Nation : Klan Vows to Defy Judge, March
The Ku Klux Klan vowed today to assemble at Pulaski this weekend despite the orders of a federal judge, and state police canceled leaves and holidays to prepare for a confrontation.
“We’re Americans and we’ve got the right to be in Pulaski . . . or wherever we want to be,” said Scott Shepherd, chief of the Knights of the KKK in western Tennessee. “If the people of Pulaski don’t like it, they can kiss our robes.”
Pulaski Mayor Hal Stewart, saying he fears violence, went to the state Capitol to deliver a letter to Gov. Ned McWherter asking him to send National Guard troops if needed.
Pulaski is the birthplace of the KKK and the Klan originally planned to parade there Saturday on the weekend the nation honors the late Martin Luther King Jr. But Friday, U.S. District Judge John Nixon ruled the city could bar the march because it already had issued a parade permit for Saturday to Pulaski citizens for an anti-Klan rally.
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