A local chapter of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Georgia made headlines this week when it was revealed that the International Keystone Knights of the KKK filed an application to “adopt” a one-mile stretch of highway in Union County.
But now we learn from a state official who talked to CNN on condition of anonymity as the “official was not authorized to speak on the record”, that KKK’s application will not be accepted.
Under the “Adopt a Highway” program, private individuals or organizations volunteer to clean portions of a road for a specified period of time and in exchange, they are allowed to have their name posted on a sign.
The news outlet said that KKK’s chapter has not yet responded to the news but it had previously said that if its application was rejected, it would approach the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We’re not doing it for publicity. We’re doing it to keep the mountains beautiful. People throwing trash out on the side of the road … that ain’t right,” April Chambers, the local chapter’s secretary, told CNN on Monday.
“We’re not racists,” she continued. “We just want to be with white people. If that’s a crime, then I don’t know. It’s all right to be black and Latino and proud, but you can’t be white and proud. I don’t understand it.”
This is not the first time that a Ku Klux Klan chapter has applied to adopt a highway, though in case of a similar request in Missouri, the matter went to federal court, which ruled that the state could not block the KKK from taking part in the program.
Nevertheless, the Missouri Department of Transportation later on removed the KKK from the program on the grounds that its members were not picking up the litter.
Photo Union County, GA from Google Maps