A local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is seeking to “adopt” a highway in Georgia, putting state officials in a bind.

The International Keystone Knights of the KKK filed an application last month with the Georgia Department of Transportation to adopt a one-mile stretch of Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains near the North Carolina border.

State policymakers would rather not approve the application because allowing the hate group to sponsor a highway might be viewed as an endorsement of its controversial platform. But denying the application could result in a legal battle the state might lose.

A similar dilemma occurred in Missouri, where a local KKK chapter sued the state to adopt a road. In that case, the KKK won after the courts ruled the state had violated the First Amendment rights of the organization.

Harley Hanson, the exalted cyclops of the Klan’s Realm of Georgia, said the local chapter is not trying to cause trouble. “We just want to clean up the doggone road,” Hanson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re not going to be out there in robes.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:
KKK Group Seeks Adopt-A-Highway OK (by Shannon McCaffrey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)