Durham's Anti-Klan Block Party
DURHAM, N.C.—Friday started inauspiciously in the Bull City. A crowd of activists arrived at the Durham County Courthouse early in the morning to express solidarity with four people who had their first appearance in court, facing charges for pulling down a Confederate statue. A rumor circulated: The Ku Klux Klan was planning to head into town in response to the statue’s removal.
A group huddled outside the courthouse, planning strategy: Come at noon. Make sure there’s a critical mass of counter-demonstrators to stare down anyone who comes. Bring a gas mask if you can. There was even speculation that militiamen—two sunglass-and-hat-wearing men peeking over the parapet of a parking garage across the street—were already casing out the area. (They turned out to be sheriff’s deputies.)
A KKK march isn’t an idle threat, even though the Old North State isn’t the Klan country it once was when a billboard outside Smithfield welcomed visitors on behalf of a hooded, mounted Klansman. There is a KKK chapter in Pelham, North Carolina, about an
