The president of the Casper, Wyo., branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had a secret meeting with an organizer from the Ku Klux Klan from Great Falls, Mont., that apparently ended with the Klan leader joining the civil rights group, according to the Associated Press.
The meeting came about when Jimmy Simmons of the NAACP reached out to the KKK after hearing reports of black men in the town of Gillette being assaulted when they were accompanying white women. Simmons had considered rallying against the KKK before he decided to take the unorthodox step and invite the Klan leader to a discussion, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
John Abarr, an organizer with the Klan, was adamant that his group is no longer about violence. While Abarr said that racially driven violence may occur that it is not sanctioned by the Klan, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
"Based on your history, based on the Klan's history, it's hard to shed the skin of your group not being violent, not being killers, murderers, terrorizers," Simmons said. "It's hard not to imagine that."
Abarr said that his reasons for belonging to the Klan were fairly simple; he's proud of being white and it's fun to be in a group.
"I like it because you wear robes, and get out and light crosses, and have secret handshakes," Abarr said. "I like being in the Klan - I sort of like it that people think I'm some sort of outlaw."
One belief that Abarr explained during the meeting was that he thinks the northwest portion of the United States - Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon - should secede from the country to form a haven for white people. Likewise he thinks that certain southern states, like Georgia, should secede as well since they have a high black population, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
Toward the end of the meeting Mel Hamilton, one of the NAACP members in the meeting, expressed frustration that Abarr doesn't acknowledge the violence associated with the Klan, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
"It's obvious you don't know the history of your organization," Hamilton said. "It's obvious to me that you're not going out and talking about the good - you're not talking about inclusion, you're talking about exclusion. And it's obvious to me you don't know what you are."
