The Klu Klux Klan are looking for a few good racists.
The hate group with a dwindling enrollment has taken to distributing fliers doorto-door in an effort to bring in new members. A number of communities across the south have reported that members of the white nationalist group have dropped off advertisements, some of them tied to a piece of candy.
The latest efforts took place in Alabama, where a Missouri-based Klu Klux Klan group dropped off single sheets of paper advertising themselves.
Frank Ancona, Imperial Wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, said the efforts aren’t any different than what other membership-based organizations are doing to bring in new members.
“Colleges recruit students, churches recruit new members, police department recruit new officers, recruiting is the life blood of an organization,” Ancona said. “The Klan has been here more than 150 years, we have been recruiting not only in Alabama, but Georgia and Florida as well. The fliers spell out what we stand for and what type of people we want to attract.”
But residents are angry. Many in neighborhoods from Arkansas to Georgia have complained about the KKK’s recruiting efforts, and the FBI has taken notice as well.
Rumors of a KKK rally in Alabama last week got the attention of the feds, who investigated reports that the Klan planned a cross burning near the community of Adamsville.
Though police said they believe the reports were bogus — and indeed no rally ended up happening — they were cautious just in case.
“We don’t think it’s going to happen but we’re going to act like it is,” said Adamsville Police Chief R.W. Carter. “I don’t expect anything, but I will be prepared.”
But some experts say the Klu Klux Klan recruiting efforts are a sign of the group in decay. Membership in the hate group has fallen sharply in the past few decades, with only a few scattered groups remaining largely concentrated in the deep south.
[Image Credit: Klu Klux Klan]
