Alabama KKK Denounces Hatred (No, Really)
Anti-racist demonstrators are about as common at Ku Klux Klan rallies as white pointy hoods. So it came as no surprise when, shortly after the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan revealed plans to hold a rally in Cullman, Ala., a counter-protest spokesperson piped up to announce that his group would likewise make a showing in Cullman to oppose the “racial slurs,” the “ignorance and stupidity,” the “hatred” and the “threats” voiced by the Indiana-based National Knights.
The identity of this “anti-hate” group, however, was a bit of a shock: The Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
Trussville, Ala., resident Ken Mier, who is publicizing the counter-protest and claims to be an “investigator” for the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, directed Hatewatch to a website depicting a hooded Klansmen riding a hooded horse and waving a burning cross — classic imagery from a movement whose entire 140-plus-year history is one of racially motivated terrorism. Nevertheless, Mier informed Hatewatch via E-mail, the Alabama Ku Klux Klan is “focusing on a totally different outward appearance. No militia, no Nazi flag, and, yes, no hatred of any sort.”
It gets weirder.
“We are the descendants of the ‘Non Violent, True Southern Christian Klanspeople,’” Mier wrote. “We are the children that fought with our fist [sic] to protect the negro [sic] friends we grew up with in the sharecropper fields.”
According to Mier, the Alabama Ku Klux Klan used to belong to Ku Klux Klan LLC, a national KKK organization based in Compton, Ark. But now the Alabama KKK is totally independent, Mier says, and totally opposed to the crude tactics of modern-day Klan poseurs like the National Knights.
“We of the Alabama Klan do hereby announce a dilligent [sic] campaign to challenge all Klan styled groups to Clean up your act and stop embarrassing [sic] the white Christian race,” declares the Alabama KKK website. It also specifies a list of “don’ts” for respectable Klansmen, including: “Nazi Flags, Skinheads, or Atheist” and “Ignorant Appearances on National television to serve as a martar [sic] for the likes of Jerry Springer.”
Dan Quinn, the grand dragon for the “Alabama Realm” of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told Hatewatch he’s never heard of Mier or the Alabama KKK, adding that no matter who shows up to counter-protest, even if they’re wearing white robes and hoods, the National Knights will go on with the show. “We will be speaking out against the invasion of our beautiful state by the illegal immigrants,” Quinn said.
Originally scheduled for Nov. 10, the Klan rally in Cullman — or Klan vs. Klan, as some are now calling it — has been reset for Nov. 17.
