White Supremacists Protest Black History Month Event in Harrison, Arkansas
One thing was missing Tuesday night from a Black History Month presentation at the Boone County Library in Harrison, Ark.
Black people.
There were at least 75 people packed into a library meeting room for the event but not one black person, according to Patty Methvin of the â a 10-year-old organization, which includes the Mayor of Harrison, the police chief and the head of the chamber of commerce, working mightily to
The Klan, however, did show up, including , an Arkansas-based Christian Identity pastor and leader of the Knights Party.
âFourteen racial patriots,â about half of them Knights Party members, filed into the meeting room just before the 5:30 p.m. starting time, said today in a post on the racist web forum Stormfront.
They went, Roper said, âto counter the Anti-White agenda of the âCommunity Task Force on Race Relations,â which held their Black History Month presentation and hosted an NPR Jewess as a speaker.â
âWe easily had the Antis matched, if not outnumbered,â Roper said. âI relished being able to be the first one present to put on my bright yellow âAnti-Racist Is A Code Word For Anti-Whiteâ sticker and staring down the anti-White Mayor.â
The subject line on Roperâs post was âKlan vs. Antis Tues. Night.â
Jeff Crockett, the mayor of Harrison, which is 95 percent white, sighed deeply when he heard about Roperâs account. âThatâs total BS about us being outnumbered,â Crockett told Hatewatch today. âThere were close to 100 people there and almost everybody had come for the presentation and to commemorate Black History Month.â
Indeed, beyond Roperâs hyperbole, there were no fireworks during or after the one-hour presentation about the two race riots that chased Harrisonâs black residents out of town more than 100 years ago and the present day efforts of the Task Force and the city of 12,000 residents to âfoster and promote the image and reality of Harrison as a cohesive, warm community to all people of peace and goodwill, regardless of color.â
One of the speakers at the event was Jacqueline Froelich, a reporter for a Public Radio station in Arkansas and the co-author of an article published in The Arkansas Historically Quarterly titled âTotal Eclipse: The Destruction of the African American Community of Harrison, Arkansas, in 1905 and 1909.â
At the end of the presentation, there was a 10-minute question and answer session. Most of the questions seemed to come from the people Roper called the âracial patriots.â
âThey spread out and sat in different corners of the room,â said Task Force member Layne Ragsdale. âThe questions were primarily about, âwasnât this a play on white guilt?â Ragsdale said most of the people who raised their hands to ask questions had written them out beforehand and the questions âwere long, more statement, than question.â
One man with the group said that Harrison was a safe city and that âwe know crime has a color.â Ragsdale said she responded that crime has many factors â education, age, economic â âbut itâs not color.â
âWe agree that we want our community to be a safe vibrant place,â Ragsdale said she told the man. âWhere we disagree is that I donât believe color is the designed way you get there.â
Robb, the Klan leader, spoke near the end of the evening. âThere was no confrontation,â Robb told Hatewatch today. âEverybody got along very good. The people of the Harrison Task Force for White Race Genocide were polite. This is a small town. I see them occasionally in town. Iâm always polite to them. Theyâre always polite to me. Yesterday was no different.â
Robb said he has lived in the area for more than 40 years. He owns a compound where extremist events have been held about 15 miles outside of town, a fact the mayor of Harrison repeatedly points out.
Robb said he told the meeting that âI certainly agree that no one of any color should be harmed or mistreated.â He said, however, that since he did not witness the race riots 100 years ago and neither did anyone else at the meeting no one should âpass judgment pro or con.â
âBut I think itâs wrong to just assume that the white people were bad,â Robb said, adding that âwhile blacks may have been driven from their town, according to what weâre being told, right today, 2014, we can witness millions, not hundreds, but millions of white people that have been driven from their homes â Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Memphis and every major city in the country.â Robb said his is not a message of hate, but a message of love âfor my people.â
Ragsdale, the Task Force member, agreed that the Tuesday night encounter with the Klan was civil. âI think if they truly just wanted to focus on the idea of loving the white person, which is what they say, I donât know why they wouldnât use a different name,â Ragsdale said. âIf thatâs truly their mission to not be intimidating, why would you use a name that is filled with intimidation?
âI believe thatâs kind of disingenuous,â Ragsdale said. âThey want you to believe that the Klan has changed but they have not changed the name. If youâre under that banner thatâs still what people are going to believe.â