Tuesday, March 18, 2008

THE LAWSON FILE: WE DON'T NEED "KLAN R US" IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD


I don't know maybe someone has a legal right to open a store selling Klan items or Nazi regalia, but I'm with David Kennedy who is doing whatever he can to close down just such a store in South Carolina. I think most Americans would agree with me on this.

The Redneck Shop, and its backroom Ku Klux Klan Museum is doing a brisk business selling T-shirts, caps, jackets, belt buckles, confederate flags and bumper stickers celebrating the "heritage" that’s supposed to be the soul of the Southern redneck culture (Personally, I have a higher opinion of rednecks then that portrayed by this shop of hate).

Who needs this crap?

You can't tell me that someone who sells such filth doesn't buy into it. Take a look at the picture accompanying this story. That is the guy who runs the The RedNeck Shop and World Famous Klan Museum in Laurens, South Carolina (who exactly owns the store, as you'll read a little later is open to debate). His name is John Howard. When proprietor Howard was once asked why he had pictures of Warren Harding on the wall, he answered proudly proclaimed Harding "the first Klan member president of the United States." Don't believe it. He will direct you to a fuzzy photograph that supposedly depicted the Klan’s funeral for Harding after he died in 1923 after only 30 months in office.

An old article in the Orlando Tribune magazine reports, "A self-described 'educator' on Klan matters, Howard works hard to convince visitors that the Klan is not a racist organization. He sits under a confederate flag with the slogan: 'Heritage Not Hate.' He talks about Christian values, defending women and children, and protecting the culture from undefined enemies."

Would you want your children exposed to this guy? I wouldn't want my doggie to have to walk past him or his store everyday.

You can't tell me that racists wouldn't hang out around the store.

And, lo and behold, they do.

In fact on their web site the nazi National Socialist Movement announces (I admit I don't know when):
Comrades,

We are pleased to bring you the announcement that a member of the National Socialist Movement now owns the World Famous Redneck Shop located in the former Echo Theater Building in Laurens, South Carolina.

The Klan/NSM Museum is operated by NSM personnel.

The Museum and Redneck shop are both open to the public Mon-Sat, 9AM through 4PM

Come down to South Carolina to experience the NSM Hall and Klan Museum for yourself, and be sure to get something from our friends at the Redneck Shop while you are there.

The Building itself is an Historical Building, and has had many recent improvements done to it.

Pictures are on-line now at www.nsm88.com and www.nukeisrael.com

See the striking wall mural painted by NSM/TN. (featuring Adolf Hitler and Commander George Lincoln Rockwell), pictures of the event, etc.

Map of Laurens showing the location of the Redneck Shop

Also, the building serves as campaign headquarters for the 2008 NSM Presidential candidate.

Plus, the famous Redneck Shoppe continues to operate in the front of the building selling Rebel flags and other pro-White and Southern items.

The NSM is the largest and fastest growing pro-White organization in America.

Hail Victory!

Commander Jeff Schoep
National Socialist Movement

This lovely group often gathers at the shop.

But guess what, the equally nazi like Vanguard News Network says, wait a minute, the NSM doesn't really own the shop.

On the other hand, Southern Poverty Law Center says John Bowles, along with another disgruntled NSM officer, Nick Chappell, formed a new group, the National Socialist Order of America, based out of The Redneck Shop. They say it is owned by Chappell and had been the site of many NSM gatherings.

Whoever the hell owns the place doesn't matter all that much to me.

Some people don't want sex offenders in the neighborhood. Some don't want porn shops. Some don't want bars. Whatever. I don't want hate stores.

Good luck David Kennedy.

The following is from Tampa Bay OnLine.

Activist Aims To Close Store Carrying Klan Items
By KATRINA A. GOGGINS

LAURENS, S.C. - A black civil rights activist is fighting to close a store that sells KKK robes and T-shirts emblazoned with racial slurs. David Kennedy is confident he can make it happen. After all, he says he owns the building.

Since 1996, the Redneck Shop has operated in an old movie theater that, according to court records, was transferred in 1997 to Kennedy and the Baptist church he leads.

"Our ownership puts an end to that history as far as violence and hatred, racism being practiced in that place and also the recruiting of the Klan," Kennedy said. "This is the same place that we had to go up into the balcony to go to the movies before the Klan took it. So there's a lot of history there."

But legal documents also indicate that the man who runs the store, 62-year-old John Howard, is entitled to operate his business in the building until he dies. Now the dispute may go to court.

Kennedy, 54, has led protests outside the store since it opened but said he's never been able to close it because of the agreement that Howard can run the shop for life.

The reverend envisions the building as a potential future home for his New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church, which now meets in a double-wide trailer.

Rocks, Spit And Picketing

Kennedy claims he can't even visit his own property because Howard won't let him in when he appears in the door.

But that didn't happen during a recent visit with an Associated Press reporter and photographer.

"Reverend Kennedy, where you been hiding?" Howard shouted when the door opened.

Inside the store, hooded Klan robes hang on the same rack as the racist T-shirts. Pictures of men, women and children in Klan clothing and pamphlets tell a partial history of the organization.

Howard used to own the whole building. When his store first opened, he said, people threw rocks at his windows, spit in his doorway and picketed. A month later, a man intentionally crashed his van through the front windows.

"If anything turns people off, they shouldn't come in here. It's not a thing in here that's against the law," Howard said, adding that he was once the KKK's grand dragon for South Carolina and North Carolina.

To blacks, Kennedy said, the store is a reminder of this region's painful past, which includes the lynching of his great, great uncle by a white mob.

The town of Laurens, about 30 miles southeast of Greenville, was named after 18th century slave trader Henry Laurens.

Some street addresses are still marked with the letter "C" that once designated black homes as "colored." Racial tension was heightened in recent years when two white female teachers were sentenced for having sex with male students - all of them black.

'Pump It Up'

Kennedy has a long history of fighting racial injustice. He protested when a South Carolina county refused to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and he helped lobby to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome.

When people in the region allege racism, he rallies attention to the cause.

A walk through the neighborhood where he was born shows that he seems a stranger to no one.

"Hey Rev," one man says as he strolls by.

"Pump it up," Kennedy responds with the phrase he uses at his protests.

Mary Redd, who lives across from the house where Kennedy was born, said blacks know to contact the pastor with their problems.

"And he helps them out," added neighbor Deborah Cheeks.

Kennedy said progress has always been slow to come to Laurens.

"There are two powers in the world: the mind and the sword," he said. "In the long run, the sword is defeated by the mind. I want to destroy the concept of hatred."

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