Ku Klux Klan gets green light for
pro-Confederate flag rally in South Carolina: newspaper
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[June 30, 2015]
(Reuters) - The white supremacist Ku
Klux Klan has received approval from South Carolina officials to hold a
pro-Confederate flag rally at the state capitol, a newspaper reported on
Monday, less than two weeks after a white man shot dead nine people in a
black church.
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The suspect in the church shooting, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, has
confessed to the killing. He had previously posted a racist
manifesto online as well as photos of him posing with a Confederate
flag, a Civil-War era banner associated with slavery and seen by
many as a symbol of racist oppression.
The shootings on June 17, in which all nine victims were black,
unleashed shockwaves across the United States and triggered calls
for South Carolina to stop displaying the Confederate flag on the
statehouse grounds.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has called for the flag's
removal, and told the Post and Courier that she did not endorse the
Klan's planned rally.
But according to the newspaper, the South Carolina Budget and
Control Board approved an application filed by the "Loyal White
Knights" chapter of the Ku Klux Klan for a July 18 rally in favor of
the flag.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jun/30/images/ads/current/pestcontrol_bch_fleas_061215.png) Budget and Control Board spokesman Brian Gaines told the newspaper
that space to demonstrate was provided at the site when not already
reserved.
The state capitol is located in South Carolina's capital, Columbia,
about 115 miles (185 km) northwest of Charleston, home to the
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where the shootings
occurred.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist
organizations, lists the Loyal White Knights as an active group
within the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
With roots reaching back to the Civil War, the Klan is known for its
white robes and pointed hoods and for its acts of violence and
intimidation against African-Americans, including cross burnings and
killings.
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An answering machine for the South Carolina chapter referred to Roof
as a "warrior," according to the Post and Courier.
Federal authorities said on Monday they are investigating a spate of
fires at predominantly black churches across the southern United
States, though so far no link between the incidents has been
established.
In past year, race relations have been increasingly under the
spotlight in the United States amid growing anger over frequent
deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement, leading
to demonstrations and occasional unrest.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Raissa
Kasolowsky)
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