In a joint statement to KARK, the mayor and Chamber of Commerce president and county judge said they have "taken community efforts to denounce racism on all fronts and we are committed to doing more. Don't miss a brief. Sign up for our daily email. Your Email. Contributors Become a Contributor. Dat's also when A'hs kin have da white girls, and da free food stamps. This is our Goal — This is our Hope! Duke's claim that the Knights were founded in by Ed White a pseudonym for Jim Lindsay has, however, been largely discredited as a propagandistic attempt by the budding Klan leader to fend off depictions of his group as an inconsequential upstart.
The group seems to have first appeared briefly in New Orleans in , with Duke billing himself grand dragon and Jim Lindsay grand wizard. But records show that the KKKK was not formally incorporated in Louisiana until , following Lindsay's murder, when Duke listed himself as founder and national director and his then-wife, Chloe, as secretary.
Duke's attempts to win over the old guard of Klan leaders, both by re-imagining the origins of his group and by reaching out early on to fellow "Klan brothers," belied his revolutionary plans. Famously calling on fellow Klansmen to "get out of the cow pasture and into hotel meeting rooms," Duke saw himself as the leader of a slick, new Klan which would captivate the public through political discourse, eschewing the violent methods of the past.
Duke thus brought the art of media manipulation to the Klan, wooing mainstream media personalities such as NBC host Tom Snyder and attracting dozens of reporters to write excited stories about the Knights' "Border Patrol" publicity stunt, a supposed effort to close the U.
Under Duke's management, the Knights opened its doors to women and Catholics while never giving up entirely on the view that women are, above all else, best utilized for producing white babies.
This all served to reinforce the public image of a more modern, educated Klan, an image that Duke reinforced by shunning Klan robes for suits and ties. Duke also revamped the Klan's particular brand of bigotry. No longer a mere horde of cross-burning minority-haters, the Knights, like many other American hate groups , became "Nazified" — focused on Jews rather than blacks as the primary enemy — with Duke spinning elaborate theories about everything from Jewish control of the Federal Reserve to a Jewish conspiracy behind the civil rights movement.
For a while, the Knights prospered, hosting in one of the largest Klan gatherings in decades in Walker, La. By , Duke had built membership in the KKKK to an estimated 1,, with another 10, non-member supporters.
Duke and his tactics were arguably the catalyst for the Knights' growth, but the egocentric leader also posed a constant threat to his group. With a GoPro strapped to his chest under his shirt, out of view to his subjects, and a lapel mic on his body, Rob Bliss, 31, stood on the side of the road in Harrison, Arkansas, with his handmade poster. Harrison is miles north of the capital Little Rock.
Bliss, a content creator from Los Angeles, is known for producing viral video campaigns on social issues. In , he worked on a project showcasing what 10 hours of street harassment in New York City looked like for women, which was criticized at the time for only featuring minorities and little to no White individuals. In , Bliss created a fundraising video featuring a homeless veteran receiving a makeover. In his latest project, Bliss said he strung together an edited video compilation of what he believes is a raw look and reminder of just how prevalent racism remains in pockets of the country.
Read More. That's why he decided to travel to Harrison -- a town "known for its struggle with race and White pride billboards," he said. That, coupled with the fact that it is just outside of the home to the national headquarters of the KKK. Three days of hearing from residents. The two minute video was posted on Monday and begins with Bliss holding his sign in front of a billboard on the side of a busy highway in Harrison.
It says "For the Family" with a picture of what appears to be a family and a cross next to it, with the websites WhitePrideRadio.
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