Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers prompt investigation by Ga. authorities
Fliers inviting residents to join the Ku Klux Klan were placed outside homes outside Atlanta. / CBS Atlanta
COVINGTON, Ga. Sheriff's officials in the Atlanta area are investigating whether any laws were broken when fliers inviting residents to join the Ku Klux Klan were placed outside homes.
Newton County sheriff's Deputy Courtney Morrison says the fliers are being reviewed to make sure they don't contain any inappropriate information or threats.
The Newton Citizen reports that the fliers included a drawing of a robed klansman standing in front of a tree with writing that said, "Join the KKK — Loyal White Knights."
CBS Atlanta reports that police collected more than 30 of the fliers that were folded and packed into plastic sandwich bags and tossed at the end of driveways in the Covington area.
Covington is about 35 miles southeast of Atlanta.
A man claiming to be an Imperial Wizard told CBS Atlanta News over the phone that the Newton County neighborhood was just one of many neighborhoods from Florida to New York State where they distributed flyers.
But the neighbors in Newton County told CBS Atlanta News the propaganda brought them together, rather than dividing them.
"We probably threw it away and didn't realize what it was," said neighbor Hadiyah Abdul-Mateen.
Abdul-Mateen didn't even recognize the Ku Klux Klan targeted her family for recruitment on the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.
"They need to get a life, I mean really," said Abdul-Mateen. "I'm hoping it had nothing to do with President Barack Obama being re-elected."
The flyers surprised neighbors in the diverse neighborhood outside of Covington. The flyers' message: join the Klan and fight for the white race's rights.
"It's embarrassing, it's very sad," said neighbor Wendy Lozynski. "You teach your kids not to hate, and then somebody goes and does something like this, is embarrassing."
The flyers displayed a phone number with a North Carolina area code, so CBS Atlanta News called it. A few hours later, a man claiming to be Chris Barker, an imperial wizard with the Klan returned the message.
"Can you tell me if this was an effort to intimidate neighbors or if this was more of a recruitment drive for your organization?" asked CBS Atlanta News reporter Steve Kiggins.
"More of a recruitment drive to let the neighborhood know the Klan is there and the Klan isn't going anywhere," said Barker. "We told our members to go out and pretty much counteract Martin Luther King's birthday, who was a known communist - and we decided to put out Klan literature."
But neighbors said the Klan should pass them by the next time they want to recruit new members.
"They're idiots," said Lozynksi. "Very close-minded morons."
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I put them right up there with Hitler, the black panthers and all the other race related idiots that should never have seen the light of day.
freedome and equailty for all means just that.
not more for others and less for some but equality for all.
black, white, brown, right or left.
lets find some COMMON ground.
In 1993 a Dutch photographer traveled the University circuit of our country to present his collection of documentary photos of the ongoing lynching and hanging carried out by the KKK throughout the Souther States. His photos were taken between 1990 to 1993. His presentation was a horrific and chilling testament to the ongoing bloody treachery by the KKK against Black people in the South. The audience in the auditorium was stunned: Every murderous atrocity that he portrayed was never reported by the mainstream media. Had I not been a witness to his lecture I would have had a very difficult time believing these accounts.
The KKK has remained operational and out in the open because it's supporters and members continue to include many men of political and economic power. During the Civil Rights Movement the majority of court and police officials of the South were members, supporters and sympathizers of the KKK. According to the photo account of the Dutch man not much had changed in the 1990's since the KKK was able to continue their terrorism of the Souther Black people with impunity. The Treyvon Martin case is an excellent example of the willful silence of the Southern mass media. It required massive public protests in Florida and across the country to demand a prosecution of the murderer of a Black teenager. During the intense national media coverage we learned for the first time about the chronic willful refusal to investigate and prosecute the killers of Black victims in Florida. This unfortunately is not an isolated case.
The KKK's current recruiting effort is bold and should be seen as a threat to our domestic security. The majority of people in our country recognize the KKK for what it is: A domestic terror organization deeply entrenched in the South. For decades the Republican Party has used the strategy of resentment politics in our country. They have escalated their racist bating since the election of President Obama. Now with the gun control measures being proposed by the White House, the move by the KKK to exponentially expand their membership comes as no surprise.
Look how this energizes anti-racist sentiment even among these comments. If the real Klan is doing this, it's clearly counter-productive and going to just get them in some kind of trouble. Be realistic. Ask yourself, who benefits? I doubt if it's a real Ku Klux Klan group.
"More of a recruitment drive to let the neighborhood know the Klan is there and the Klan isn't going anywhere," said Barker. "We told our members to go out and pretty much counteract Martin Luther King's birthday, who was a known communist - and we decided to put out Klan literature."
Sounds authentic and racist to me.
untill people understand what equal means it will go on and on and on.