The Ku Klux Klan plans to hold a rally next month on the grounds of the South Carolina State House to protest efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol.
Brian Gains, spokesman for the South Carolina Budget and Control Board, said that any group can request to hold a rally, provided the grounds are available, according to The State Columbia, S.C. via MSN.
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which calls itself the "Largest Klan in America," requested the rally from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on July 18, Gaines said, and it expects anywhere from 100 to 200 people at the rally.
A man who called himself the "grand titan" of the Pelham, N.C.-based chapter told The State, "to us they are erasing white history and white culture right out of the history books. That's why they want to take that flag down."
The Confederate flag is used liberally on the Pelham chapter's website. "Say No to Cultural Genocide," the group's site reads, adding, "most groups out there and especially white people are to [sic] cowardly to stand up for their heritage."
Advocate for the removal of the flag from State House grounds, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, said of the KKK: "This is our state, and they are not welcome."
The rally will be held just over a month since Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a historic church during bible study. James Spears, the Great Titan of the chapter, told Politico: "I feel sorry for the boy because of his age and I think he picked the wrong target. A better target for him would have been these gang-bangers, running around rapping, raping and stealing."
