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Group With KKK Ties To Set Up Booth At Mississippi State Fair
WAPT ^ | POSTED: 4:40 pm CDT September 23, 2004 | Staff

Posted on 09/23/2004 8:22:38 PM PDT by WKB

JACKSON, Miss. -- The Mississippi State Fair opens in two weeks, but it's already losing money.

A group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, called the Nationalist Movement, is planning to set up an information booth at the fair -- a plan that's driving away some businesses and customers.

The group's leader, Richard Barrett, calls it a "pro-majority" group. The Anti-Defamation League calls it white supremacist.

Either way, the group's attempts to set up shop aren't sitting well with the fair commission.

"I've been here for three years and gone to the fair every year," said Ramie Mitchell. "This year, I think the tradition will end. I don't think we'll be there this year."

Mitchell said she won't be bringing her two boys to the fair if Barrett's booth is there.

Barrett said he wants to spread his group's message and honor the Rev. Edgar Killen, who was acquitted in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.

Barrett said the booth is an extension of his First Amendment right to free speech.

"You have more freedom today because of what Richard Barrett has won for you in freedom of speech than you had yesterday," Barrett said. "Because of this exhibit and this preacher, you'll have even more freedom tomorrow."

The Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency doesn't want to get caught in the middle. It's pulling its $300 booth from the fair to avoid any association.

"The nature of what's going on over there could upset alot of people," said agency spokeswoman Dani Edmonson. "Aand if we're there, they may not be very happy with us being in the same vicinity of someone like that."

Both the fair commission and Barrett say they've received verbal threats.

"They say, 'I'm gonna find out where you live and stab you and kill you,'" Barret said.

But Barrett said the threats won't dissuade him.

As for Mitchell, she said she won't change her mind about staying away.

"I think it should be an embarrassment to the state," she said. "We ask for outsiders to come here, and it's a slap in the face."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: richardbarrett
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To: onyx

<< Haley is right of course,
but I still do not want them
given permission to set up their booth. >>

Why not? As ol' Tom Jefferson said, "I may fight you to the death over your opinion; but I will defend to the death your right to express it."
Much as I despise the Klan, Aryan Nation, Christian Identity, and all such racist groups(it's right-wing kooks like them that give right-wing kooks like me a bad name) I support their right to publicly express their odious and unintellegent opinions.
Who are you to judge who has the right to be heard?


21 posted on 09/23/2004 8:59:09 PM PDT by Ostlandr (Nationalist, small-r republican, fiscal conservative, social liberal, pagan. NOT a Bush partisan!)
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Comment #22 Removed by Moderator

To: Ostlandr
Why not? As ol' Tom Jefferson said, "I may fight you to the death over your opinion; but I will defend to the death your right to express it."

When referring to the KKK, I prefer to put it like this:

I may fight you to the death over your bumper sticker, but I will defend to the death your right to stick it.

23 posted on 09/23/2004 9:02:11 PM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter (John Kerry: Backshooter.)
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To: takenoprisoner; WKB

I can attest that WKB is pissed off plenty at the beheadings.


24 posted on 09/23/2004 9:04:35 PM PDT by wardaddy
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To: Drover

Actually the KKK and the democrats are the ones with so much in common. Both use fear and hatred as their primary weapons.

In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, "I don't know who you are or how you got in here but you've got it wrong."

In my words...Piss off and go to hell!


25 posted on 09/23/2004 9:04:52 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
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To: Drover; Constitution Day; Zavien Doombringer; mhking; Poohbah; Grampa Dave; dighton; 4mycountry; ...
Don't you ever...ever...compare FReepers to those bigoted bastards.

I smell troll...

26 posted on 09/23/2004 9:06:27 PM PDT by TheBigB (I'm 100% correct. I have documents that say so.)
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To: Drover
The KKK has every right to peacefully gather and pursue its' interests, just as does the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Women's Chamber of Commerce, the Black Caucus, the NAACP, La Raza, and all the other racially and/or sexually oriented groups out there.

La Raza is simply the Latino equivalent of today's version of the KKK.

27 posted on 09/23/2004 9:07:17 PM PDT by usadave
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To: wardaddy

"I can attest that WKB is pissed off plenty at the beheadings."

Then as the spokesperson for WKB, why is WKB not focussed?

Where is the outrage? The KKK is not responsible for the beheadings of late.


28 posted on 09/23/2004 9:10:10 PM PDT by takenoprisoner (illegally posting on an expired tag)
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To: TheBigB; Drover
Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

Awwwww ... somebody stuned its little beeber.

29 posted on 09/23/2004 9:11:55 PM PDT by asgardshill (Got a lump of coal? Tell Mary Mapes to 'shove it' - in 2 weeks you'll have a diamond.)
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To: Clemenza
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Everything race based should be banned if anything race based is banned ---- why would a business run by someone of one color be better than one run by someone of another color?

30 posted on 09/23/2004 9:12:22 PM PDT by FITZ
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To: asgardshill

Rats, I was too late. :) Oh well, can't say I'm sorry to see him go. Prolly slunk back to DU.


31 posted on 09/23/2004 9:12:36 PM PDT by TheBigB (I'm 100% correct. I have documents that say so.)
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To: FITZ

I imagine that a White Chamber of Commerce should and would be banned.


32 posted on 09/23/2004 9:14:08 PM PDT by FITZ
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To: takenoprisoner; WKB

Somewhat contrary to two Freepers on this thread whom I admire very much, I am of the opinion that any racist group of any colour has the right to set up in a public place if everyone else gets to and that bad white folks should not be held to a higher standard.

However, I fail to see what any of that has to do about whether or not WKB dislikes the Moon Rock Head Choppers....I assure you he does.


One can prefer to limit white supremists access to public events and loathe the Islamists at the same time.

It's not a mutual admiration society by default.


33 posted on 09/23/2004 9:14:32 PM PDT by wardaddy
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To: Ostlandr
Who are you to judge who has the right to be heard?

Who are YOU to criticize somebody calling a racist doofus a racist doofus? You might have the right to spew the intellectual equivalent of dog excrement, but we have the equal right to verbally scrape it off our shoes.

34 posted on 09/23/2004 9:15:34 PM PDT by asgardshill (Got a lump of coal? Tell Mary Mapes to 'shove it' - in 2 weeks you'll have a diamond.)
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To: takenoprisoner
Then as the spokesperson for WKB, why is WKB not focussed?

Where is the outrage? The KKK is not responsible for the beheadings of late.

Excuse me, but are the beheadings the topic of this particular thread? If not, why try to hijack the thread?


$710.96... The price of freedom
VII-XXIII-MMIV

35 posted on 09/23/2004 9:15:41 PM PDT by rdb3 ("The Republican Party is the ship and all else is the sea." ---Frederick Douglass)
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To: TheBigB

Some trolls require just a little electricity, while others need a swimming pool full of Lysol.


36 posted on 09/23/2004 9:17:16 PM PDT by asgardshill (Got a lump of coal? Tell Mary Mapes to 'shove it' - in 2 weeks you'll have a diamond.)
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To: GenXFreedomFighter

Okay. . .
Let's put it another way.
If the Mississippi State Fair Board is allowed to stop this bunch from setting up a booth, what's to stop them from denying any group the right to pay their $300 and set up a booth at this public event? Suppose someone were trying to set up a Freeper chapter in ole Miss, and the fair board decided this was a right-wing organization and refused to let them set up a booth? Hey, no matter how bad these guys are, it's still political speech we're talking about.
Political and religious freedom; if you don't protect it for everyone, you haven't protected it for anyone.


37 posted on 09/23/2004 9:24:18 PM PDT by Ostlandr (Nationalist, small-r republican, fiscal conservative, social liberal, pagan. NOT a Bush partisan!)
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To: onyx
KKK and Black Muslims...cripes, they deserve each other. Let's give them a small corner in the middle of no where (like Camp Shelby) and they can have it out.

Meantime, stay the heck out of our lives.

38 posted on 09/23/2004 9:24:26 PM PDT by stboz
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To: rdb3

Because at this juncture in our state of affairs I could care less what the insignifcant KKK is up to. Moreover, I beleive any thread not dedicated to the destruction of terrorism is for the time being irrevelant.

I made the mistake of viewing the beheading of Armstrong on the internet from a link posted on freerepublic. This image consumes me.

I shall not rest till all terrorists are dead. Then I could consider the KKK activities. Others not so focussed are confused and irrevelent as is this thread.

I am glad to have hijacked this thread if that is the least I could do in the name of Armstrong and Hensley. Such a small sacrifice based on their sacrifice.


39 posted on 09/23/2004 9:28:57 PM PDT by takenoprisoner (illegally posting on an expired tag)
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To: Drover

The KKK has become such a minority anymore, that they usually require police protection to keep the KKK members safe when they have a rally somewhere. Stone Mountain, Georgia, the former headquarter city for the Georgia Klansmen is now a predominantly black city. Times have really changed since when my parents moved me down to the metro Atlanta, Georgia area in the mid sixties. It was even a very tough time for a yankee kid to move south at that time, some serious culture shock for someone at the age of 13 thrown into a huge High School full of proud Southern Rednecks at that point in time. I must say that the Metro Atlanta area rapidly changed since it became the Capital City of the deep south with many Yankees moving south in the 1960's.

I hated it when we first moved to Georgia back then, now I just call it good ole home.


40 posted on 09/23/2004 9:41:56 PM PDT by herkbird (PETA, if you don't eat the Gator, the Gator will gladly eat you...)
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