RALEIGH — The streets of Downtown Raleigh are a lot quieter today than they were a week ago when Ku Klux Klan members from across the South gathered for a rally on the courthouse steps of this small Mississippi community.

The town is now what locals describe as “back to normal” and “the way things are suppose to be.”

“What we saw here Saturday is nothing like Raleigh,” said Allen Baggett, owner of Raleigh Diner & Cafe, located across the street from the courthouse. “Raleigh is a nice, quiet town.

“It’s a unique kind of place. Everybody respects one another. We don’t have a problem between blacks and whites here. It’s just these outsiders who came in tried to stir up things.”

According to Smith County Sheriff Charlie Crumpton, on Oct. 17, about 60 or 70 Klan members participated in the event. “I counted 48 in robes and there were another 10 to 15 in the audience,” he said from his Sheriff’s Department office, located directly behind the courthouse on Highway 35.

“First of all, there was no march,” he continued. “They gathered at the courthouse and gave speeches.”

As Crumpton sat behind his desk, recapping the incident he wishes never happened, he said there was actually one individual who had to do a little marching. The man and his wife illegally parked their vehicle just south of the courthouse.

“The man had gotten out of the vehicle at the place where they were parked,” Crumpton explained. “But when he went back to the spot after everything was over, he discovered that his wife was asked to move the vehicle.

“She parked at First Baptist Church, which was about 50 yards away,” added Crumpton. “I wasn’t about to give him a ride to his vehicle, so he had to march from the south end of town to the north end of town where his wife had parked.”



Why Raleigh?

Crumpton, like many in this town with a population of about 1,300, are upset about the Klan’s presence in their community. No one seemed to know who the group was, why they were there or why they chose Smith County.

“I really don’t know, but I heard they were here to talk about Mexicans who were working here illegally,” said Raleigh resident Misty Troney. “They also wanted to talk about interracial marriage and that people shouldn’t be unequally yoked.

“They were just throwing out a lot of racist crap. We don’t need talk like that here in Raleigh.”

On Stormfront.org, a White Supremacist Web site, a post dated in the forum link, last edited Jan. 8, 2009, stated that “The Mississippi White Knights will hold a rally at the Smith County courthouse in Raleigh, Mississippi on Saturday, October 17th. A crosslighting and fellowship will be held on private property that evening. The agenda will be illegal immigration and sex offenders. The crosslighting will be dedicated to the memory of Kathy Ainsworth, who was buried in neighboring Simpson County.”

Ainsworth, a former Mississippi school teacher and Klan member, was killed on June 30, 1968 when the home of Meyer Davidson was bombed in Meridian. The FBI was blamed for the bombing of the home of the Anti-Defamation League leader. Ainsworth, who was pregnant with her first child, was killed and former Klansman, Timmy Tarrants was injured.

Stormfront.org also noted the Oct. 17 rally was supported by the Southern Alliance of Knights (SAK). SAK members are listed as Mississippi White Knights, Georgia Knight Riders, United White Knights of Louisiana, Traditional Christian Knights, Master Klans of America, Oklahoma Klans Invisible Empire, Great Tennessee Knights, Tennessee Knight Riders, International Knights Realm of Alabama, South Mississippi Knights, Missouri Knight Riders and Texas Rebel Brigade.

“I don’t know who these people were or why they came, but I wanted to tell them to go home,” said Elaine Slusher, owner of J & W Discount Foods in Downtown Raleigh. “They were spreading a lot of hate, but God doesn’t see color. He looks at the heart, not at the outward appearance.

“I love everybody and that’s the way God wants all of us to be. If we plan on living with Him in heaven, we’d better get things straight down here. There is only one heaven and one hell, for that matter.”



A race issue?

While Slusher, Troney and others in the community were quick to bring up racism and comments the Klan made against blacks, newspaper reporter Sherry Soelman, who covered the rally for the Smith County Reformer (Raleigh’s weekly newspaper), said the Klan never addressed the “black-white issue.”

“To my surprise, they were very methodical in what they did,” said Soelman. “They never mentioned anything to do with black people.”

She noted that various speakers got up and talked about sex offenders, illegal Mexican immigrants who are causing a decrease in American benefits and the right to bear arms.

“There were quite a few cars there from other states, but I remember the first speaker was from Mississippi,” continued Soelman. “The second speaker was from Georgia.”

Raleigh Mayor Bobbie Dale Maddox recalled a man identifying himself as, “Mr. Todd from Myrtle, Mississippi” calling him a few days before the rally to inform him the group would be in the town. “I don’t even know where Myrtle is.”

Maddox said he told Mr. Todd there would be no marching in Raleigh, but he couldn’t prevent them from speaking. He was informed that he would be in violation of the group’s right to “freedom of speech.”

“People have said I gave them a permit, but I didn’t give anyone a permit,” added the mayor. “They didn’t need a permit to speak because we don’t have any ordinances in place to govern things like that.

“We didn’t want these people in our city at all, but we found out that we couldn’t prevent it. We couldn’t violate their right to freedom of speech.”

Crumpton added that he, as well as the county attorney, contacted the State Attorney General’s office and were told the same thing. The sheriff’s main concern was the manpower it would take to keep everything under control.

“We are a small department and if a large crowd gathered, like it usually does when these types of rallies occur, I knew we wouldn’t be able to handle it,” he said. “I wanted to find a way to stop it.”

Instead, the sheriff said he was told that as long as the rally was held on a non-business day, the group had every right to hold the rally at the courthouse. “We could stop them, but in return we would have to face a big lawsuit,” he said. “We had no other choice.”



‘Things got a bit wild’

Since he was faced with the inevitable, Crumpton had five sheriff’s deputies, four Raleigh police officers and 25 to 30 members of the Mississippi Highway Patrol in riot gear monitoring the rally. The decision proved to be a wise one. A group opposed to the KKK’s presence showed up.

“About an hour and 20 minutes into what was scheduled to be a two-hour long event, things got a bit wild,” said Crumpton. “We had a little disturbance, but no licks were passed.

“It was more like a shouting match,” he explained. “Both sides were going after each other pretty good.”

Soelman said people took offense to the fact that during the rally, the Klan prayed after each speaker. “Someone yelled: ‘God’s not listening to you,” she said. “The heckling began and things blew up from there.”

The next thing she remembers is law enforcement officials running in and separating the groups. Nobody was hurt, but someone could have been, Soelman said.

Both Soelman and Baggett said the law enforcement team did a wonderful job in keeping things under control. “I am so proud of how the sheriff handled things,” added Baggett.

Raleigh native Sherman Page, who now lives in nearby Sylvarena, is glad things turned out as well as they did, too. However, he thinks residents should have been notified the group was coming to town.

“I don’t like the fact that they were allowed to come here,” he said. “As a black man, I do believe that if it would have been a black group coming into Raleigh with something like that, they would have been arrested.

“I just didn’t like the way things were handled at all.”

Raleigh resident Melissa Walker agreed: “I’m just so upset I don’t have words to explain it. Why they didn’t tell us about this, I just don’t know. It’s just not right. Not right at all.”

Ella Black was also concerned the public wasn’t informed prior to the rally taking place.

“It came as quite a shock to see them here,” said Black. “ I’ve lived here, all my life, for 63-years and I’ve never seen the Klan in action before. I think one of the reasons they came is because the white and black kids in community are dating each other now. I just hope we can put all of this behind us and return to the way we were.”