By Chris Valley

The white robes and pointed hoods are familiar. You have seen them in history books when you were a high school student. But this isn’t a picture in a history book. This is College Park, Georgia. And this is 1983.

“Klan activity in Georgia between 1981 and August 1982 increased 300%,” says Evelyn Newman, office manager for the National Anti-Klan Network which is headquartered in Atlanta.

The National Anti-Klan Network is a national clearinghouse for information on Klan activity. Organized in 1979, the Network is a loose group of organizations which have come together because of common concern about the increase in KKK activity. It provides an avenue through which affiliated organizations can know of activities to counter the KKK, and can participate in coalitions to combat the KKK in particular local situations.

“The Klan cannot be ignored,” maintains Lyn Wells, director of the Network. “They exploit local issues and polarize whites and blacks, non-foreigners and foreign-born. They are highly organized and skillful.”

Forty-one counties in Georgia have active KKK groups. The majority are in North Georgia. All three of the major Klan factions are represented in Georgia: the Invisible Empire-Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; the new Order of Knights (headquartered in Marietta); and the United Klans of America.

“Klan groups are actively recruiting teenage youths into the Klan Youth Corps. Students already in the Klan Youth Corps selectively approach other students, inviting them to Klan rallies,” notes Ms. Newman.

In Georgia, KKK groups often focus on interracial families and foreign-born workers. The Klan has been implicated in at least one murder, several beatings, the driving of a black youth out of two county school systems, and threats and harassment of hundreds of Georgians, according to Ms. Newman.

“A white woman with a racially mixed child in Gwinnett County was recently visited by Klansmen who left a card which read, ‘We’ve paid you a social visit. Next time it will be a business visit.’ In Haralson County an interracial couple’s home was broken into, and the black husband was beaten. Neighborhoods in DeKalb County have been leafleted by Klansmen. The leaflets read in part, ‘White Man! What does it take to make you fight?’” Ms. Newman said.

Steve Brazen, executive assistant at Catholic Social Services and a member of the Georgia State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, contends there has been a dramatic increase in violations of civil rights and acts of intimidation in Georgia in recent years. Brazen notes, “This activity is directed against blacks, foreign-born, and Jews in particular.”

There appears to be a growing sentiment of anti-Catholicism in parts of the state, evidenced in distribution of anti-Catholic comic books and sermons of some ministers. “Latent fears of minorities on the part of the general population in an area are exacerbated by Klan activity,” says Brazen.

Members of the National Anti-Klan Network often confront the KKK where they are most active. The Network held a press conference recently in Clayton County at which victims spoke of KKK violence. When the Klan organized a roadblock at an intersection in Troup County where they tried to collect funds and to recruit new members, the Network organized volunteers to pass out literature and talk about the Klan on an opposite street corner.

Less dramatic, but perhaps more long-lasting, is the educational work of the Network before Klan activity is evident in a community. “Alerting people to the threat of the KKK prepares them to demand that law enforcement officials act against the Klan,” says Ms. Wells. The network provides speakers for church, civic or school groups. It has literature for distribution and films available at a nominal rental fee. The Network needs volunteers to help with office work as well as with direct educational action. Network staff can be reached by calling 404-221-0025, or writing them at Post Office Box 10500, Atlanta, Georgia 30310.

“We believe the best method of combating the Klan is to build a broad-based response,” notes Lyn Wells. “Unfortunately, most people won’t do anything until the Klan is already visible in their own community.