KKK Banner Rises Over ‘Sweet’ Georgia Town

Protesters against a KKK sign in Dahlonega, Georgia in February 2016 Image by Facebook

By Daniella Cheslow March 13, 2017

Protesters against a KKK sign in Dahlonega, Georgia in February 2016 Image by Facebook

With the rise in American hate groups, the Washington Post reports on one Georgia town’s struggle with a massive Ku Klux Klan banner that appeared on the side of a building on Main Street one morning last month.

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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO