From: WillNich@aol.com
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 14:33:16 -0400
Subject: Saturday's Anti-KKK Rally in Louisville

April 10

Today's Courier-Journal gave some more details about this Saturday's
anti-Klan rally in downtown Louisville.  Here's the basics:

The area between Muhammad Ali Blvd. and Market, Fourth and Seventh Streets
will be blocked to vehicle AND pedestrian traffic.  Security will be tight.
 The only legal way you will be able to enter that entire area is by walking
north on Armory Place from Muhammad Ali Blvd and points south.  Armory Place
is a small street running from Broadway to Liberty (three blocks); it's
between 5th and 6th Streets.  The best place to park is south of Muhammad Ali
anywhere between 1st and 8th Streets (there are numerous paying garages and
lots in that area), and you can also park on the street south of there.
 Again, taking the bus might be best.

Somewhere on Armory Place between Muhammad Ali and Liberty there will be a
checkpoint where people will have to declare which rally they want to attend.
 As you can imagine, this might be a potential trouble spot if someone says
they want to go to the KKK rally while 50 people around them say they want to
attend the anti-KKK rally.  There will be a heavy police presence, however,
so hopefully the Louisville police have that one figured out.  Stay cool--use
your anger at the rally, not before; you don't want to discredit the rally
organizers, who are trying to keep this thing as peaceful and non-violent as
possible.

After you've declared which rally you want to go to, you will have to pass
further inspection.  Police will use hand-held metal detectors to check for
weapons, knives, etc.  Coolers, bottles, chairs, or anything else that could
conceivably be used as a weapon--including sticks attached to protest
signs--will not be allowed and will be confiscated.  If you carry a sign, it
will have to be on cardboard, paper or cloth without any sticks or poles.
 You will then be ushered into the rally area and directed to stay there.  It
sounds to me like you better go to the bathroom first if you have to!  (The
paper didn't mention portable toilets, but I imagine there will be a few).

The Courier-Journal does caution that some KKK sympathisers may simply lie in
order to get into the anti-KKK rally, and vice-versa.  But once in one rally,
you evidently can't move over to the other.

"People will be allowed to dance, yell and scream," says Carl Yates,
spokesperson for the Louisville police, "but violence will not be tolerated.
 It will be dealt with quickly" by an arrest for disturbing the peace.  Many
cops will be in plain clothes.

I keep hearing different things about the actual hours for the KKK rally.
 Yesterday I heard that the KKK would be stepping out onto the courthouse
steps at Noon, but today's paper says they will be there starting at 1:00 and
ending at 3:00.  The anti-KKK rally starts at 10 and ends at 1.  I'm not sure
if there will be any overlap between the two rallies.

The KKK held a press conference on the courthouse steps on March 22.  Troy
Murphy, "Imperial Chaplin" of the KKK, said, "Intolerance of, discrimination
against and death penalty for homosexuals is prescribed in the Bible...If the
Klan is guilty of hatred, so is Jesus Christ and God himself...Our message is
not anti-Black, anti-Jew, or even anti-faggot.  We will be here to speak the
truth...We will be here to bring a message of love, order and a message of
almighty God in whom we trust."

Pretty nasty scumbuckets, but fortunately they will definitely be in the
minority on Saturday.  The Courier-Journal estimates 25-50 KKK members on the
courthouse steps, but most people seem to think it will be 25 or less.  At
any rate, be creative with your protest signs!

For more info, call the Rally Committee at 502/778-8130.

David Williams
The Letter

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