KKK leaflets second Randolph County town

FARMLAND – For the second time in two months, Randolph County residents awoke to find Ku Klux Klan leaflets on their driveways.

“It was pretty much all over town, just like Winchester,” said Tracy Garner, assistant clerk-treasurer for the town of Farmland. “They were everywhere.”

Some residents called the police. “They were upset that propaganda was delivered to their property,” said Melvin Nott, town marshal. “But it’s freedom of speech protected under the First Amendment.”

The leaflets were contained in blue plastic bags weighted down with small rocks, just like in Winchester two months ago. The fliers in both communities promoted the Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK.

"The Klan is very desperate for members and publicity," Bryan Byers, a professor of criminal justice at Ball State University, told The Star Press after the Winchester incident. "The number of KKK klaverns (local units) nationwide is under 175, and Klan membership has remained steady at between 4,000 and 6,000 nationally for many years."

The advertisements distributed in Winchester read: "Neighborhood Watch. You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake. Are there troubles in your neighborhood? Contact the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan today."

The documents in Farmland read: “We’re bringing back the traditional ways of the Ku Klux Klan to the modern day!” and included a telephone number and website address.

This past May, fliers left on vehicles around Richmond promoted a supposed Loyal White Knights of the KKK rally in Centerville on the 17th of the month. Centerville, Wayne County and state police showed up, but the rally never materialized.

The Traditionalist Knights won a free-speech court case over leafleting in Missouri.

“They do not want to cast themselves in what they know would be a negative light by attacking certain groups — African-Americans, Jews, et cetera — even though they do this regularly among themselves and in some venues,” Byers said of the wording of the pamphlets in Randolph County.

Leafleting by the Traditionalist Knights and the Loyal White Knights has generated a rash of local media stories in states including Pennsylvania, Alabama, West Virginia, Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky this year.

“Both groups sought new members with their fliers, and both claimed at various points to be setting up neighborhood watches for crime," reports Mark Potok in the Fall 2014 issue of Intelligence Report, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). "But there was no real activity on their part beyond the anonymously distributed fliers. What they really seem to be seeking was the dues that come with new members.”

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.