BY DAN FEIN
GAINESVILLE, Georgia - Some 350 counterdemonstrators rallied
against the Ku Klux Klan here on October 31. Six robed members
of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and around 15
of their supporters held a rally in front of the Hall County
Courthouse here to vent their racism against immigrants and
Blacks.
Gainesville has a large and growing Mexican immigrant population, many of whom work in the poultry plants located here. The counterdemonstration was organized by the Center for Democratic Renewal, the National Youth Connection, a number of Black churches and Hosea Williams, a longtime civil rights leader in Atlanta.
A large contingent of local and state cops was organized to protect the KKK. Police barricades surrounded the area cordoned-off for the counterdemonstration. A majority of the anti-Klan protesters were young and Black. A significant number were Mexican workers.