All the KKK wants to do is clean up a small stretch of highway in Georgia. A North Georgia chapter of the Ku Klux Klan recently applied to adopt a potion of route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains, but the Georgia Department of Transportation isn’t sure if they should let the application go through.
One one hand, the Department of Transportation would be better equipped to clean up trash along the highway. On the other hand, the Ku Klux Klan would be getting credit for it.
USA Today reports that the application was filed by the International Keystone Knights of the KKK.
April Chambers, the chapter’s secretary said:
“All we want to do is adopt a highway. We’re not doing it for publicity. We’re doing it to keep the mountains beautiful. People throwing trash out on the side of the road… that ain’t right.”
The Georgia DOT confirmed that the KKK had applied to adopt a highway but did not make any other comments. The website says that “any civic-minded organization, business, individual, family, city, county, state, or federal agency is welcome to volunteer in the Georgia Adopt-A-Highway program.”
Chambers said that she doesn’t understand the controversy and believes that the Black Panthers or the NAACP would be able to adopt a highway without a problem.
Chambers also said that the KKK is not racist. Chambers said:
“We’re not racists… We just want to be with white people. If that’s a crime, then I don’t know. It’s all right to be black and Latino and proud, but you can’t be white and proud. I don’t understand it. I don’t see why we can’t (adopt the stretch of highway),” she said. “Would it be any different if it was the Black Panthers or something? Someone always has some kind of race card.”
“We’re not a hate group. We don’t hate anybody. We’re just white people that want to stick with white people. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) wants to stick with black people. Just because I’m white, I can’t stick with my own group?”
The Ku Klux Klan is one of the most well-known American hate groups. If Chambers and the International Keystone Knights truly want to adopt a highway and do some good in Georgia, they should probably consider dissociating themselves with the KKK.
Do you think the KKK should be allowed to adopt a highway in Georgia?