Part Time Klan Member/Peaceful Organization ?

[ls317]

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) - A former mayor testified Monday for Edgar Ray Killen in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers, standing up for the former Ku Klux Klansman and calling the white-supremacist group a ``peaceful organization.''

Harlan Majure, who was mayor of this rural Mississippi town in the 1990s, said Killen was a good man and that the part-time preacher's Klan membership would not change his opinion.

Majur said the Klan ``did a lot of good up here'' and said he was not personally aware of the organization's bloody past.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5086492,00.html

[ls317]

1. WTF

Damn I wonder what rock did this mayor crawl from underneath,claiming that he didn't know about the history of the Klan

[atreides1]

2. Peaceful Organization

As long as you weren't Black, Jewish, and at one time Cathoilic.

[thrift_store_angel]

6. or gay.

[Hobarticus]

3. Who in their right mind would say something like that?

Never mind, think I answered my own question...

[brainshrub]

4. The KKK is peaceful like cancer is good for you.

[Kraklen]

5. surprised?

Do people really think that these people just vanished into thin air in the mid 60's?

[harrison]

7. Well, I guess we know why Trent and Thad didn't sign on to

anti-lynching resolution. No cheap shot from me. I am a Mississippian. However, I will tell you that anyone from Mississippi says that they think the Klan is a peaceful organization is lying like hell.

[hemp_not_war]

8. Did you miss the Byrd article today?

Byrd said the same thing that a lot of the 'best people' were in the clan back then. He said he wasn't racist or anything, even though he was Grand Dragon or whatever it is.

[ls317]

9. Damn

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Sen. Robert C. Byrd's new memoir reveals both his encyclopedic knowledge of political history and the unlikely inspiration that helped launch his own political career: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

It was a Klan leader who motivated the young Byrd during his short-lived tenure in the racist organization _ something he writes was "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062000140.html

[harrison]

11. In the 60's in Mississippi, you had two fundamentally racist

organizations. You had the KKK and you had the White Citizens Councils. One was blue collar which, of course, was the Klan. The other was white collar which was the White Citizens Council.

Now, guess who did the dirty work out in the field and guess who got pulled into trial. That would be the Klan.

Now, I know that it is hard for some folks to understand, but if, during the 60's, you grew up in certain segments of society, and you were poor and powerless white male, being part of the Klan gave you some sense of power and significance. Racism was so endemic at the time tht you really didn't give it a second thought.

It was the old gentry class who manipulated poor whites, sometimes openly and sometimes subtly, into attacking black folks. And, of course, the irony of it all is that if you took away skin color, poor whites had more in common with poor blacks than the gentry class.

Back then, the Gentry class convinced the poor whites that "family values" included keeping black folks in their place, especially when it came down to the white women in their families. That was the threat they used: talking about a "mongrel race" , talking about black men coming after your daughters, etc.

It was all about dividing and conquering the masses in Mississippi so they could stay in control.

Well, gee whiz, guess what the Republicans have done since that time. They still play the race card, and the family values isn't so much skin color, but abortion,etc.

The Republicans are quite brilliant at manipulation.

Now, does this explanation justify the violence perpetuated by the Klan? No, it was and is organization dedicated to violence.

However, the White Citizen's Council never dirtied their hands. They convinced the poor whites do it for them.

[theboss]

10. Pretty much the same thing that Byrd says in his book

Just fair warning.