KKK plans SC State House rally

The Ku Klux Klan will hold a rally at the S.C. State House next month to protest efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds.

Any group can request to hold a rally at the State House as long as its grounds are available, said Brian Gaines, a spokesman for the S.C. Budget and Control Board.

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan requested the rally from 3 to 5 p.m. on July 18, Gaines said. The Klan is expecting 100 to 200 to attend, according to a copy of its state event form.

Calling itself the “Largest Klan in America,” the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are based in Pelham, N.C., according to the group’s website.

A man identifying himself as the “great titan” of the N.C. chapter of the Loyal White Knights left a message with The State saying his group is holding the demonstration because “to us they are erasing white history and white culture right out of the history books. That’s why they want to take that flag down.”

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, who along with other state political and business leaders has called for banishing the flag from the State House grounds, said of the KKK rally: "This is our state, and they are not welcome."

The S.C. Legislature will take up bills calling for the flag’s removal when lawmakers return to Columbia on July 6. Calls to remove the flag have taken off since nine African-American churchgoers were shot and killed June 17 in Charleston. Authorities have called that massacre a hate crime.

Haley has said she knows the Civil War banner represents Southern heritage to some people. But the flag offends other S.C. residents, who view it was a symbol of oppression, Haley said last week, calling for its removal.

The flag controversy has spurred several State House demonstrations already.

An anti-flag rally three days after the killings drew more than 1,000 people. The Sons of Confederate Veterans held a news event to support the flag Thursday.

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 12:20 PM with the headline "KKK plans SC State House rally."