KKK Attempts to Recruit at Clemson University, Claims They Are Non-Violent

A South Carolina chapter of the Ku Klux Klan sent out recruitment flyers to Clemson University students last Friday, Oct. 7.

In the following days, university police launched an investigation into who may have left the recruitment propaganda on student apartment doors. However, a local KKK chapter took responsibility.

According to WSPA, the flyers have appeared all over Oconee County. Reporters spoke to local KKK member Rob Locklear, who is responsible for recruitment calls. The exalted cyclops — another name for the leader of a local chapter — shamelessly says the chapter recruits where the most people are.

“By going out and distributing our literature we’re letting people know we are very much still relevant,” Locklear tells reporters. “We are very much still here.”

While Locklear acknowledges the KKK’s infamous and violent history, he insists that the new KKK does not condone violence. He adds that the present KKK is only for the separation of races.

“We’re simply hated because of what history has made us out to be.”

Clemson’s NAACP student chapter advisor Rosa Grayden has condemned the KKK’s efforts. She tells reporters that the group has no place on the university campus.

“The KKK wants to bring in such divisive ways when we’re trying to unite as Clemson University.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top