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   Former KKK Strongholds Ban Hoods in Public; ACLU Objects on Free-Speech
                                   Grounds
                 By Bruce Schreiner Associated Press Writer
                           Published: Jul 23, 2001

   MOUNT WASHINGTON, Ky. (AP) - In the 1970s, when Bullitt County was
   still a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity, Chester Porter's attempts to
   prosecute Klansmen were met with threats and a cross-burning outside
   his home.

   "It was a time to be cautious and be aware of your surroundings," said
   the former county attorney.

   A generation later, Porter said he knows of no Klan activity in the
   county. And Porter, who is white, has mixed feelings about the legal
   tactic that officials are now using to keep it that way: local
   ordinances that forbid demonstrators from wearing masks or hoods.

   Porter said government should not set up obstacles for groups wanting
   to peacefully express their views, no matter how extreme.

   Besides, he said, "as a kid growing up, I learned early on that it's
   not good to be spanking copperheads. It's better to be staying away
   from them. If they are silent, you be silent. That's my philosophy."

   He is not the only one troubled. The ACLU says the laws, while
   well-intended, may infringe on the Klan's free-speech rights.

   The City Council in Shepherdsville, a focal point of Klan activity in
   the 1970s, recently approved such an ordinance. The Mount Washington
   City Council was expected to adopt a similar one Monday night.

   In all, nearly 30 Kentucky cities or counties have such ordinances,
   some dating to the 1920s, according to the Kentucky Commission on Human
   Rights.

   "You can't stop them from marching, but you might be able to stop them
   if they have to uncover their faces," said Barry Armstrong, a banker
   and white Mount Washington councilman who suggested his town's proposed
   ordinance, which would carry a $100 fine, or up to 50 days in jail, or
   both.

   No one has been prosecuted under any of the recent ordinances.

   Armstrong said his proposal has been warmly received in a town not
   exactly known for racial diversity. Out of a population of 8,485, only
   41 residents identified themselves in the latest census as black or
   part black.

   From his auto repair shop about a block from City Hall, Jimmy Breeden,
   who is white, said he likes the ordinance. People have a right to
   protest, he said, but hiding behind a hood or mask is "a show of
   cowardice."

   But Jeff Vessels, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
   Kentucky, said: "What is at stake here is a very important First
   Amendment principle of free speech, and it protects that speech
   regardless of how offensive people might find that speech."

   Vessels said the ACLU is keeping track of the recent anti-mask
   ordinances but has not been contacted by anyone wanting to challenge
   them.

   Such laws have been vulnerable. Louisville's ordinance was struck down
   by a federal judge in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed before a Klan
   rally in 1996. An anti-mask ordinance enacted in Goshen, Ind., in 1998
   met a similar fate in federal court after being challenged by the KKK.

   However, more than a decade ago, a Klansman arrested in Georgia for
   wearing his hood in public lost a bid to overturn the law in the state
   Supreme Court. The justices said the 1951 law did not violate
   free-speech rights and was a legitimate attempt to prevent violence and
   intimidation.

   Jeffery Berry of Butler, Ind., national imperial wizard for the
   American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said anti-mask laws are an
   infringement on Klansmen's constitutional right to assemble. He said
   the hoods are not meant to intimidate.

   "That's part of our religious attire," he said. "It's for two reasons:
   One is a religious aspect, and the other is to conceal one's identity
   for safety." Berry said Klansmen fear repercussions at work and in
   their communities if they march without hoods.

   Bullitt County has long had a reputation as Kentucky's Klan capital.
   But Porter said that even at its height in the 1970s, the Klan probably
   attracted no more than 20 members and a few dozen sympathizers who were
   from the county. The rest of the marchers who filled the streets, he
   said, came from out of town.

   In April, in neighboring Hardin County, the Elizabethtown City Council
   hurriedly passed an anti-mask ordinance days before the Klan rallied on
   the courthouse steps.

   "We didn't need that kind of element circulating in the community
   without the knowledge of who they are," said Mayor David Willmoth Jr.

   The ordinance prohibited groups of three or more from wearing hoods or
   masks covering a "substantial portion" of their faces. Some
   participants ended up wearing hoods that did not cover their faces,
   while others wore sunglasses.

   AP-ES-07-23-01 1338EDT

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