Leaders of the local chapter of the NAACP and other multicultural and faith-based groups meeting in Harrisburg Tuesday will discuss the KKK's plan to hold neighborhood watches in Fairview Township.

"There's no way the Ku Klux Klan can come this close to Harrisburg without it coming up for discussion by the Coalition for Social Justice," said Reginald Guy Jr., co-founder of MLK Leadership Development Institute in Harrisburg.

Residents in the area of Ridge Road in Fairview Township awoke Friday morning to find fliers announcing a neighborhood watch planned for the area run by the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in response to recent crimes reported in that area, according to earlier reports. News of the Klan's announcement was upsetting to many minority and interfaith community leaders in the midstate.

For example, Homer Floyd, chairman of the labor and industry committee for the Harrisburg NAACP, called news of the Klan's watch "unfortunate" and alarming when reached for comment.

Floyd roundly dismissed claims made earlier by Frank Ancona, imperial wizard and president of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, that the watches would not target any ethnicity and were aimed at benefitting all residents of the area in question.

"We have found over the years that the Klan is still the Klan of old. They simply try to present themselves in a way that is legitimate, in a way that helps the community, but at the same time preach their white supremacy and tout their views of doing so with guns," Floyd said.

Reginald Guy Jr., co-founder of MLK Leadership Development Institute in Harrisburg, agreed with Floyd that the Klan's move should be regarded as alarming to residents in the midstate, adding that the acceptance or rejection of the group by the community will allow for a determination of the level of hate present in the midstate.

"The black community's perspective of the issue at hand is predictable. The question is, what is the white community going to say and do about it?" Guy said. "Are these Klans going to be welcomed in the community?"

Guy also announced Monday night that members of the NAACP, the MLK Institute and other members of the Harrisburg Coalition for Social Justice will meet at noon Tuesday in the St. Paul Baptist Church at 1201 N. 17th St. in Harrisburg.

The coalition also will discuss the February arrest of prominent capital region religious and community leader Bishop A.E. Sullivan Jr. after a roof collapse at the former church he owned at 12th and Magnolia streets.

The guest speaker at the meeting will be U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Relations Services representative Knight Sor, who will address his office's work to instruct communities how to prevent and respond to hate, Guy said.

The coalition meeting will be open to residents and the media to attend, Guy said.

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