5 arrests at KKK, African-American rallies at S.C. Capitol

Yamiche Alcindor | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Black Group, KKK Hold Rallies at SC Statehouse Hundreds of people taunted each other on the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse during separate rallies staged by two groups from outside the state. (July 18)

A tense gathering of 2,000 people at the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday that included members of the Ku Klux Klan and a group with links to the New Black Panther Party has resulted in five arrests, according to the state officials.

Both groups held coinciding and at times combative rallies just one week after the Confederate battle flag was removed from near the Capitol. A South Carolina Department of Public Safety tweet noted that one arrest was for assault, as well as two each for disorderly conduct and breach of peace.

The two opposing groups faced off as each called attention to their causes. On one side, protesters with the KKK chanted "white power" and waved Confederate flags. On the other side, activists with Black Educators for Justice yelled "black power" and held their hands in the air.

A local reporter described the scene as "very tense" and another said at least three scuffles occurred between the two groups as members of the KKK arrived and left. Some people threw bottles and at least one police officer was hit, though no one was injured, the reporter tweeted.

Other reporters tweeted that some protesters opposing the Confederate battle flag grabbed one of the flags from the KKK and tore it to pieces. As the rallies continued, additional law enforcement officers arrived to keep the peace.

The Confederate battle flag — to many a powerful symbol of slavery and the Old South that has roiled emotions for decades — was removed from the Statehouse grounds on July 10 in a brief ceremony observed by thousands.

The issue of the flag came to a head in the wake of the killing of nine black worshipers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston last month. The 21-year-old white suspect, who is charged with nine counts of murder, had posted online photos of himself posing with Confederate flags.

Several dozen Klan members ascended the steps on the south side of the Statehouse around 3 p.m. ET Saturday with some were wearing “Nazi Socialist Movement” T-shirts, some with swastikas on them, The State reported. There was shouting but no speeches from KKK protesters, although some people in the crowd jeered and yelled obscenities at the Klan members, the paper reported.

A larger crowd of anti-Klan demonstrators ran at them, shouting, before police installed barricades to hold back the public and the media, The State reported. Police detained and possibly arrested at least one person, according to several reports.

"They cannot punish everyone for what one man did," Amanda Barker, imperial officer of Loyal White Knights, told NBC News.

The white supremacist group, which claims association with the KKK, is based out of Pelham, N.C., according to the group's website. The group expected 100 to 200 people to participate, NBC News reports.

"We will be at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., standing up for our Confederate history and all the Southerners who fought and died against federal tyranny," an automated message on the Loyal White Knights' answering machine said. "Our government is trying to erase white culture and our heritage right out of the pages of history books."

Stan Stones, a Baptist minister, told NBC News he came to defend the Confederate flag but made clear that he does not support the KKK or their beliefs. The KKK "hijacked it in the mid-1950s, and they made it a symbol of hate. And Southern heritage has nothing to do with hate — it has to do with honoring those who fought," he said.

Meanwhile, Black Educators for Justice — a Jacksonville, Fla., organization run by James Evans Muhammad, a former director of the New Black Panther Party — brought together about 400 people for a noon rally Saturday, according to The State.

Muhammad told the newspaper demonstrators at the Black Educators for Justice protest will not interfere with the Klan rally during the hour that the two groups share a side of the Statehouse. He said his group wants to call attention to racial inequities despite the Confederate flag's removal.

"The flag coming down is not progress. It is an illusion of progress," Muhammad told The State. "Ever since slavery started in America, whites have the privilege of freedom that blacks in South Carolina do not have. White privilege had stuck a knife in black people back in South Carolina and America as a whole. You can't pull a 12-inch knife out 2 inches and call that progress."

Justice Coats told NBC News she came to communicate a message about the Confederate flag. "Equality is more important than a symbol of hate," she said.

The city of Columbia, S.C., issued an emergency order last week banning weapons from 250 feet in any direction of the Statehouse grounds.

The city enacted the ordinance, which will last for 30 days, in part because groups who plan to demonstrate at the Statehouse — including the Ku Klux Klan and Black Educators for Justice — had indicated they would be carrying weapons.

The Confederate battle flag in one version or another had flown at the South Carolina Statehouse for more than 50 years, going up in 1961 to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Civil War and staying up the following year as a protest of the civil rights movement.