A FORMER Ku Klux Klan leader says racism in parts of Australia is reaching a similar intensity to what he saw growing up in the United States' Deep South.

Johnny Lee Clary, a former KKK Imperial Dragon who left the organisation after 14 years, found God and became a church minister, said yesterday that prejudice and hatred Down Under ran deeper than most people cared to admit, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"I've been coming to Australia for 12 years and I see just as much racism here as I have in America. A lot of people in Australia like to pretend that it doesn't exist but it does," he said.

Mr Clary is in Port Stephens to speak to school children about his life and how he came to realise that racism and prejudice are wrong.

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