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Posted: January 18, 2001
The U.S. Department of Justice says the burning of a wooden cross at the home of the mayor of Newport, Tennessee this week is being investigated as a hate crime.
Neighbors discovered the burning cross shortly after midnight on Wednesday, January 16 on the front lawn of Mayor Roland Dykes, the town's first Black mayor and an outspoken advocate for racial harmony.
The racially charged crime occurred just days before a Ku Klux Klan rally in the small town of 7,100. The rally by an out-of-state chapter was slated for January 19, which falls on the birthday of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and comes two days before the observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Outraged over the incident and concerned about increasing activity by white supremacists in Tennessee and Alabama, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has urged law enforcement to vigorously pursue the investigation as a hate crime.
"There can be no doubt that the perpetrators intended to use this historical form of intimidation to spread hate and terror in Newport," said Deborah Lauter, ADL Southeast Regional Director. "That this was done during the week in which we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. was no coincidence."
ADL has reached out to Mayor Dykes and will be in direct contact with law enforcement officials concerning the activities of white supremacist groups in the region. The community, it said, must unite in the face of bigotry and expose the haters for who they are and what they stand for.
"We hope that all people of goodwill will join us in publicly decrying this act and send the powerful message that hate crimes have no place in our communities and will not be tolerated," said Lauder.
In a statement read over the telephone to a reporter from the Knoxville News Sentinel, a spokesman for the Alabama White Nights of the KKK this week sought to distance his group from the cross burning, saying the group had "nothing to do" with the incident. "That is the tactics of the Klan of yesteryear," the unidentified man stated.
But police said they were investigating whether the city's involvement in efforts to block the Klan rally had led to the cross-burning incident. The Alabama Klan chapter is sponsoring the rally at the Cocke County Courthouse.
For weeks, Newport officials have been preparing for the Klan demonstration. Some community groups have announced plans for counter-demonstrations for the rally, and law enforcement officials have indicated that a substantial police presence will be on hand for the event, including officers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
While there has been no public demonstration by the Klan in eastern Tennessee since 1978, there have been other racist acts. A Black family was forced to flee an all-white north Knoxville neighborhood in 1995 after a cross burning in their yard. A year later, the Inner City Church in Knoxville was attacked by arsonists in a crime police say was racially motivated. No arrests were made in either attack.
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