Re-enactors plan to protest Klan

Sun Herald ^ | Nov. 13, 2002 | TOM WILEMON

[stainlessbanner]

BILOXI - A group of Confederate re-enactors plans to demonstrate against the Ku Klux Klan if the Klan marches through Biloxi on Nov. 30.

Michael D. Kelley, colonel of the 37th Texas Cavalry re-enactors, said Confederate organizations should take a stand against racist groups using Confederate symbols. The re-enactors plan to hold signs opposing the KKK and furl their flags at the approach of any white-robed Klansmen.

"When the Klan comes around, we will turn our backs and drop our flags to show our disapproval," Kelley said.

The KKK has received a permit to march along city sidewalks, but Kelley's group has not. Kelley, who lives in Pascagoula, said he plans to contact city officials to see if his group is required to obtain a permit.

Kelley said he does not consider the KKK to be a Southern organization.

Jeff Davis of Gainesville, Ga., who said he is a "collateral descendant" of the only president of the Confederate States of America, plans to participate in the counterdemonstration. Davis said his great-great-grandfather was Jefferson Davis's first cousin.

"I have been more and more concerned that the symbols of the Confederacy and our ancestors are being totally annihilated by people such as the KKK," Davis said. "When I was notified they were going to be rallying and marching in Biloxi, which is kind of a hallowed place for Jefferson Davis, I said it's time for us to draw a line in the sand and take back our symbols - not in a belligerent way, but in a very civil way - from besmirching the names of our ancestors and to separate the true descendants from the Confederacy from this bunch of rabble-rousers and racists."

Davis is commander of the President Jefferson Davis Chapter of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, 27th Georgia Regiment, he said.

But John French, a spokesman for the local regiment of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said its members will sit out any counterdemonstration.

"Regardless of what your signs say, you're part of the problem," French said. "You lend credence to those things. The best way to keep people like (the Klan) away is to ignore them."

[Non-Sequitur]

You're right N-S. The strongest arm of the Klan is located in PA.

What's that based on? Do they have a membership list somewhere?

[stainlessbanner]

Check out this history channel special. C-D mentioned it in an earlier post. It talks about the different divisions of the klan and the politics within the organization.

[Non-Sequitur]

Check out this history channel special. C-D mentioned it in an earlier post.

What, the one about the Klan controlling Indiana? They virtually did for a time, back in the 1920's I think. Then their leader got nailed on a rape charge and it all fell apart. But that was then and this is now. How can you say that the Klan's strongest presence is in Pennsylvania? What do you base that on?

[Aurelius]

"The so-called CSA needs all the apologizing it can get. The Union does not."

That's your opinion. As they say, opinions are like arseholes, everybody's got one.

[stainlessbanner]

Non, seriously check out the special. The History Channel will re-televise it again (they always do). I'm pretty sure it was PA. They discussed some of the in-fighting among rival chapters. I couldn't find any stats on the membership numbers.

Bottom line, PA, Indiana, Ohio, etc, the klan is powerful up north. Contrary to popular belief, the South does not have a monopoly on the klan.

[Non-Sequitur]

I think I've seen it. A two or three hour history on the Klan, something like that? And it does point out the power the Klan had in the North during the 1920's. Bt today the Klan is probably primarily a southern phenomena. We tend to get the neo-Nazis and white identity churches up North. Not that they're any better than the Klan.

[docmcb]

I just came across the following in an article by John McWhirter in the current issue of CITY JOURNAL. It's about the Klan in Indianapolis.

"Virulent racism was a fact of life for the newcomers. Despite the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869, black suffrage didn’t become a reality in Indiana until the 1880s; blacks couldn’t join the state militia until the late 1930s. In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was Indiana’s largest and most powerful social organization, with 40 percent of the native-born white adult male population belonging to it. Indianapolis’s mayor was a Klansman, and the Klan controlled the legislature and the governor’s office—the Democratic party was essentially the Klan at the polls. In 1924, 6,500 Klansmen paraded through downtown Indianapolis to a cheering crowd of 75,000 onlookers after Klan election victories. For good reason, black Indianapolis became home to an anti-lynching league. One of the last recorded lynchings north of the Mason-Dixon line occurred in nearby Marion in 1930."

[Non-Sequitur]

One of the last recorded lynchings north of the Mason-Dixon line occurred in nearby Marion in 1930."

So when did the last recorded lynching south of the Mason-Dixon Line occur?

[docmcb]

After 1930, I imagine. But will you concede the point that there is no reason to equate the Klan with the SCV? That's the central point of this thread.

[Non-Sequitur]

But will you concede the point that there is no reason to equate the Klan with the SCV?

I'll concede that without any reservations at all. Based on what I know about the SCV, I think that comparing them with the Klan is comparing apples with horse manure.