Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Rights?
By PageTurner
@PageTurner (2825)
United States
June 28, 2012 7:09pm CST
Hello
Earlier this month in the State of Georgia (USA), The International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan applied to adopt a one mile stretch of highway 515 about a mile from the Georgia-North Carolina border, in Union County, Georgia.
Georgia has had the Adopt a Highway program for 20 years. This program invites civic organizations, businesses, or even families to adopt a stretch of highway and then to take care to remove all litter from that section of highway. In exchange for the group maintaining the highway, the group who adopts the highway is provided advertising by the State of Georgia in the form of a sign on the side of the highway stating who has adopted this section of highway (see sample photograph below.)
Within 48 hours of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan application, Georgia's Department of Transportation, the authority responsible for Georgia's Adopt A Highway program, rejected their application, stating that the Group had a "long history of civil disturbance [that] would cause a significant public concern. Impacts include safety of the traveling public, potential social unrest, driver distraction, or interference with the flow of traffic. These potential impacts are such that were the application granted, the goal of the program, to allow civic-minded organizations to particiapte in the public service for the State of Georgia, would not be met."
April Chambers, secretary for The International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, says, "All we want to do is adopt a highway. We're not doing it for publicity. We're doing it to keep the mountains beautiful. People throwing trash out on the side of the road...that ain't right."
Chambers also says, "We're not racists. We just want to be with white people. If that's a crime, then I don't know. It's all right to be black and Latino and proud, but you can't be white and proud. I don't understand it."
Currently, the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, is helping The International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in its bid to join Georgia's highway clean up program, based on 1st Amendment rights. The ACLU has said that it's working on its strategy to aid the KKK in this endeavor.
What are your thoughts on this?
2 people like this
4 responses
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
29 Jun 12
There will be a civil war, I believe if they are allowed to adopt a highway. They have a history of burning crosses, lynching blacks, tarring and feathering, and otherwise killing blacks. They also beat up wife beaters of the white persuasion, I've been told, so maybe they are an equal opportunity hate group.
No, they shouldn't be allowed to adopt a highway, but they will probably take it to the supreme court to win their right to do it. I wouldn't feel safe to drive on those roads if they do win the right to adopt a road. I can see them hiding and laying in wait for unsuspecting black folks.
They say they are just a political group now... but they are a hate group. No matter how you slice it, they are racist. I bet they wouldn't invite a black person to eat at their dining room table... as they said.. they want to only be with whites, which intimates they don't want to be with blacks.
2 people like this
@PageTurner (2825)
• United States
29 Jun 12
It is definately an inflammatory issue, PointlessQuestions.
1 person likes this
@psychoartist (756)
• United States
29 Jun 12
bahahahahahahahah! that's a good one stowyk....ironic humor...
2 people like this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
29 Jun 12
They will probably win this issue simply due to a political issue... they are a political group (trying to change their image...not) and they will say they are no different than any other group wanting to adopt a highway... so I see them winning, but I really feel they don't deserve it. They've done too much damage in the past. Dragging people to their deaths, hangings and so forth. There are lots of business people who are in the KKK under cover... I remember seeing them exposed on TV.
2 people like this
@ajk111 (2495)
•
29 Jun 12
Everyone has freedom of speech whether we agree with it or not. The question may perhaps be that should a decent sense of morality be the deciding factor on the application.
I see no legal reason to prevent the KKK having a billboard but i would also suggest that everyone saves thier trash for that stretch of the highway and then toss everything out your windows.
@PageTurner (2825)
• United States
29 Jun 12
Everyone throw their rhubbish on that stretch of highway?!!
BRILLIANT!!
I find it somewhat humorous that you are suggesting 'a decent sense of morality be the deciding factor on the application.' I don't think this has been a part of USA politics for quite some time, ajk111.
1 person likes this
@urbandekay (18278)
•
7 Jul 12
I may not agree with what any particular group may say, and in this case I do not, but still I would defend their right to say it. That it is unpleasant, odious or disturbing is the price of liberty
all the best urban
2 people like this
@sleepincot (31)
• United States
29 Jun 12
I think that the Ku Klux Klan can apply as much as they want but anyone with a brain will see what their truen intentions are. So let them apply as much as they want, and get rejected by the state. It is outrageous letting a terrorist group adopt a highway to spread more hate.