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June 18, 2021 11:56 am
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Ku Klux Klan Fanatics Distribute Antisemitic, Homophobic Flyers Targeting School Board in Virginia

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avatar by Ben Cohen

The “Loyal White Knights” of the Ku Klux Klan brandishing confederate flags and white supremacist symbols at a 2012 demonstration. Photo: courtesy of ADL

Police in Virginia are investigating a series of violently antisemitic and homophobic flyers targeting a local school board that were distributed by a white supremacist group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Flyers denouncing the school board in Fairfax, Va., as “Jew-inspired, communist, qu*er-loving sex fiends violating the words of the Holy Bible” were discovered on Wednesday, ahead of the board’s meeting on Thursday night. The flyers carried the insignia of the “Loyal White Knights,” one of several groups around the country that compose the organized KKK movement, along with the warning that “Yahweh is Watching!”

Members of the school board spoke out about the flyers during their meeting on Thursday night, local news outlet WTOP reported.

“Those messages were targeted to all of us up here on this dais,” Springfield District representative Laura Jane Cohen said. “No matter where we come from, no matter what we look like, the hate was equally distributed to every one of us up here tonight.”

In a statement, Guila Franklin Siegel — associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington — noted “the particular insidiousness of targeting a district that is represented by a Jewish school board member who has been subjected to antisemitic rhetoric on previous occasions.”

“Our leaders should not have to endure threats of this kind and such virulent hate has no place in our community,” Siegel continued.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the “Loyal White Knights” (LWK) is based in Pelham, North Carolina, and is “the largest and the most active Klan group in the country with approximately 100 members.”

The LWK is led by Christopher Barker, whose lengthy arrest record includes alcohol related offenses, assault, domestic battery, threats and weapons violations. During Barker’s frequent absences in prison, the LWK is run by his wife, Amanda Barker, the ADL report on the group observed.

Distributing racist and antisemitic flyers is now a core KKK activity, with dozens of incidents reported to the ADL and other groups each year. “The Loyal White Knights are by far the most active flyering group,” the ADL said. “Over the past five years they have been responsible for more than half (217 of 394 incidents or 55 percent) of all Klan propaganda distributions.”

 

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