Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
A Volunteer Human Rights Coalition – Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins
reports and articles on white and racial supremacism
Texas: Alleged KKK leaflets surface in Abilene
— Lubbock County Register reports: “Members of the West Texas United White Knights appear to have distributed fliers across Abilene sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday morning. This is the second time the KKK has circulated literature in the last few months”
— August 17, 2009: KKK Contacts Abilene Citizens
— August 17, 2009: Webcast: Abilenians Angry Over KKK Flyers
— Clarion Ledger Reports – Civil rights marker vandalized again
— Letters “KKK” painted on sign in Neshoba County
— “Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman”
— “The Neshoba County highway marker memorializing the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan again has been vandalized, this time with the letters ‘KKK’ spray-painted across the sign on Mississippi 19.”
The “white nationalist” web site “Occidental Dissent,” which has been promoted by NYC’s self-described “racialist” Lawrence Auster, has condemned R.E.A.L.’s protests of VDARE speakers at the October 31, 2009 H L Mencken Club conference in the Baltimore suburb of Lithicum, Maryland.
We are not surprised that “white nationalists” disapprove of our protests against the “white nationalist hate group” VDARE and VDARE’s repeated promotion of “white nationalist” and racist screeds.
We have also received emails and messages from VDARE supporters known to sell Nazi products, who have also been critical of our protests in challenging VDARE’s racist promotion of “white nationalism.”
We urge those who criticize us to end their hate and contempt for our universal human rights, accept our universal human rights of equality and liberty, and rejoin the brotherhood of humanity. Choose love, not hate.
Love Wins.
On October 31, 2009 members of Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) protested VDARE speakers at a Baltimore-area conference of the “H L Mencken Club.” Members of the racist hate group VDARE at the event included Steven Sailer and Patrick Buchanan.
R.E.A.L reported on this, including racial IQ writer Steven Sailer from VDARE’s keynote speech condemning “Libreal [sic] Jews” and human diversity. Individuals who were also reported to be part of the H L Mencken Club convention included: Patrick Buchanan, Patrick Deneen, Gene Edward Veith, E. Christian Kopff, James Kurth, Lee Congdon, Kevin Gutzman, George Csatary, John Derbyshire, Richard Spencer, Jeff Frazee, professor and VDARE contributor Paul Gottfried (Gottfried: “Did Pre-MLK America Really Need Redemption?”), and “Youth for Western Civilization” (YWC) leader Kevin DeAnna.
As Kevin DeAnna has previously claimed to not support racial supremacism, R.E.A.L. wrote Kevin DeAnna to confirm that he would not attend this event. DeAnna never replied.
However, R.E.A.L. later obtained photographic evidence that YWC’s Kevin DeAnna did speak at the H.L. Mencken conference in Baltimore.
The H. L. Mencken Club conference was co-sponsored by the Vienna, Virginia-based Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, which is also on the SPLC list of white nationalist hate groups.
The Fitzergerald Griffin Foundation prominently promotes the writing and work of Sam Francis, such as “Race and the American Prospect: Essays on the Racial Realities of Our Nation and Our Time,” and “Shots Fired.” (The writings of white nationalist Sam Francis are also promoted by the VDARE web site.) Sam Francis, who died in 2005, was notorious for his white nationalist views and also was chief editor for the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC). The CofCC, founded in Georgia, is not headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. White nationalist Jared Taylor, who is also promoted by VDARE, was a key speaker at the 2009 CofCC national convention.
See also:
— R.E.A.L. Protests VDARE Speakers in Baltimore
— June 20, 2009: R.E.A.L. Protests McLean, Virginia Conference with VDARE Speaker Peter Brimelow
Oklahoma: “KKK” Vandalism of Ada church saddens members
— The Oklahoman reports: “Blondell Colbert said she knows racism is alive in her community, but never thought it would target her church.”
— “Threats, racial slurs and a Ku Klux Klan symbol were spray painted on the Philemon Missionary Baptist Church in the predominately black Ada neighborhood known as Hammond Heights. Colbert, who has been a church member since age 11, found it last Thursday.”
— “The church’s sign was removed from its pole and spray painted in red are the words “white power” and “KKK,” along with the symbol for the white supremacist group, Assistant Police Chief Carl Allan said.”
— “Police have not called in the FBI to investigate it as a hate crime, Allan said. No other churches in the area have been vandalized, Allan said.”
— ” ‘We may have some racist idiots in this area, but as far as we know there is no organized KKK,” said Allan. “Racism, unfortunately, is everywhere, and our community has suffered its share.’ ”
— “Allan said about a year ago police were investigating how fliers for the KKK ended up in Ada Evening News newspapers. They were inserted without the newspaper’s permission and not the work of a carrier, said Lone Beasley, the newspaper’s publisher.”
— “Also, East Central University freshman Joseph Tusan was killed in 2005 by Ammon Dean Reich in a hit-and-run accident that was deemed to be racially motivated and investigated by the FBI as a potential hate crime. Reich was sentenced to 320 years in prison for his attack on Tusan, who was black, and 10 other victims, nine of whom were black.”
On October 31, members of Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) protested VDARE speakers at a Baltimore-area conference of the “H L Mencken Club.” Members of the racist hate group VDARE at the event included Steven Sailer and Patrick Buchanan. While scheduled, VDARE’s Peter Brimelow had to cancel his involvement in the Mencken conference. The event was held at the Holiday Inn BWI in Lithicum, Maryland, near the Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) airport. (R.E.A.L. previously posted on this event in September.)
The VDARE Foundation has been listed as a “white nationalist” hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) , a designation that VDARE’s leaders state that they are “proud” to have. VDARE’s web site has also been described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as “a Web site that features the work of racists, anti-Semites, and anti-immigrant figures.”
R.E.A.L. was pleased to see that VDARE had a low turnout for its H. L. Mencken Club conference, as our protesters braved the rainy weather to protest outside the Holiday Inn BWI. Aside from our protesters, numerous passers-by were shocked and disturbed to learn of the VDARE speakers at the Holiday Inn BWI, and many automobile drivers honked their horns in support and gave a “thumbs-up” to the R.E.A.L. street corner protesters. In terms of the positive response from many of the public versus VDARE’s slim turnout at their conference, the American public in Maryland clearly is against racist views.
Employees of the Holiday Inn BWI were shocked and greatly disturbed when learning of the VDARE speakers, as R.E.A.L. protesters handed out fliers about the VDARE speakers’ comments on race to the public. R.E.A.L. did contact the Holiday Inn BWI management in advance of the conference and faxed them a copy of our flier about the VDARE speakers. In addition, R.E.A.L. coordinated with the Anne Arundel Police Department.
As some VDARE supporters saw R.E.A.L. protesters on the street outside of the Holiday Inn BWI, their response was vulgar gestures.
Racial IQ writer Steven Sailer from VDARE gave a keynote speech at the Holiday Inn BWI on “Libreal [sic] Jews,” and went on to speak against human diversity on October 31. On the VDARE web site, President Obama has recently been described as the “Half-Blood Prince” by VDARE author Steven Sailer; VDARE editor Peter Brimelow praises this as part of “Steve’s scholarly interest in racial differences.” VDARE’s Sailer has used the website for a litany of articles regarding race, including articles focusing on issues such as the IQ of black Americans, “white guilt,” “race denial,” endless articles on “minority mortgage meltdown,” “Anti-White Discrimination,” “Anti-White Populism,” and “On What The Census Bureau’s Projected White Minority Will Mean For America.” VDARE’s Sailer has called Barack Obama a “wigger,” and VDARE’s Peter Brimelow calls Sailer a “genius.”
VDARE’s Patrick Buchanan also spoke on October 31. On August 31, 2009 on the 70th anniversary of the beginning of World War II, VDARE’s Patrick Buchanan wrote an article on VDARE’s web site, arguing how misunderstood Adolf Hitler was, titled “70 Years After — Did Hitler Really Want War?” . Buchanan has used VDARE to defend accused Nazi John Demjanjuk, who is currently on trial in Germany for 27,900 counts of accessory to murder. Buchanan’s previous article that questions “Was World War II Worth It?” has been widely promoted by the Neo-Nazi Stormfront organization as well as by David Duke and others.
Individuals who were also reported to be part of the H L Mencken Club convention included: Patrick Deneen, Gene Edward Veith, E. Christian Kopff, James Kurth, Lee Congdon, Kevin Gutzman, George Csatary, John Derbyshire, Richard Spencer, Jeff Frazee, professor and VDARE contributor Paul Gottfried (Gottfried: “Did Pre-MLK America Really Need Redemption?”), and “Youth for Western Civilization” (YWC) leader Kevin DeAnna.
As Kevin DeAnna has previously claimed to not support racial supremacism, R.E.A.L. wrote Kevin DeAnna to confirm that he would not attend this event. DeAnna never replied.
Update: YWC’s Kevin DeAnna did speak at the H.L. Mencken conference in Baltimore.
The H. L. Mencken Club conference was co-sponsored by the Vienna, Virginia-based Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, which is also on the SPLC list of white nationalist hate groups.
The Fitzergerald Griffin Foundation prominently promotes the writing and work of Sam Francis, such as “Race and the American Prospect: Essays on the Racial Realities of Our Nation and Our Time,” and “Shots Fired.” (The writings of white nationalist Sam Francis are also promoted by the VDARE web site.) Sam Francis, who died in 2005, was notorious for his white nationalist views and also was chief editor for the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC). The CofCC, founded in Georgia, is not headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. White nationalist Jared Taylor, who is also promoted by VDARE, was a key speaker at the 2009 CofCC national convention.
See also:
— June 20, 2009: R.E.A.L. Protests McLean, Virginia Conference with VDARE Speaker Peter Brimelow
— WBBM CBS2 News reports: “Plainfield Family: Victims of Hate Crime? Bricks come crashing through the windows of a suburban family’s home. The family says it’s a hate crime, aimed at them because they’re black. The bricks had racial slurs on them. CBS 2’s Pamela Jones reports police agree it was racially motivated.”
Thirty years ago on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, five were killed as result of an armed attack by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi Party on a Communist street protest. The brazen, broad daylight murders resulted in the death of Communist protesters in the street, as armed members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party pulled rifles out of a caravan of automobiles and shot protesters to death. In 1980 and 1984, all-white juries acquitted the shooters of all criminal charges. To date, not a single person has served jail time for the Greensboro, North Carolina killings, despite the fact that the shootings were captured on film.
Film of the Greensboro November 3, 1979 shootings is available on YouTube. While incomplete, such film provides documentary evidence of the crimes. One YouTube video allegedly from the “North Carolina Truth Commission” shows the Communist protesters putting up posters calling for “Death to the Klan,” and then shows Communist protesters shouting “Death to the Klan,” while a caravan of automobiles goes by. The caravan drives past the protesters, appears to be harassed, then automobiles pull over, and men jump out start pulling guns out and shooting the protesters. A second French video on YouTube captures additional footage of the shootings by the Klan and the Nazis, as well as efforts by police to later come to the scene after the fact, and police findings of weapons in KKK automobiles. The second French video concludes with a “triumphant” rally by the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, North Carolina decrying way the Ku Klux Klan was portrayed on the “Jew tube,” and praising the efforts of the Klan in keeping “the apes from Africa” from protesting in Greensboro, North Carolina.
There has long been debate among some as to the intent and the nature of the Communist protesters in Greensboro, North Carolina. The facts remain that it does not matter what their intent, background, or beliefs were — whether they were saints or Stalins — they had the right to protest . Our universal human rights grant us freedom of speech that should ensure us the right to protest, no matter whether we are liked or disliked. For those who have felt this was not an atrocity against human rights because it was a Communist protest, they miss the point. Our universal human rights are universal. Those are truths that we hold self-evident. In addition, a nation of law must never tolerate those who murder in broad daylight.
Our condemnation of the acts of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party is no way a defense of Communism, Communist organizations, or those who call for violence. As the videos show, the Communist protesters called for “Death to the Klan.” Responsible, non-violent organizations know better than to call for “death,” even rhetorically. Moreover, multiple reports state that some of the Communist protesters may have kicked or struck passing automobiles, and some of the Communist protesters were also reportedly armed. None of this justifies members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party pulling out rifles and gunning down protesters in the street.
For the record, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) takes a critical view of Communism and its totalitarian practices around the world in seeking to deny our universal human rights. We have and will continue to protest and struggle against Communist totalitarianism. Moreover, I personally am aware of the history of Communist organizations attempting to sow discord and promote violence in America. In 1979, the year of the Greensboro massacre, I witnessed first-hand the discussions of Communists seeking to promote violence on college campuses as part of undercover research that I did for my investigative newspaper “The Voice,” while I was a student at the Pennsylvania State University. I have no illusions about Communist organizations.
But in our support for universal human rights in America and around the world, we support freedom of speech, even of what we don’t like and what we don’t agree with. We support freedom of protest. When protesters can be shot down in the street in broad daylight in America, and no one is convicted of a crime, we know that we have a problem. A very serious problem. And thirty years later, this injustice still has not been made right.
The Greensboro massacre remains a national disgrace for Americans that has been far too easily ignored. It is past time for our federal authorities to re-examine this case to see if other charges could not be pressed against those who would shoot down protesters in the street. The idea that members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party believed that they had a license to kill protesters is something that all Americans must reject. Ku Klux Klan members, such as the North Carolina KKK’s Virgil Griffin, would like Americans to “shut their mouth” about the Greensboro massacre. Moreover, the American Nazi Party continues to claim their innocence in the November 3, 1979 killings, while blaming them on the FBI. This same American Nazi Party is holding their own convention on November 7 in South Carolina and has been seeking to build relations with the Ku Klux Klan, claiming to be reaching thousands of Southerners.
Despite what the Klan and Nazis might like, not everyone is going to forget the Greensboro massacre, or forget the culpability of the Klan and Nazis in these broad daylight murders. In addition to our comments here and an article by Greenboro’s WFMY below, the Beloved Community Center in Greenboro, NC will be holding a three day conference to remember and find healing from November 4 through 7.
American racial supremacists are the disgrace to Americans that fascists are to Europeans and others in the world. It is no coincidence that the Klan and the Nazis then and now have worked so closely together.
We need to continue to send a message to the Ku Klux Klan and any other supremacist organization that seeks to undermine our universal human rights: we will refuse to be silent about injustice. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We need to send a message that we will continue to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
Thirty years is thirty years too long for justice.
Resources:
YouTube Video of Protest and Violence
— French Video with additional footage
November 3, 2009 WFMY reports : “30th Anniversary of Klan-Nazi Shooting:
— “Greensboro — November 3, 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of a tragic event in Greensboro’s history–the fatal shooting by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi”
— “On the morning of November 3, 1979, protesters from the Communist Workers Party began to assemble in the Morningside Homes community. The group gathered for a march, but it never left the corner of Everitt and Carver streets. At the time, a commission report said police were at least five blocks away.”
— “Gunfire erupted after members of the Klan and Nazi Party grabbed guns from two vehicles. Several protesters were shot. Cesar Cauce was hit with a club before being shot and killed. James Waller, Michael Nathan, William Sampson and Sandi Smith also died that morning. At least 10 others were wounded.”
— “In the aftermath, the shooters were acquitted of all criminal charges by all-white juries in 1980 and again in 1984. In 1985, a civil trial found members of the Greensboro Police Department were jointly liable with the Klan and Nazi members for the death of one victim.”
— “In the end, 30 years after five people were killed, no one served a single day in prison for the crimes. The only amount of justice paid was $350,000 in the civil suit.”
— “In June 2009, the Greensboro City Council issued a statement of regret about the incident. A portion of the statement reads, ‘We, the City Council of Greensboro, North Carolina value the rich diversity of our neighborhoods, celebrate both our similarities and differences as human beings, and pledge our support to help the community heal.’ ”
November 2, 2009 – Greensboro News-Record: “Take time attend events marking Nov. 3, 1979”
November 4 through 7 Conference on Greensboro Massacre
March 6, 2005 – Washington Post: “Seeking Closure on ‘Greensboro Massacre'”
University of North Carolina University Libraries: “November 3, 1979 – Greensboro Killings”
Wikipedia reports on “Greensboro massacre”
— “The marchers killed were: Sandi Smith, a nurse and civil rights activist; Dr. James Waller, president of a local textile workers union who had given up his medical practice to organize workers; Bill Sampson, a graduate of the Harvard University School of Divinity; Cesar Cause, an immigrant from Cuba who graduated magna cum laude from Duke University; and Dr. Michael Nathan, chief of pediatrics at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, NC, a clinic that helped children from low-income families.”
— “Hostility between the groups flared in July 1979 when protesters disrupted a screening of a pro-white supremacist film, “Birth Of A Nation”, by Ku Klux Klan members in China Grove, North Carolina. Taunts and inflammatory rhetoric were exchanged during the ensuing months. On November 3, 1979 a rally and march of industrial workers and Communists was planned in Greensboro against the Ku Klux Klan. The Death to the Klan March was to begin in a predominantly black housing project called Morningside Homes. Communist organizers publicly challenged the Klan to present themselves and ‘face the wrath of the people.’ During the rally, a caravan of cars containing Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects. A scuffle broke out, whereupon Klansmen and Nazis left their cars and opened fire with shotguns, rifles and pistols. Some marchers were armed and returned fire. Cauce, Waller, and Sampson were killed at the scene. Smith was shot between the eyes when she peeked from her hiding place. Eleven others were wounded. One of them, Dr Nathan, later died from his wounds. Much of the armed confrontation was filmed by four local news camera crews.”
History Channel Reports about the November 3, 1979 Violence:
— “Five members of the Communist Workers Party, participating in a ‘Death to the Klan’ rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, are shot to death by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis. Seven others were wounded.”
— “Members of the Communist Workers Party had organized the anti-Ku Klux Klan rally and march and were joined by a group of local African American mill workers. A caravan of cars carrying Klansmen and neo-Nazis arrived to disrupt the march, and videotape shows demonstrators initiating the violence by kicking and striking the Klan and Nazi vehicles. The Klansmen and Nazis then opened fire, shooting six demonstrators. The communists, who were carrying concealed weapons, then returned fire. When the gun battle ended, five demonstrators were dead or dying, and seven were wounded.”
— “In 1980, six Klan and Nazi members were put on trial on murder and rioting charges. During the trial, evidence came to light indicating that the Greensboro police, and perhaps the federal government, were aware of the probability of violence at the rally but did little to prevent it. Edward Dawson, a paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department and former FBI informer in the Klan, had helped plan the massacre and had notified the Greensboro police of the details, while Bernard Butkovich, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent undercover in the local branch of the American Nazi Party, had supplied some of the firearms used. When the scheduled time arrived for the Klansman and neo-Nazis to disrupt the march, the tactical squad from the Greensboro Police Department assigned to monitor the march was suspiciously absent.”
— “The six defendants were acquitted on all charges on the grounds that they had fired on the demonstrators in self-defense. In 1984, a federal trial likewise ended in acquittals. In 1985, a North Carolina jury found two Greensboro police officers, five Klansmen and Nazis, and Edward Dawson liable for the ‘wrongful death’ of one of the demonstrators who was killed and ordered them to pay nearly $400,000 in damages. The jury also ruled that there was no conspiracy between the Klan, local police, and the federal government to disrupt the rally or injure the protesters.”
April 14, 1984 — Acquittal in Greensboro
On April 14, 1984, the New York Times reported on the final acquittal in the attempt to press criminal charges stating that:
— “Five members of the Communist Workers Party attending an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally were killed in 1979 when Klan and Nazi toughs drove cars loaded with rifles to the meeting and fired on the demonstrators. A jury in state court, apparently accepting pleas of self-defense despite vivid newsreel film to the contrary, acquitted some Nazis and Klansmen of murder.”
— “Now a Federal court jury has acquitted them of any conspiracy to violate the demonstrators’ civil rights.”
— “The Justice Department, though often criticized for indifference to civil rights, strove valiantly to assert the demonstrators’ rights without embracing their cause. Failure of the Federal prosecution is a setback for the American principle of tolerating even hated ideas. Fortunately for American justice, it is not necessarily the final verdict on the Greensboro affair.”
— “However despised its doctrines, the small group of Communists should have been able to agitate in safety for them and for racial equality and against the Klan. The surprising lack of police protection for the rally gave rise to suspicions, still unresolved, of official connivance and inadequate control of a police informant. There was good reason to expect violence; that a few demonstrators were also armed hardly excuses the absence of police officers. The Workers Party adherents credit the Federal prosecutors with a good-faith effort but fault their superiors at Justice for drawing the indictment too narrowly. It charged the Klansmen and Nazis with racially motivated violence and interference with a racially integrated event. That left the defense free to argue that any violence was motivated not by racial attitudes but by political opposition to Communism. Though it belied a major part of the Klan’s heritage, this argument persuaded the all-white jury.”
Photograph Resources:
YouTube Video of Protest and Violence
— French Video with additional footage
Protesters Shot Photographs
Protesters Shot in the Street – Montage – 4 images
Protesters Shot in the Street – 2 images
WFMY Image of Victim – B&W
Man Shot on Front Lawn
Protesters Trying to Get Help for Man Shot on Lawn
Man with Blue Shirt Shot in the Street
Victim in the Grass
Klan – Nazi Gunmen Shooting Protesters in Broad Daylight Photographs
Montage of Gunmen in Action – November 3, 1979
Men Pulling Guns Out of Automobile Trunk
Men with Rifles Shooting Protesters
Another Man Being Shot (Protester on Left; Gunman on Right)
Image of Suspects Being Arrested After Shooting – No Convictions
Ku Klux Klan Post-Massacre Rally Triumphant
Ku Klux Klan Getting Ready for Their Rally
Ku Klux Klan Defends its Attack on Protesters
Florida: ‘KKK’ Carved into Florida Woman’s Door
— NWF Daily News Reports:’KKK’ found carved into door of DeFuniak home
— “A DeFuniak Springs woman and her son returned home early Saturday morning to find “KKK” carved into the front door of their Passion Flower Street home, according to a Walton County Sheriff’s press release.”
— “The victim, who is a white female, told deputies they left home about 3 p.m. on Friday and returned just after midnight, when they found the graffitti.”
— “Investigators are looking for clues into who might have carved the racial epithet into the door. The incident might be classified as a hate crime, the release said.”
Richmond, Virginia: Anti-hate rally responds to KKK hoax
The Commonwealth Times reports:
— “An anti-hate rally of about 30 protestors was led by two Richmond residents Friday in response to a publicized Imperial Klans of America and Ku Klux Klan rally to be held the same day in Kanawah Plaza.”
— “Rally organizer, Meredith Clark said she first became aware of plans for an Oct. 22 IKA and KKK rally, which turned out to be a hoax, when she was looking through the Rants and Raves listings on the social networking Web site Craigslist. Clark said she immediately contacted fellow rally organizer Lanaya Burnette.”
— ” ‘This is just something we felt really strongly about,’ Burnette said.”
— “Clark said Burnette called various Richmond public offices and news channels to find out if the IKA and KKK rally was a hoax but could not confirm whether it was. The debate went back and forth on the Web sites Facebook and Craigslist, where users posted their doubts or confirmed the event.”
— “Sam Austin, a political science major, said he suspected the event might have been a hoax but attended the anti-hate rally regardless.”
— ” ‘It happens a lot and that is sort of the reality of the Internet. People just sort of have to do the research,’ Austin said. ‘I wanted to be out here to support the opposition for that and say, ‘Hey, you have your right to be out here … but this is not a good thing for our country or city and we want to be here and show you we have a presence to and we are not going to let you come out here and spread your hate.’ ”
— “Racial disputes were sparked on Craigslist following the initial IKA and KKK rally posting. During the racial debate on Craigslist content was produced that violated the terms of use for the Web site.”
— ” ‘I am very grateful that I live in America and have the freedom of speech,’ Burnette said. ‘I prefer to use my freedom of speech to not hurt others. Be it in their hearts or slander them illegally, they have their right to say what they want to say but we have a right to say what we feel back. It is something that we all feel very strongly about regardless of which side you on.’ ”
— “Clark said the response to the alleged IKA and KKK rally was a powerful statement by the Richmond community.”
— “Burnette and Clark used Facebook to publicize their anti-hate rally and said they got a lot of feedback.”
— ” ‘If it is a hoax, great, because we can still stand here together peacefully and show the world that we do not agree with those kinds of ideologies anymore,’ Clark said.”
— “Nicholas DeFilippis, a political science major, was one of a small group of students who attended the rally.”
— ” ‘It is to be expected because this was the capital of the Confederacy,” DeFilippis said. ‘I do not think they should be allowed to do it because every time someone doing hate speech gets to have their say like Hitler or the government in Rwanda, something awful happens and they need to be opposed.’ “
