Residents in a predominantly black South Carolina neighborhood say flyers have been distributed from people who claim they are with the Ku Klux Klan.
Local news outlets report the flyers from the "Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" showed up last week in a community in North Charleston. It reads in part, "Neighborhood Watch. You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake." It includes a sketch of a hooded Klansman and a finger pointed toward the reader.
KKK flyers target predominantly black North Charleston neighborhood. http://t.co/HNGvwugNw4 pic.twitter.com/nmKhUlFCYi— dave munday (@dmunday) July 14, 2015
@dmunday creepy. I wonder how many people will troll that phone number... #opkkk— Dale Tyler (@potheadgoatdale) July 14, 2015
the KKK put recruiting flyers on cars in the waylyn ?? lmao they must not know the area very well.— courtney. (@_neverJaded) July 15, 2015
The flyers appeared less than three weeks after nine people were shot to death at a historic black church in nearby Charleston. A 21-year-old white man has been charged in those murders.
Veachie Williams, who lives nearby, told ABC News 4 that while she hasn't seen the flyers, she is afraid because of the KKK's violent history against black people in the south.
"The flag is down. Let's everybody just move on. Let our hearts, you know, get rid of the pain and let's do something productive and not this silly stuff of whatever they're trying to do, the KKK or whatever," she said.
Anthony Grant, a 51-year-old resident of the neighborhood, told the Post and Courier that he's noticed "unfamiliar whites" walking the streets with cameras in recent weeks. He guesses that their presence is linked to the flyers. Regardless, he said he would rather focus on peace than hate.
“We’re not going to do the violence thing,” Grant told the Post and Courier. “We’re not going there. You have to be the better person. ... There’s too many people losing their lives — too many people dying. Enough is enough.”