By Matt Okarmus and Rebecca Burylo

Montgomery Advertiser

An organization affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan has been leaving recruitment leaflets around Tallassee, and residents aren't happy.

Frank Ancona, imperial wizard — or president — of The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, confirmed Tuesday that the fliers were from a local chapter of the national organization based out of Missouri. Ancona said the local chapters are supposed to work within local communities.

"It looks like they are trying to do their job out there," Ancona said.

But it was a job many Tallassee residents didn't want done. Tallassee Police Chief Jimmy Rodgers said he began receiving complaints Sunday about recruitment packages left in people's front yards. He said the package was a Ziploc bag containing rocks and a flier that was determined to be a recruitment piece for the Ku Klux Klan.

Rodgers and his officers spent the majority of Monday scouring neighborhoods along Alabama 14 and removing the packages from people's yards. About 150 were collected, he said.

Brenda Moore and her husband had found their flier in their driveway after friends had told them about it on Facebook. She said everyone on her street received one.

"I told my husband to look at it and throw it in the trash because we don't approve of anything like that. I just don't approve what the Ku Klux Klan stands for. I just see how it used to be years ago, what they would do and how they would discriminate against black people, and I don't believe in that," Moore said.

Moore hopes that if enough people ignore the fliers, those distributing them will be discouraged and go away.

Naomi Watson, who lives across the street from Moore, thought a child had left the fliers out in the yards as a cruel joke and said she, too, does not agree with the message.

"I think it's absurd. Racism should be behind us," Watson said. "This is 2014. People should really put that behind us and focus on loving each other and just being one people, instead of trying to be against each other."

Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said activities of this type have been going on in various states recently.

"This is their latest effort to recruit and get attention," Potok said.

However, Potok said this isn't a sign the Klan is growing in numbers.

"It's always concerning to hear about these activities, but this does not signal a resurgence in the Klan," he said.

Rogers said the police department received more than 50 phone calls of residents expressing the same sentiment and who said they were uncomfortable with the information the flier contained.

The flier asked for "Intelligent, awake, aware, Christian, white people to stand up for our race, our heritage and the American way of life."

Further in the flier, it states the organization of the Ku Klux Klan is not a hate group or domestic terrorists, but rather white people standing up for white people.

Eddie Daniels saw nothing wrong with an organization having such a goal.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with supporting your own race. White people support white people just like black people support black people. It's not like they're burning crosses or anything like that."

City councilman Charles Blalock said the bottom line is for residents to stay calm and ignore the message.

"There might be someone out there trying to stir up trouble here, but we are strong-willed people in this town, and we're not going to let something like this upset us or cause any problems between the race relationships that we have here in this town," Blalock said.

Ancona said he was waiting to hear back from local leadership on why the group chose Tallassee specifically.

"People who are in leadership positions in local communities, we trust them to know what's best for their community," Ancona said.

Ancona said no one would be available from the local chapter to speak on the matter.

"They definitely want to remain anonymous, and I respect that," Ancona said. "We never ask our members to ever identify themselves publicly."

Ancona said the biggest misconception about the group is a hatred of black people. He said the group is opposed to interracial marriage, and he said a lot of blacks he has talked with feels the same way.

"That does not mean we cannot be friends with people of other races, but God created us as separate races for a reason, and let's keep it that way," he said.

He added that while the group is not opposed to black people, it is opposed to gay people because they make a choice to sin — "and you make a choice to commit a sin that God says is an abomination."

Many of the people receiving the literature are upset by statements like these, but without any other actions by the Klan group, Rogers said the only charges residents can pursue are criminal littering.