KKK Flyer Left on Steps of Mostly Black Mississippi Church

HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — A flyer on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan was reportedly left on the steps of a principally Black church in rural Mississippi.

Based on a neighborhood member’s Fb publish, the flyer is in assist of “The Outdated Glory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” and states that the group is “alive and rising” in 14 states, together with Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. It was discovered Might 29 on the steps of Union Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Hernando in DeSoto County, the publish stated.

The Outdated Glory Knights are a Klan chapter that appeared someday final yr, Lydia Bates, a senior analysis analyst with the Southern Poverty Legislation Heart advised The Industrial Enchantment. They’ve distributed flyers prior to now, however flyer campaigns, Bates stated, don’t all the time imply the group is lively.

“Flyering is such a low price, low stakes strategy to get their messaging on the market to intimidate folks, to try to recruit folks,” Bates stated. “Them saying that they’re rising in 14 states is fairly unbelievable. The Klan has been declining quite a bit within the final 5 to 10 years. They’re actually dropping a whole lot of members, not attracting new recruits. That’s actually simply self aggrandizing.”

Flyering efforts by the KKK have dropped lately, going from greater than 40 incidents in 2020 to fewer than 30 in 2021.

Nonetheless, Bates stated, the flyers might be scary for communities. A giant purpose of the flyers is to intimidate and make folks assume the Klan is greater and stronger than it’s in actuality, she stated.

“A hate group constructed on a 150-plus yr historical past of violence, you may’t dismiss it as simply them attempting to look larger than they’re, as a result of there may be violence of their phrases inherently,” she stated.

Bates recommends that communities who’ve skilled flyering incidents deal with the neighborhood and report back to teams like hers or the NAACP.

“By way of neighborhood response, I like to recommend not essentially straight difficult the group or the rhetoric within the flyer, however as a substitute refocusing across the strengths of the neighborhood, across the variety of the neighborhood,” Bates stated. “And inspiring folks to donate to native, grassroot organizations who’re doing work to problem and confront and construct resilience in opposition to racism of their communities.”

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