Judge candidate questioned about family's ties to KKK

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http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060829/judge.shtml

MONTGOMERY (AP) — A Republican candidate for a state appeals court seat is fending off questions about her family's ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Terri Willingham Thomas, a district court judge from Cullman and the GOP nominee for Place 3 on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, said voters should consider her record of racial equality, not the associations of her family.

The Montgomery Advertiser reported Monday that a former Klan leader and government records indicate that Thomas' parents, Joe and Violet Willingham, participated in the KKK in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her mother was arrested in August 1979 for transporting guns with an expired permit at a Klan march in Montgomery, according to an arrest report.

Joe Willingham received an award in 1993 from the far-right Council of Conservative Citizens. Liberal groups typically classify it a hate organization.