KKK Meets in Hillsborough, NC
posted by Marshae Kelly | September 18, 2019 | In NewsOn August 24, ABC 11 Eyewitness News reported that members of the Ku Klux Klan gathered in front of the Hillsborough Courthouse in Orange County, NC.
The KKK is an American hate group, derived from a racist fraternity, whose target is African Americans. Their alleged aim was to resist change in America. That evening, several members gathered outside the courthouse to protest. Counter-protesters staged themselves in front of the KKK, as well as across the street.
Allison Mahaley, a member of the community told ABC 11, “I live just a few blocks away from here, and I really don’t want them to claim their territory here. This is not a Hillsborough value. This is not what our community stands for.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Hillsborough Police Department monitored the situation. The KKK members at the gathering were part of the “Loyal White Knights” of Rockingham County.
Mark Daughtridge from Durham told ABC 11, “Skin really is paper thin. In all the ways that matter, there really is only one human race.”
Protesters and KKK members cleared the area that evening around 6:40 p.m.
One Hillsborough activist said there is a rapid system that can alert people to verify the presence of hate groups within the town, according to The Daily Tar Heel. Also, a Hillsborough shop owner received death threats over a sign promising free chocolate to locals for burning confederate flags.
Some participants of the KKK were seen wearing white gowns with white hoods, while others dressed casually, but the two men that are subject to arrest were apparently wearing purple and green robes, which signify high-ranking members.
While no one was arrested for openly protesting as a hate group, the sheriff’s office now plans to arrest two suspects in the Klan’s rally for openly carrying firearms, according to a joint statement from the sheriff’s office and Hillsborough PD. Law enforcement arrived on the scene quickly.
However, citizens like Lindsay Ayling were disillusioned in their responses. Ayling told The Daily Tar Heel she spotted guns on some Klansmen as they returned to their vehicles, as if they were the ones in danger or to be harmed.
Ayling told The Daily Tar Heel: “I was disappointed in the fact that the police (their friends) were basically escorting the Klansmen back to their cars as they were intentionally trying to intimidate the community.” How did Ayling spot these firearms when the authorities who “escorted” those individuals back to their cars did not?
According to The Daily Tar Heel, Alicia Stemper, Director of Public Information for the OCSO, said law enforcement taking the next steps toward finding the weapon-holding demonstrators after reviewing photographic evidence.
“We were monitoring from a distance and did not see anybody with weapons,” Stemper told The Daily Tar Heel. “As they were getting in their cars, people started telling us they had weapons, but we hadn’t seen it, and at that point they were leaving, so it made sense at that point to pursue the investigation with a cool head.”
Locals who had set up across the street stayed there until the Klan left. They serenaded them away with a choral singing of “Hit the Road, Jack.”
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