KKK Fliers Appear In Virginia On MLK Weekend
Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis January 15, 2018
Residents of Leesburg, Virginia, discovered fliers purporting to be distributed by the racist terror group the Ku Klux Klan over the weekend.
According to local news channel WTOP, the fliers denigrated Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated nationwide on Monday.
“The timing of it we think was pre-emptively planned by this individual or individuals that are doing this, specifically to target this weekend because it’s an upcoming holiday and specifically because it honors the legacy of a great man that once existed,” Leesburg police spokesman Sam Shenouda told WTOP.
Leesburg is named for Thomas Lee, a slaveholder and Virginia governor and the great-grand-uncle of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, whose birthday is also celebrated on Monday in some Southern states.
At least 10 people had found fliers, the Associated Press reported. Police told news outlets that the fliers appeared to have been distributed randomly.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
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.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
