2014

2015

The Imperial Wizard of a Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is asking the city of Laurel for a fee-exempt permit to host a rally later this summer, the Laurel-Leader Call reported Tuesday morning.

The United Dixie White Knights of Mississippi is billing the rally as a “First Amendment Rally.” They hope to take a stand against the federal government — especially when it comes to immigration and gay rights.

“All of us — black and white — need to wake up or we’ll all be picking cotton for the brown man,” Waller said. Yes, the KKK is now concerned about the indignity of picking cotton.

When the Leader-Call teased the story on its Facebook page on Memorial Day, there was no shortage of responses from Jones County residents who oppose the KKK. But there was a dishearteningly high number of residents cheering the Klan on.

“You people are blind. Can’t you see they all — black and brown — [are] killing our race and mixing our young ones — making us almost extinct?” wrote Leon King. “Honestly, go to Walmart — go anywhere — and you all will see our race is coming to an end. I don’t understand how you can be so two face[d]. I know so many people who . . . behind closed doors talk ’bout what they believe in, but out in the open, oh, just hide who they are and just hide away and watch as this world falls apart”

Bryan Hicks was more nuanced in his critique of the Klan. “The booth selling pigs-in-a-blanket was delicious last time. Really good and...