Second Time in Two Days : KKK Group, Anti-Klan Demonstrators Face Off

Uniformed Ku Klux Klan members proclaiming “White Power” confronted chanting anti-klan demonstrators for a second consecutive day Sunday, but the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, police said.

Police arrested three spectators who began fighting among the crowd of about 200 gathered at the rally in Lincoln Park, but there were no injuries.

A group of 30 klan members staged the rally to protest Gay Pride Week and were met by a crowd of about 40 anti-klan demonstrators shouting “No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.” and other slogans, police said.

2,500 Klan Supporters

On Saturday, 17 people were arrested when a crowd of 2,500 klan supporters shouted racial slurs and chased members of two smaller, anti-racist groups, authorities said. Eight police officers suffered minor injuries.

On Sunday, the klansmen, one wearing a white-hooded robe and the others dressed in camouflage uniforms and combat helmets, spoke not far from where the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade was scheduled to end in the park.

Carrying red plywood shields with a white cross in the middle, they arrived on a flatbed truck and were greeted by the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and another anti-racist group.

Formed a Wall

About 85 police officers dressed in blue riot gear, joined by 11 mounted policemen, formed a wall between the klan and opposing groups, said Sgt. James O’Hara.

The anti-klan groups, interspersed among a crowd of about 200, shouted “White supremacy, we say no. KKK has got to go.”

As the klansmen ended the rally with fascist-style salutes, a scuffle broke out among three spectators and police arrested them.

‘Saluting Hitler’

“When I saw that guy saluting Adolf Hitler, I lost my temper,” one of the men said as police led him away.

Police escorted the klansmen to an expressway leading to their headquarters, said First Deputy Supt. John Jemilo.

The klansmen indicated that they would not disrupt the gay pride rally, set to start later in the afternoon, Jemilo said.

Protesting ‘Degeneracy’

Thom Robb, who identified himself as national chaplain of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said the rally was a protest against homosexuals and “the degeneracy America is heading toward.”

Klansmen and members of an all-black group called Crusaders of Justice and an anti-racist group called InCAR converged for rallies Saturday in Marquette Park, located in a predominantly white neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

The confrontations began when about 10 klansmen wearing hooded black and white robes gathered to march to the park and were attacked by a group of about 20 blacks and whites wielding baseball bats, police said.

‘White Pride Rally’

After police broke up that fight, the klansmen drove to the park and began a “White Pride Rally,” drawing a crowd of about 1,000 whites, police said.

At the same time, InCAR, the International Committee Against Racism, was staging a counter rally with about 80 blacks and whites about 500 feet away.

The klan crowd then charged across the park toward the anti-racist group. Thirteen police officers on horses headed off the klan backers as they neared the InCAR rally.

Mounted police followed by an additional 100 officers served as a buffer between the two groups as the jeering klan supporters, shaking clenched fists, chased the smaller, anti-racist group from the neighborhood.