![]() ![]() Watters had followed her from her home in Washington, DC, to a small beach town in Virginia where she was vacationing. Standing nearby was Ryan Grim, then the DC bureau chief for Huffington Post, and Grim's friend and colleague, the liberal blogger Amanda Terkel.įive years earlier, Terkel had landed in O'Reilly's crosshairs after she criticized a victims'-rights organization for having O'Reilly speak at a fundraiser. It often indicates a user profile.Īt the time, Watters was best known for pulling off elaborately planned ambush interviews on "The O'Reilly Factor," then Fox News' top-rated show. We don't often see them.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. "We talk more about the big trucks that drive up and down this road than anything the KKK does. "There's a hidden understanding that the KKK is what it is, and that's not talked about," he continued. Kelly declines to reveal his group's membership, but claims that Klansmen have enlisted from 11 states, from New York to Florida.Ī Kellys Store Road resident, who declined to be named, nevertheless insisted after the recent rally that the Klan's presence is "not intimidating to us as neighbors." Klanwatch estimates 5,500 to 6,000 members are active in the groups and, probably, thousands of others are supporters and sympathizers. More than 100 Klan organizations are known across the country, she said. "It makes their message more palatable, but it's the same old Klan. The group's "official" rhetoric might have changed, but the Klan is pretty much the same, said Laurie Wood, a senior field researcher with the Klanwatch Project in Montgomery, Ala. We want to keep the white race pure."īesides the rhetoric, the rally offered KKK souvenirs, hats, T-shirts, knives, belt buckles and stickers for $5 and up. But we don't want to have to socialize with them if we don't want to."Īdded Shelly Bowie, 30, a mother of two and cashier from Calvert County who was among the Klan members at the rally: "We'd like a white America. We don't think we're better than other races. "We don't go out and beat people at night. Toms, the father of two grown daughters who says he has been a Klan member for three years. Klansmen prefer, he said, to call themselves separatists - they oppose affirmative-action programs and believe white society should be separated from other races. Toms said, shuns labels, such as being racist, that have been used to describe the organization. ![]() Toms and others was that the 1990s Klan is a far cry from the violent KKK founded after the Civil War and that has been associated with white nightriders dragging black people out of their homes, whipping, shooting or assaulting them, as well as mob violence against civil rights demonstrators in the South in the 1960s. 15 here - was a typical turnout, organizers said. The Saturday night rally promoted by the Klan fliers - at a ranch-style home along Kellys Store Road, a country lane lined with homes and farms just off U.S. "We covered 275 miles and passed out more than 650 fliers. Thurmont was one of about a dozen towns the Klan swept through in Frederick, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Montgomery counties. Town officials, he said, keep an eye on Klan members when they're in town, as they were recently, recruiting. ![]()
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