KKK wants to adopt a mile

Application submitted by the "exalted cyclops of the Klan’s Realm of Georgia"

http://www.ajc.com/news/kkk-group-seeks-adopt-1455819.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

The Ku Klux Klan wants to “adopt” a stretch of highway in North Georgia, which would allow the white supremacy group to receive official state recognition for cleaning litter from the road, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request. The Georgia Department of Transportation is reviewing the May 21 request filed by International Keystone Knights of the KKK in Union County and are set to meet with lawyers from the state attorney general’s office today to decide what to do. The application — which covers a one-mile stretch of Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains near the North Carolina border — has placed Georgia officials in a bind. A lengthy legal battle took place in Missouri after that state sought to ban an effort by the KKK to adopt a road there. Missouri eventually lost, with courts holding that the First Amendment prevented the state from denying an applicant because it disagreed with their viewpoint. Georgia officials could be forced to choose between approving the application in Union County, denying it and facing a likely legal fight or sidestepping the problem by ending the state’s 23-year-old Adopt-A-Highway program, where participants volunteer to beautify state highways in exchange for road signs advertising their efforts. Harley Hanson, who filed the application and said he is the exalted cyclops of the Klan’s Realm of Georgia, said the group is simply trying to be civic minded. “We just want to clean up the doggone road,” the 34-year-old electrician from Blairsville, said in an interview with the AJC. “We’re not going to be out there in robes.” But state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, head of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials called on state officials to reject the application from a “domestic terrorist group” even if it means a costly legal fight. “This is about membership building and rebranding their name in a public way,” the Atlanta Democrat said of the KKK. “If the state approves [their application] then they are complicit.” Hanson said if he is denied, he’ll sue and would seek help from the American Civil Liberties Union, which assisted in the Missouri lawsuit. Georgia’s “Adopt-A-Highway” program began in 1989, enlisting volunteers to supplement state cleanup efforts. Each group adopts at least a one-mile stretch of road, agreeing to remove litter from both sides of the highway at least four times a year for a two-year period. In fiscal year 2011, there were 173 active organizations — mainly civic groups and businesses — involved in the statewide program encompassing more than 4,100 individual participants and covering about 200 miles of roadway. Such programs have become more popular as states have struggled with budget crunches that have left dollars for cleanup in short supply. Georgia sets very broad guidelines for who may take part. According to the state Department of Transportation website, “any civic-minded organization, business, individual, family, city, county, state, or federal agency is welcome to volunteer in the Georgia Adopt-A-Highway program.” Each volunteer group must have at least six members, with three backup members. In addition to litter cleanup, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers groups may also contribute wildflower seeds, develop a public awareness campaign on litter prevention and remove graffiti. The KKK began during Reconstruction as vigilante group to intimidate Southern blacks, using lynchings and cross burnings, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group which monitors hate groups. Klan membership was once estimated in the millions but it has seen its influence wane over the years, especially since the 1970s. Today, while some factions of the Klan have preserved an openly racist philosophy, others have tried to enter the mainstream, describing their agenda as “civil rights for whites.” The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members, split among dozens of different organizations that use the Klan name. In Georgia, the group has not had much visible presence in recent years. Hanson said his group espouses white pride in much the same way groups promoting blacks and Hispanics do. “I love my race. Does that make me wrong? I’m proud to be white,” he said. “We are good, decent Christian Americans, and what we’re trying to do is to work with the local community.” But Brooks said by seeking to enter the mainstream — on par with other groups like the Kiwanis clubs and churches that participate in the Adopt-A-Highway programs — the KKK becomes even more dangerous. “What’s next, are we going to let Neo-Nazis or the Taliban or al-Qaida adopt highways?” Brooks said. He called it “frightening” that in 2012, Georgia was even considering an application from the Klan. “They have to say no. If it brings a lawsuit, so be it. If it ends the program, so be it,” he said.

I don't see how they can refuse. KKK are ignorant and hateful to the bone but are a legal entity equal to the Kiwanas Club, Lion's Club, PETA or Jews for Jesus.

Free speech is free speech. My sense of irony would force me to admit that I'd be all for assigning a state supervisor to all Adopt-A-Highway projects going forward just to allow a black dude in a big white stetson to ride along barking orders while the KKK picked up litter.

"A Group of Athiests" adopted a road in Gainesville a few years back. The Klan should have equal rights.

Do I smell leisure lanes coming to North Georgia?

Free press for the KKK. Way to go, Atlanta Urinal.

They will not truly "own the road." They will get no more signage than any other group (one small sign.) They can actually do some good and benefit everyone.
I would bet they do a worse job than most actually cleaning the road.
As much as I am against littering, I just may throw a can to the side of the road there just so I know they are busy.

ajc said: The Ku Klux Klan wants to “adopt” a stretch of highway in North Georgia, which would allow the white supremacy group to receive official state recognition for cleaning litter from the road

First racial "cleansing" and now cleaning litter from the highway. Maybe they're just really OCD?

They've attempted before. Don't know the results.

"We cannot grant you that stretch of road, but here is a section of MLK Blvd. that you can have."

Hey, they do manage to keep those robes very very white, ahem, clean.

I drive past a sign every day indicating that a portion of the highway has been adopted by "Angry Rednecks Against Litter"

LOL Virginia.

Let them as long as they clean it I don't care even if they are worthless asshats.

Who cares.

Maybe a nudist colony can adopt a mile of road and you then can see everyone's "business" out in public.....

In reply to MrJoshua:

Was it the road in front of Dove World Outreach?

sadly.. like them or hate them.. they are entitled under free speech. If we start restricting who can have free speech and who can't.. we are too far down the slippery slope to ever recover.

Let them have the mile, and see how well it gets picked up.

Personally, I would do a bit of extra littering on that mile if I knew the KKK was keeping it clean

How the hell can you take anyone seriously that calls himself an "Exalted Cyclops?"

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil?

Because the NAACP and gay pride activists are protesting for equality, the KKK is protesting for inequality. It's pretty simple really.

mad_machine wrote: Personally, I would do a bit of extra littering on that mile if I knew the KKK was keeping it clean

For real. Especially if they're were cleaning it up in full uniform.

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil? I bet some of the adopted roads in GA are already done by other "pride" groups

I see the point your trying to make but the NAACP hasn't hung anyone ,although after a couple nights drinking in the West Village I unfortunately saw a few men hung with a gay pride group.

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil?

IMO it has more to do with the history behind the KKK. The name will be forever be linked with hatred and racism.

I have no problem with people being proud of their background up until it becomes hatred of others.

Wally wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil? I bet some of the adopted roads in GA are already done by other "pride" groups

I see the point your trying to make but the NAACP hasn't hung anyone ,although after a couple nights drinking in the West Village I unfortunately saw a few men hung with a gay pride group.

The NAACP still lynches people, (reputations) just with the "racist" rope

16vCorey wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil?

Because the NAACP and gay pride activists are protesting for equality, the KKK is protesting for inequality. It's pretty simple really.

That is not the way it has worked whenever the NAACP came to my town.

Racists come in many colors.

16vCorey wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil?

Because the NAACP and gay pride activists are protesting for equality, the KKK is protesting for inequality. It's pretty simple really.

While I agree that the KKK is generally accepted to be a hate group..... what if there was a NAAWP? No hate agenda, but on the same level as the NAACP? I won't get into my favorite rant ever..... but I almost guarantee that an NAAWP would be considered on the same level as a hate group, regardless of agenda.

An area strip club chain, "Club Risque" has at least two Adopt-a-Highway stretches in PA.

From what I understand, the sponsor group has nothing to do with actually cleaning the road, they just help pay for the cleaning. Or in the case of PA - pay the prison work detail costs (or that may be NJ).

ThePhranc wrote:

Wally wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Why is white pride a bad thing? I have never understood the hatred that comes out when this is brought up? Why is the NAACP and Gay Pride OK, but White pride is evil? I bet some of the adopted roads in GA are already done by other "pride" groups

I see the point your trying to make but the NAACP hasn't hung anyone ,although after a couple nights drinking in the West Village I unfortunately saw a few men hung with a gay pride group.

The NAACP still lynches people, (reputations) just with the "racist" rope

Yeah, not at all the same as actually hanging people in public from trees by their necks until they die. Sorry.

KKK adopted a section of highway just outside of St. Louis. Hung prominently above the little Adopt A Highway sign is a larger one proclaiming that section the Rosa Parks Highway.