KU KLUX KLAN HOLDS RALLY IN NAHUNTA, GEORGIA

By R. A. Pearson

48 Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan held a two hour rally in Nahunta, Georgia, a small town in Brantley County about 35 miles west of Brunswick, on Saturday, February 21, 2010, beginning about noon. The crowd was estimated to be about 550, with about 30 or so protesters. Klan supporters in the crowd applauded, shouted “white power,” and waved Confederate Battle flags (actually Confederate Naval ensigns) while Imperial Wizard Jeff Jones railed against illegal immigration and our country’s leaders. The Imperial Wizard is the head of the “Southern Alliance of Klans.”

Jones said, “We are here to tell you wake up Georgia and stop the Latino invasion now. I know plenty of people who are willing to work and would do anything right now.” He also encouraged the crowd to, “Get rid of the people running this country. They’re running it into the ground.”

The Klan members were adorned in their traditional white robes but were not allowed to wear masks because Georgia State law forbids the wearing of masks. The Klan members wore their caps, but their faces were shown. The rally was held on U.S. 301 with police and other law enforcement providing security for the event.

Brantley County Sheriff Robert Thomas said all 18 deputies were on duty for the rally. Nahunta Mayor Ronnie Jacobs estimated 300 law enforcement officials from surrounding counties, as well as the Georgia State Patrol and the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Marshals, were in town to maintain order. A contingent of 17 Deputy Sheriffs from Camden County assisted at the event.

Jacobs said African-Americans and whites “get along great here” and he had no idea why the Klan chose his town for the rally. However, in a pre-rally statement to a local TV station, Greg Wolfe, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, indicated in an unofficial statement the Klan chose Nahunta because it is primarily white and the surrounding area has had a high number of Klan applicants.

While Wolfe indicated the topic of the rally would address sex offenders, taxes, reduction of welfare, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and uniting government with religion, as well as illegal immigration, Imperial Wizard Jeff Jones spent most of the speech on illegal immigration, employers’ illegal hiring practices, questioning of Mexicans’ patriotism toward the United States, and offering a sprinkling of racial slurs during the entire speech.

As Wolfe indicated in his pre-rally interviews, the February 21, rally in Brantley County was a recruiting trip for the Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan. The institutes and individuals who track extreme right wing, white power organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, militias, and other organizations report an up-swing in membership since the election of President Obama, the first African-American to become President, and the worsening recession. The fact that the Ku Klux Klan would go into a small (1000 people), mostly white town in rural Southeastern Georgia seeking new members is not surprising in the least. Here at the Clarion Issue we hope the city council of Nahunta and the County Commission of Brantley County will calculate the cost of the rally in payment of law enforcement and all other cost, and send the Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan a bill for the costs. They have a state headquarters in Ellijay, Georgia, and a state office in Brunswick.

Furthermore, as the Clarion Issue has always indicated, the Ku Klux Klan needs to come up with its own symbols. They have disgraced the Confederate Battle flag, a historic flag used by some of the Confederate forces during the Civil War, and parlayed the burning cross, a Scottish symbol used to call the highland clans to battle, into a symbol of hate. Can these guys have an original thought?