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Ku Klux
Klan
gets
green
light
for
pro-Confederate
flag
rally in
South
Carolina
By
Curtis
Skinner
Reuters
News
COLUMBIA,
SC - The
white
supremacist
Ku Klux
Klan has
received
approval
from
South
Carolina
officials
to hold
a
pro-Confederate
flag
rally at
the
state
capitol,
a
newspaper
reported
on
Monday,
less
than two
weeks
after a
white
man shot
dead
nine
people
in a
black
church.
The
suspect
in the
church
shooting,
21-year-old
Dylann
Roof,
has
confessed
to the
killing.
He had
previously
posted a
racist
manifesto
online
as well
as
photos
of him
posing
with a
Confederate
flag, a
Civil-War
era
banner
associated
with
slavery
and seen
by many
as a
symbol
of
racist
oppression.
The
shootings
on June
17, in
which
all nine
victims
were
black,
unleashed
shockwaves
across
the
United
States
and
triggered
calls
for
South
Carolina
to stop
displaying
the
Confederate
flag on
the
statehouse
grounds.
South
Carolina
Governor
Nikki
Haley
has
called
for the
flag's
removal,
and told
the Post
and
Courier
that she
did not
endorse
the
Klan's
planned
rally.
But
according
to the
newspaper,
the
South
Carolina
Budget
and
Control
Board
approved
an
application
filed by
the
"Loyal
White
Knights"
chapter
of the
Ku Klux
Klan for
a July
18 rally
in favor
of the
flag.
Budget
and
Control
Board
spokesman
Brian
Gaines
told the
newspaper
that
space to
demonstrate
was
provided
at the
site
when not
already
reserved.
The
state
capitol
is
located
in South
Carolina's
capital,
Columbia,
about
115
miles
(185 km)
northwest
of
Charleston,
home to
the
Emanuel
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church
where
the
shootings
occurred.
The
Southern
Poverty
Law
Center,
which
monitors
extremist
organizations,
lists
the
Loyal
White
Knights
as an
active
group
within
the
white
supremacist
Ku Klux
Klan.
With
roots
reaching
back to
the
Civil
War, the
Klan is
known
for its
white
robes
and
pointed
hoods
and for
its acts
of
violence
and
intimidation
against
African-Americans,
including
cross
burnings
and
killings.
An
answering
machine
for the
South
Carolina
chapter
referred
to Roof
as a
"warrior,"
according
to the
Post and
Courier.
Federal
authorities
said on
Monday
they are
investigating
a spate
of fires
at
predominantly
black
churches
across
the
southern
United
States,
though
so far
no link
between
the
incidents
has been
established.
In past
year,
race
relations
have
been
increasingly
under
the
spotlight
in the
United
States
amid
growing
anger
over
frequent
deaths
of
unarmed
black
men at
the
hands of
law
enforcement,
leading
to
demonstrations
and
occasional
unrest.
(Reporting
by
Curtis
Skinner
in San
Francisco;
Editing
by
Raissa
Kasolowsky)
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