V.
The Klan today and in history
The imagery of hooded Klansmen deliberately invokes fear through collective memory of
COURTESY
The underwhelming nature of the group’s history of racial terror as a secret society after the Civil War. the Loyal White Knights’ “victoeverywhere,’” she said. “They’re very vocal about it.” ry” caravan through Roxboro on Dec. 3 wasn’t caused by any decisive Pippin worked with a group of churches in Asheboro to organize a show of force by their anti-fascist opponents. The damage was self-inresponse to the Klan rally. Then, in early April she discovered that the flicted. After the stabbing of Richard Dillon, “Most of them literally got churches had pulled out of the event without informing her. back in their cars and went home,” said Nate Thayer, who maintains “They had come to the conclusion, along with the mayor and other numerous contacts with former Loyal White Knights and other white religious leaders, that they felt that by having an event they were going supremacists. “That’s why the rally was delayed. It had nothing to do with to be giving more publicity to the Klan,” Pippin said. “The words given the antifascists. to me by a contact were, ‘Ignore it, and they’ll disappear.’ Of course, I “They’ve lost every single state leader and every single member of believe that logic is flawed.” their imperial board, which is like a national board of directors, except for Separately, a group based in neighboring Davidson County called [William] Hagen, who’s now in jail in California,” he added. “They got a Silver Valley Redneck Revolt began organizing a response to the Klan spike of new members after the stabbing because of the publicity.” around the same time. An outgoing message recorded by Amanda Barker on the Loyal Anarchist in political orientation, Redneck Revolt is a national network White Knights’ hotline promotes a “private rally for members and people of gun clubs that organizes in white cultural spaces while extending supwho want to join” and cross lighting on the outskirts of Asheboro on port to immigrants, Muslims, people of color and LGBTQ people. Saturday. A post on the Loyal White Knights’ website announces: “Rally “The Klan is a material threat to the community,” said Mitch Maden starts at 1 p.m. EST. No drinking. No drugs. No weapons. We are having (not their real last name), an organizer with Silver Valley Redneck Revolt klavern meeting, speeches, dinner, Klan items and the most important: who aspires to be a sustainable farmer. “The goal of Redneck Revolt is to the cross lighting at dark!” say, ‘We’re here, and if you come out of your enclaves we’ll respond.’ The purpose of publicizing the event on the group’s website, Thayer “To the community, we’re saying that we have the willingness to train said, is to generate media coverage, which in turn drives inquiries from people in self-defense, de-escalation and solutions to racist violence that prospective members to the hotline. Far from being a liability, Thayer don’t rely on approval from the government,” Maden added. “We’re not said denunciations from Asheboro Mayor David Smith and US Rep. getting a permit. We don’t have to ask permission to defend ourselves Mark Walker only serve to drive more media coverage and interest in the and to come out against this racist drivel. We’re ready to work with group. people and train with people and to have solidarity with people that are The knowledge that the Ku Klux Klan is holding a rally and cross lighttargeted by the Klan.” ing near Asheboro triggers a tangible fear among local residents, said Aimee Pippin said her resolve to take a stand against the racism that is Aimee Pippin, who is organizing a “Unity Walk” at Memorial Park from exemplified by the Klan was steeled by a recent experience in which her 10 a.m. to noon in downtown Asheboro. She said her daughter, Mia, two biracial children were not greeted at a local diner and observed staff a criminal justice major at UNC Charlotte who was galvanized by the seating a white party who came in after them as they waited. protests against the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott last year, urged “My daughter said, ‘Mom, it’s okay, I’m used to it,’” Pippin said. “The her to organize the counter-event. fact that my children are used to people treating them differently, that A native of southern California with Spanish, Italian and Native Amerthey’re used to other children making racial comments or saying derogaican heritage, Aimee Pippin experienced racism in a direct manner when tory comments at school — that’s a problem. she moved with her family to Randolph County as a high school student. “I think it’s just been a long time coming,” she added. “I felt I needed She said she recently spoke with a neighbor, who showed her a family to do something, say something. I needed to show my children that you history book with photos of family members who were Klan members. need to stand up. I can’t tell them and raise them to stand up for what “I had a friend whose grandparents had land out in the country,” they believe in and to find joy in diversity, and then not do anything.” Pippin recalled of her high school years. “I was not allowed to go there because I was ‘too tan.’” The Klan’s presence in Randolph County is a barely concealed secret today, Pippin said. “If you ask about the Klan, people will say, ‘They’re here and there and
Splintered into an ever-metastasizing kaleidoscope of rival groups, the Klan is a shadow of its former self, with a total membership estimated by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be between 5,000 and 8,000. In comparison, the original Klan operated as a paramilitary arm of the white supremacist Democratic Party in the South until around 1898, when the institution of Jim Crow segregation made it largely redundant. The second Klan reemerged in the 1920s with as many as 4 million members. During a third resurgence in the 1960s, the Klan was energized by resistance in the South to desegregation, with as many as 3,000 people attending rallies in North Carolina, according to the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Beginning in the 1980s, neo-Nazi groups began to vie for position in the white supremacist movement, and starting in the 1990s, libertarian-oriented patriot militias began to occupy an increasingly prominent position on the hard right. And with the election of Donald Trump, a new generation of upscale “alt-right” groups like Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute and the Proud Boys have inaugurated yet another iteration of right-wing extremism.
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— an outfit that acts as a magnet for unstable and extreme characters. How better to monitor the white nationalists who pose the most significant security threat? If the Loyal White Knights falls apart, where will its members go? The people who are most dangerous are often those who flit around the fringes of extremist groups, or, like Dylann Roof, imbibe their hateful propaganda and act alone.
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