Marty Roney

Montgomery Advertiser

PRATTVILLE – Fliers from a Missouri-based Ku Klux Klan group were distributed in Prattville this past weekend.

The single sheets of paper, which could best be described as a recruitment effort, read that they were distributed by the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The group is based in Park Hills, Mo..

The effort was for recruiting, said Frank Ancona, Imperial Wizard of the group. Local chapter members handled the distribution, he said. The Traditionalist American Knights have chapters in each of the lower 48 states and five chapters in Alabama, he said.

"Colleges recruit students, churches recruit new members, police department recruit new officers, recruiting is the life blood of an organization," Ancona said. "The Klan has been here more than 150 years, we have been recruiting not only in Alabama, but Georgia and Florida as well.

"The fliers spell out what we stand for and what type of people we want to attract."

People in the Camellia Estates and Woodland Heights neighborhoods have reported finding the fliers, said Police Chief Mark Thompson. Some residents along South Memorial Drive also reported finding the fliers, he said.

South Memorial Drive, also known as U.S. Hwy. 31 connects the two subdivisions.

"We want to give this group, and this effort, as little publicity as possible, because that is what they want," Thompson said. "This particular group has distributed fliers in other nearby cities in the past few months.

"We don't feel Klan activity, or any hate group activity, is on the rise in Prattville. We just think it is a recruitment effort. We have notified the proper authorities just to keep them up to date about the situation."

The FBI along with state law enforcement agencies have been contacted, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery based group that tracks hate groups, Thompson said. It appears no local laws were broken, because the group has the right to free speech, the chief said.

It appears that the Prattville neighborhoods were the only ones seeing the activity. No reports of the fliers being distributed in the rural areas have been reported, said Sheriff Herbie Johnson.

Similar fliers from the same group were reported in several Tallassee neighborhoods in July.