Once again, KKK uses fliers to recruit in central NC

Ku Klux Klan members have started another flier recruitment drive in central North Carolina - this time in Johnston County.

Posted 2:21 a.m. Jun 30, 2015 — Updated 2:43 p.m. Jun 30, 2015

GARNER, N.C. — Ku Klux Klan members have started another flier recruitment drive in central North Carolina – this time in Johnston County.

In 2014, the group, calling themselves the “Loyal White Knights,” tossed fliers onto front lawns in Broadway, Spring Lake and Sanford. Black crime and minority tyranny were used to convenience the reader to join “the white revolution” and restore the country to a “white Christian nation.”

This year, the same group is using a flier claiming that “a vote for Jeb Bush is a vote for open borders and for an accelerated browning of America.” The flier, which includes a picture of the presidential candidate, also urges the reader to join and “save Americans jobs” and “stop the freeloading now.”

Bush has a Mexican-born wife, speaks fluent Spanish – doing so during his campaign announcement – and has lived in Mexico and Venezuela. He was popular with Spanish-speaking voters while serving two terms as governor of Florida.

Residents in the Adams Point neighborhood found the fliers on their yards and driveways Monday morning.

“I’m not fearful, and that's what perhaps this is all about, trying to cause people to become fearful,” resident Eddie Davis said.

Shawn Stroud didn’t see the flier in his driveway, neatly folded inside a plastic bag and weighed down with rocks, until a reporter pointed to it.

“It doesn't make any sense,” he said. “It's trying to link Jeb Bush with the KKK. I think it's probably ridiculous. It specifically mentions Hispanics. So I don't get it. It's trash to me.”

Alphonsus Ngwadom may use the flier he received for an in-class discussion.

"Actually, my students would have fun discussing this because it's a mixture of all races, people from different walks of life and backgrounds," said Ngwadom, a professor of race relations at Mount Olive College.

Others saw the flier as a minor diversion.

“I think that the neighbors are beyond fear and falling for distortions such as these,” Davis said.

No one answered the phone number on the flier early Monday evening, but a voicemail greeting stated that America needs to “wake up and smell the coffee” and elaborated on, among other things, the Confederate flag, slave ships, African-Americans and Jews.

At about 10:30 p.m., James Spears, a member of the group returned a reporter's phone call. Spears said the organization will continue to distribute fliers throughout the country until July 1 – and that the KKK isn't a hate group, but standing up for the white race.

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