Robed Resurgence: The Georgia KKK in 2010
In Ellijay last month, a latter-day Ku Klux Klan rally materialized on the steps of the Gilmer County courthouse — with scores of spectators, not all of them hecklers. Earlier this year, yet another Klan rally took place in the South Georgia town of Nahunta.
“Certainly in Nahunta and Ellijay, although there were 40 robed Klansmen — and that’s a significant number when you think about it today — there were probably 300 to 500 spectators,” said Bill Nigut, Southeast director of the Anti-Defamation League. “And in Nahunta and Ellijay both, there were many people nodding in agreement, supportive.”
Nigut says the Klan is emboldened by a political and economic climate that frightens some Americans.
The Klan’s brand is tied to white supremacy, which fueled its rise during Reconstruction, and its resurgence during desegregation. But its themes have broadened of late, along with its audience. The Klan is now anti-immigrant and anti-gay.
“They continue to be anti-Semitic and they continue to be racists,” said Nigut. “In an attempt to find a way to communicate with the mainstream communities, they take on issues they think the communities share in common with them.”