A leader of a Ku Klux Klan group in Tennessee will spend three years behind bars for posting racist flyers on three Black churches last summer.
Daniel Walls pleaded guilty to four counts of civil rights intimidation after he confessed he plastered flyers on the doors and marquees of Faith United Missionary Baptist Church, Bethel Chapel AME Church, and Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, all in Columbia, South Carolina.
Those flyers contained Klan imagery and slogans, racist and homophobic language, and threatening language from the “Old Glory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
Part of the flyers read, “Be Warned,” followed by, “Race traitors, mixed breeds, communist, homosexuals, and all other walks of Godless degeneracy, the Klan is back again and here to stay, so you’d better make amends or stay away!!!”
An email address and a recruitment message stating “Join us in our fight” were also included.
On the day of his sentencing, Walls apologized and claimed that he holds “deep regret” in his heart for his actions.
“I know what I did was wrong and a horrible thing to do. I don’t know what got into me,” Walls told the judge, according to WTVF.
Authorities say Walls recruited the help of a 17-year-old boy to post a flyer. Walls will have to complete a six-year probation once he’s released from prison.
When the flyers were discovered in July 2023, local city leaders and members of law enforcement joined the churches to condemn the propaganda.
Some congregation members of the churches Walls targeted were present for his sentencing.
“The judge had to send a clear picture that this kind of senseless act of hate has consequences, and his incarceration will deter others from trying to do what he did,” Kenny L. Anderson Sr., pastor of Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, said per WBIR. “So I am glad all of that fell that way, I really am.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, only 10 Ku Klux Klan groups were active in the United States in 2023. Two of those groups are located in Tennessee, including the one Walls promoted.
In 2022, the SPLC reported 22 incidents involving the KKK and flyers, most of which were also in Tennessee.
The town of Columbia is located more than 45 miles south of Nashville. It’s also located near Pulaski, where the very first Ku Klux Klan chapter was formed at the end of the Civil War by six Confederate veterans.
