MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “Here they come,” someone shouted, standing in the rain in the fenced-in and heavily guarded protest area set up here more than 100 yards from where the Ku Klux Klan was beginning its controversial rally Saturday on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse.

“I can’t see them,” someone else said, climbing on his tiptoes. “They’re too many cops in the way.”

The police presence was indeed overwhelming and the rain steady as the Klan arrived at the courthouse steps at 2:15, about 45 minutes late on the day before Easter. But from the city-designated protest area it was impossible to hear them and nearly impossible to see them except for the tops of their pointy white hoods. ( continue to full post… )

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Pay no attention to that man beneath the sheet.

Do not go downtown to listen to his wicked words. Do not heckle or protest his presence. He is not worth it. His time has passed. He has no teeth.

That’s the message of the city of Memphis as it faces a trying day.

On Saturday – Easter eve – the Ku Klux Klan is scheduled to hold a “mass” rally here to protest the city’s recent decision to rename three Confederate-themed parks, including one honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, the wealthy slave trader and ruthless Rebel cavalry lieutenant general, who became the first national leader of the KKK. But as the general’s modern day Klan kin rant and rave on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse, local political, religious and business leaders hope everyone else in town – except for a huge contingent of police officers in riot gear – is more than five miles away at a hastily organized counter-event called the Heart of Memphis. It is scheduled to be an all-day affair at the fairgrounds with food, music, an Easter egg hunt and several panels on improving race relations in this Mississippi River city of more than 600,000 residents, 63% of whom are African-American. ( continue to full post… )

Check out the story of the Klansmen and the Crip.

A Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard in Alabama and an African-American Crips street gang member in Memphis, Tenn., say they are teaming up to organize a counter-protest against the Klansman’s fellow hooded haters, who vow to hold “one of the biggest KKK rallies of all time” on March 30 in the Mississippi River city where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

The Klan rally is a protest of an earlier decision by the city council to rename three Memphis parks that honored the Confederacy, including one named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is organizing the rally and says Klansmen from across the country are expected to attend.

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Don Black needs money – bad.

It’s gotten to the point that the former Ku Klux Klan leader and founder of Stormfront – the largest neo-Nazi web forum – is begging for pennies. To no avail, though. With February coming to a close, Black hasn’t raised even half of the $7,500 he needs to pay his monthly bill for server space to keep Stormfront up and running.

But his panhandling hasn’t gone unnoticed. ( continue to full post… )

It began about two weeks ago, when a local television station in Memphis, Tenn., allowed a man with a hooded face, identifying himself only as “Edward” and speaking on what was apparently his own rear deck, to announce to the world that he would soon be bringing “thousands” of Klansmen to a protest with no date.

From there, the thin little tale morphed into something of a national story about what is being characterized as “one of the biggest KKK rallies of all time.” Articles have run in New York City newspapers and even abroad about the event, now planned for March 30 while officials weigh the Klan’s permit application, and national TV networks are considering covering it. Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong is asking for help from local and federal law enforcement agencies. The NAACP has decried the event, and a local university art professor created a 600-member Facebook page called “Challenging the Klan’s Message.”

But is the rally — which is a protest of an earlier decision to rename three Memphis parks that honored the Confederacy, including one named after the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan — really going to be that big? Not even remotely likely. It would be a surprise if the event drew 40 Klansmen, and it will likely be considerably fewer than that. ( continue to full post… )

A Ku Klux Klan leader in North Carolina, who once boasted about building a 50-pound bomb to kill a local sheriff, will spend 15 years in federal prison after a 12-year pursuit by prosecutors.

Charles Robert “Junior” Barefoot Jr., 50, of Benson, N.C., was sentenced Wednesday in Raleigh by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle. Barefoot, who headed a klavern of the Church of the National Knights of the KKK, was convicted in September on six counts of weapons and explosives violations. ( continue to full post… )

The public foreclosure sale of property that was to be a new Aryan Nations and Ku Klux Klan compound in North Idaho is set for Jan. 14, court records show. The foreclosure will mean eviction for white supremacist Shaun P. Winkler, his wife and their small child, along with a small band of their racist associates who have been living on the site, unless they can come up with almost $70,000 by the scheduled sale date.

Winkler and his wife bought the land in Bonner County in early 201l, hoping to use the site to replicate the former Aryan Nations compound in adjoining Kootenai County. The buildings at the Kootenai County site were razed and the property turned into a cow pasture more than a decade ago, after it was sold in the wake of a court judgment against Aryan Nations, its late leader and several followers. Details of Winkler’s plans for his land are contained in an article in the most recent issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s  Intelligence Report, which was released on Tuesday. ( continue to full post… )

Four of five self-proclaimed anarchists – calling themselves the Revolutionary People’s Party – have now confessed to involvement in a conspiracy in late April to use C-4 explosives to blow up an interstate highway bridge near Cleveland. ( continue to full post… )

One of five self-proclaimed anarchists has pleaded guilty to three federal “weapons of mass destruction” charges in a conspiracy to blow up a bridge, a Ku Klux Klan gathering spot and a Federal Reserve Bank in Ohio.

Anthony M. Hayne, 35, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and malicious use of an explosive device to destroy property used in interstate commerce.

Hayne entered his pleas before U.S. District Judge David Dowd in Cleveland and agreed to testify against the other defendants. Prosecutors said he could have received life in prison, but under the plea deal he could lower his sentence to 15 to 19 years. No date for sentencing was set. ( continue to full post… )

Five self-proclaimed anarchists are in federal custody in Cleveland for taking steps to blow up a highway bridge after discussing bombing other targets, including a Ku Klux Klan gathering spot and a Federal Reserve bank.

The arrests came Monday evening after three members of the group “planted what they thought were two C-4 based explosive devices” at the base of the Route 82 bridge crossing from Brecksville to Sagamore Hills over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, south of downtown Cleveland, the FBI said in a statement.

Court documents say the planned act of terrorism was intended to coincide with May 1 antigovernment, anti-establishment protests planned today in Cleveland and other U.S. cities. But there does not appear to be any connection with any international terrorist groups or the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. ( continue to full post… )