.” Cunningham dismisses the idea of the flag becoming popular again as primarily a symbol of Southern heritage. “It’s about defying challenges from outside of the white supremacist southern way of life, defiance, Jim Crow segregation.” Euan Hague agrees, “Advocates for the Confederate flag [say it was about] ‘100 years since the Civil War.’ It was as much if not more a sign of defiance against desegregation.”
Look Ari:
After some pointed, pithy and well-reasoned debate we agree. Mea culpa and bravos to us all.