KKK Banner Rises Over ‘Sweet’ Georgia Town

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

Protesters against a KKK sign in Dahlonega, Georgia in February 2016 Image by Facebook
Dahlonega, a charming former gold mining spot an hour north of Atlanta, rallied against the sign, the Post reports: “The mayor got dressed and headed for the square. The reverend called the sheriff.”
Locals showed up to protest the sign; they were menaced by pickup trucks circling the square and revving their engines. Eventually, municipal workers climbed into a cherry picker to loosen the 21 screws anchoring the sign to the building.
The next day, the Post reports, a Unitarian church announced a “unity march” and drew in a local fiddler, a member of the Indigo Girls band and concerned residents. Then more pickup trucks flying Confederate flags and Make America Great Again banners arrived. A regional radio station picked up the story, and listeners mused that the banner might be “fake news,” a plot driven by liberals.
In the meantime, the perpetrator was found: an 84-year-old local woman who owned the building and who had been trying to get approval to build a hotel in the town square.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

