By Heather Michon, correspondent
Residents along James Madison Highway and Route 6 say they recently found an unwelcome surprise at their homes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: recruitment fliers from the Ku Klux Klan.
Images of one of the flyers were posted on a local social media group on Monday (Jan. 21). Headlined “African Culture Your Are Not Taught” [sic], the racist and anti-Semitic text covered both sides of a sheet of paper and included links to the website for the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (LWK).
The flyers were placed in plastic bags weighted with birdseed or small stones. Some were found in yards and driveways, while others landed in roadside ditches.
According to the watchdog Anti-Defamation League, the LWK formed in North Carolina in 2011. They are believed to have about 100 active members.
About 50 LWK members protested around the Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville on July 8, 2017, just a month before the violent Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally.
The group frequently uses leafletting campaigns as a recruitment tool. Similar literature has been distributed in rural communities and small towns and cities all over the region.
In a statement released by the Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Office late Tuesday (Jan. 22), Capt. David Wells said, “At this point there is no information as to who physically distributed the materials and it appears to be a random act of hate.”
“The sheriff’s office strongly denounces the hateful wording in the material and all bigotry,” he continued. “However, the wording itself is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.”
Wells said the sheriff’s office was in communication with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office to see if the flyers were delivered in a manner that violated any criminal laws, should the individuals ever be found.
