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Some Klan groups try to attract a variety of Klansmen and women to so-called �klonvocations� or �Klan jams.� Occasionally, different Klan groups will get together to form umbrella organizations or alliances, though they are typically short-lived. Other Klan groups hold regular �unity rallies� to which a variety of white supremacist groups are invited, or join in the rallies of white supremacist organizations in their area. There were many examples of such rallies in 2006.
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A Knights of the Ku Klux Klan event, held in Fairdale, Kentucky, in August 2006, was a joint event with the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM), billed as a �Unity Rally.� This was just one of many recent attempts by a variety of Ku Klux Klan groups to coordinate their activities with the Minneapolis-based NSM, which became the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States in 2006. This NSM-Klan cooperation was a hallmark of Klan activity in 2006.
The NSM has actively sought the participation of Klan groups at its racist and anti-Semitic events, possibly in part because it had troubled relations with a number of other neo-Nazi and racist skinhead groups in 2006, and such groups are unlikely to turn out in support of the NSM. Klan groups, on the other hand, can swell its numbers at public events. A September 2006 NSM rally in Columbus, Ohio, for example, not only had NSM attendees, but also had speakers from several Klan groups, including the World Knights, the National Knights, and the Brotherhood Of Klans. In fact, almost half of the white supremacists at the event were from Klan groups.
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In March 2006, about 80 members of the NSM and several different Klan groups met in Laurens, South Carolina, at a place called the �Redneck Shop� to discuss ways to increase cooperation. Groups reportedly in attendance included the NSM, Aryan Nations, the Griffin Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the National Knights, the Teutonic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Yahweh Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. NSM members have shown up at a number of other recent Klan events, including the January 2006 Fraternal White Knights protest in Des Moines and the September 2006 World Knights rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
One of the best examples of the closeness between the NSM and Klan groups occurred in late November 2006, when the Maryland-based World Knights of the KKK disbanded due to factional infighting. Its leader, Gordon Young, took his followers into the NSM and became its Maryland state leader. In January 2007, Young was arrested on seven criminal counts, including two counts each of second-degree assault and sex abuse of a minor, and the NSM disassociated itself from him.
Some Klan groups, meanwhile, have themselves become increasingly �Nazified,� eschewing hoods and robes in favor of the look and regalia of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. Perhaps the best example of this is the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America (IKA), one of the larger Klan groups. Many of its members resemble racist skinheads more than traditional Klansmen, and the IKA has developed even closer ties with neo-Nazi skinhead groups in the Midwest such as Blood & Honour and the Vinlanders Social Club. The IKA�s annual racist music festival, Nordicfest, one of the largest racist music events in the United States, was in 2006 co-sponsored for the first time by Blood & Honour. In March 2006, IKA leader Ron Edwards announced that his group, formerly associated with the racist and anti-Semitic religious sect Christian Identity, would now also accept �Odinists, National Socialists, Skinheads, Nazis, Defenders, Confederates, [and] other White Racialists� as full members�an obvious attempt to appeal to neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. |
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