KKK leaves Statehouse rally early after hour of taunts

COLUMBIA – An army of law enforcement officers helped a group of the Ku Klux Klan make an early exit from their protest rally Saturday on the Statehouse grounds, jeered and booed by a crowd of thousands who came to watch the spectacle.

Dozens of Klan members, some from around the country, arrived in a parade of Confederate and other flags on a blistering hot Saturday afternoon in a fenced area on the south side of the Statehouse grounds, where they waved flags and taunted the crowd but offered no speeches.

The tensions produced some scuffles and at least two assaults, including one member of the Klan group attacked as he was arriving for the rally. There was no official tally of any arrests by late afternoon Saturday.

Klan members, male and female, some throwing Nazi salutes and one carrying a Nazi flag, walked around the fenced area, exchanging taunts with members of the crowd, some of whom had minutes earlier been on the front side of the Statehouse for a Black Educators and Lawyers for Justice rally about racism. Some came to the Klan rally carrying anti-racism signs and banners and waving Pan-African flags.

At one point it appeared Klan members were stomping and spitting on a blue and white flag that had been ripped.

Klan members wore dark uniform shirts with various patches and symbols. None wore hoods or robes.

Some in the audience threw plastic drink bottles at the Klan group, which also contained supporters of the Confederate battle flag, who said they were not Klan members. The entire group appeared to number about 50.

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a North Carolina group that had planned the rally, told state officials the rally was to protest the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds the week before.

After about an hour of taunts and jeering, an army of law enforcement officers from various agencies gathered inside the fenced area and then created a corridor to South Main Street, where the group was escorted out.

Gov. Nikki Haley had asked citizens to stay away from the rally.

"Our family hopes the people of South Carolina will join us in staying away from the disruptive, hateful spectacle members of the Ku Klux Klan hope to create over the weekend and instead focus on what brings us together," Haley said in a statement earlier this week. "We want to make the Statehouse a lonely place for them. In doing so, we'll honor those we have lost and continue to make our state stronger."

Haley was referring to the eight parishioners and pastor of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston who were shot to death on June 17 by a white gunman. The man charged in the killings displayed a Confederate flag license plate and online photos showed him waving Confederate flags and burning or stomping on American flags.

Haley called for the battle flag's removal from the Statehouse grounds the week after the shootings and lawmakers passed a bill last week to take down the flag and send it to the Confederate Relic Museum.

Some lawmakers in support of the flag argued the flag had been "hijacked" by the Klan and hate groups, while others said they wanted it removed before the Klan arrived.

The Loyal White Knights, which advertises itself as the largest Klan group in the nation, reserved the Statehouse grounds on the same day as the Black Educators and three church groups, who wanted to hold a prayer vigil against racism.

The churches decided to meet instead on Sunday afternoon at the Statehouse as the result of Haley's appeal.

The White Knights, in a voicemail recording, say they were coming to Columbia to stand up "for our Confederate history."

"Our government is trying to erase white culture and our heritage right out of the pages of our history books," the recording says. "If you're tired of all the liberal nonsense that is being spewed out by your leaders in government, please stand with us July 18. If you're white and proud, join the crowd."

The group, on its website, says it is a law-abiding Christian organization.

James Evans Muhammad, who runs the Black Educators group and is a former director of the New Black Panthers, told The Greenville News earlier this week his group was coming to help educate the state about racism.

"The flag being removed is a symbolic gesture and it's a great start," he said. "But it does not diminish the fact, as the president has said, that racism is a problem here in America. We're coming here to help people organize, to help people move economically, to help strategize. Racism does not stop just because a flag is removed."

Organizers of the event told the crowd that a planned town hall had to be canceled because of threats by the Klan but they planned to hold another.

Dr. Lonnie Randolph, the leader of the state's NAACP, told The News it is not the first time Klan members have voiced their feelings about the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds and they have a right to express their opinions.

"We have no objection to them being there," he said. "They have a First Amendment right as long as the law is not broken and people aren't harmed."