The New York Times

November 17, 1996, Sunday, Late Edition - Final

In a South Carolina Town, a Klan Museum Opens Old Wounds

RICK BRAGG

LAURENS, S.C., Nov. 13

BODY:
For decades, a piece of rotted rope dangled from a railroad trestle just outside this little town, a reminder of the last lynching in Laurens County. It was back in 1913, but people still talk of the black man wrongly accused of rape, and the white mob that hanged him.

"We grew up under that rope," said the Rev. David Kennedy, the 43-year-old pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Laurens. The hanged man, Richard Puckett, was his great-great uncle.

Generations were told that it was a crime to cut down the rope that dangled over River Street, the entrance into Laurens from the black community. "Its message was, 'Stay in your place,' " Mr. Kennedy said.

The trestle was destroyed in 1986, and while the memory never faded completely, at least people did not have to look at it every day. Now, though, just a few steps from the old County Courthouse, in a town where the pickup trucks and cars politely stop for pedestrians even when they are not in a crosswalk, Laurens has a fresh symbol of racial hatred, Mr. Kennedy said.

There, hanging in front of the paper-covered windows of an abandoned movie theater, a skinny tube of orange neon signals that a museum devoted to America's best-known hate group is officially, defiantly "OPEN."

"The World's Only Klan Museum" is spelled out on the first line of the theater marquee, in big black letters. The marquee's second line -- "The Redneck Shop Now Open" -- reminds visitors not to pass up the souvenir store, which is filled with Klansmen miniatures, Confederate flag windbreakers, "White Power" sweatshirts and racks of T-shirts that read, "It's a White Thing. You Wouldn't Understand."

It's "the same message" as the rope, Mr. Kennedy said. "It resurrects all the evil experiences of racism in America: the torment, the pain, the grief, the unjust killing."

In the museum itself are some 50 robes, with documents and photographs that tell a partial history of the Ku Klux Klan. One photo shows a young black man being branded by men in robes. In any small Southern town, the museum would incite anger, especially among blacks, old and young. But here in the hometown of Richard Puckett, the very sight of it hurts like a stick in the eye.

"We don't have room for the Klan or any hate group in Laurens," said Edward McDaniel, a three-term City Councilman who grew up with tales of murders, rapes and beatings motivated by skin color. Mr. Puckett was "one of many."

But the museum and Redneck Shop may be here to stay.

The city, whose population of 9,700 is racially mixed, has refused to grant a business license to the museum's owner, John Howard, a 50-year-old contractor who has said he is retired from the Klan. The museum remains open pending an appeal of the Council's decision and, if the decision stands, the outcome of a Federal civil rights lawsuit.

Wrapped in the same Federal statutes that once protected blacks in the civil rights movement, Mr. Howard has argued that the city's refusal to grant him a license is a violation of his civil rights.

He has hired a good lawyer, and the law is apparently on his side, some townspeople said. The town's former mayor warned that the museum and Redneck Shop might be something people here just have to get used to.

"The people of Laurens are not happy," said Bob Dominick, who served 16 years as the Mayor of Laurens and now devotes his time to the local chapter of the American Red Cross and his furniture store, which shares the square with the shop and museum. He is white, but the museum is "undesirable to both races," he said. Most people in town are against it, black and white leaders said, and only a few people go into the shop each day. "But," Mr. Dominick said, looking across the square to the old theater, "I'm afraid he's probably going to win."

On Wednesday, Mr. Howard sat behind the counter in the Redneck Shop and loudly declared that the stories written about him in the newspapers were lies and that he would talk to no more reporters.

The old Echo Theater brought Hollywood to Laurens earlier this century, but blacks had to watch from the balcony. The word "Echo" still hangs over the building in red letters, and to some people here, the latest tenant is an echo from the distant, hateful past.

The battle between Mr. Howard and what appears to be most of the townspeople has raged since last winter. At least twice, people have hurled bricks through the shop's windows, and one man crashed his vehicle through the front of the building.

While the South has other Confederate museums, their focus is on the Civil War. Even the state leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has denounced the Redneck Shop, saying its use of the Confederate Flag is not what that symbol was intended for and calling any association between the Confederate soldier and the modern Ku Klux Klan "an insult."

"When I was in the Army, I put one over my bunk because I was the only Southern boy there," Mr. Dominick said. To him, the flag is part of his heritage. But when the museum and souvenir shop opened, he passed out little black-and-white ribbons to show opposition. In just a few days, opponents gave out more than 1,000.

The Confederate flag is on practically everything in the Redneck Shop, which does business from the theater's concession lobby. It offers pocketknives, belt buckles, flags, ceremonial swords, paperweights, clothing -- most with racist slogans or symbols -- and a signature T-shirt, emblazoned with the Confederate flag, that announces that both the flag and the shop are here to stay.

Mr. Howard, once a high-ranking Klan official in South Carolina, said recently that he was no longer officially a member of the Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He said he just wanted to teach people about the Klan, not spread bigotry.

Mr. Howard's lawyer is Suzanne Coe, who represented Shannon Faulkner, the young woman who won a long battle to attend the Citadel but then dropped out, citing stress. Ms. Coe has built her practice largely on individual rights cases.

The museum, with its framed photographs, robes and other ceremonial trappings, does provide historical information on the Klan, she said.

"It's ugly history," Ms. Coe said, "but it happened."

The fact that the museum angers or embarrasses people in the town is not a legal reason for denying her client a license, she said. The Council's reasons "were specious," she said, and included a contention that disturbances at the business had made it a public nuisance.

"If that is the case, then every N.A.A.C.P. rally in the 1960's was a nuisance," she said. "You can't say that just because someone protests something there, it's a nuisance."

The council also said that Mr. Howard dealt in guns -- he has bought and sold rifles, but not in the shop -- and that he "had not been truthful on his taxes," Ms. Coe said. But the Council members offered no evidence of that, she said.

"He's never had a criminal conviction," she said, only a long-ago speeding ticket. His outdoor security cameras did, however, record burglars breaking into the courthouse.

Ms. Coe said the city and Mr. Howard had agreed that the shop would remain open until Tuesday, the deadline for the Council's decision. Then, if the Council still denies him a license, Mr. Howard and Ms. Coe will push ahead with a Federal lawsuit.

It seems a departure from the cases she usually takes, what some would see as more liberal causes. At first, Ms. Coe said she did not want the case, "but I was discussing it with my partner, and he said: 'Oh, I see. You only stand up for civil rights you believe in.' "

When Mr. McDaniel, the Councilman, verbally attacked Mr. Howard earlier this year, the former Klansman "sued me for defamation," Mr. McDaniel said.

Mr. McDaniel realizes that the shop has a legal right to exist, but he said it was ridiculous to think that such an establishment would not attract Klan members to the town.

"They are not welcome," he said.

People in town fear that it will become a national rallying place for Klansmen.

"Of course it's a good idea; it's a museum of our history," said Daniel Carver, a Klan grand dragon who lives in Gainesville, Ga.

Jews have a Holocaust museum, he said, and blacks have a black heritage museum. "What's wrong with having a museum for white people, people who are proud to be white?" he said.

"That's the problem," he added. "Some people are not proud to be white."

Mr. Kennedy said that young black people were angry about the museum and that he was afraid it could start a race war. "Hatred is more dangerous and explosive than drugs," he said. "We cannot allow the museum to remain."

Others say it is not the shop itself that bothers them, but the knowledge that some people still feel that way about race. Jaz Lane, a 22-year-old beautician, said, "It wouldn't be here if there weren't people who want it." The push to remove it is based more on business than on racial harmony, she added.

Some black people, and white people, said they just ignored it and hoped that it would go away. Some cross the street to keep from walking in front of it.

It is dangerous to ignore it, Mr. Kennedy said. "If we don't get on top of it, there's no telling what will happen," he said.

Year after year after year, people tried not to see the rope that dangled over River Street, the rope that killed Richard Puckett. Some, like his great-great nephew, can see it still.

UPDATE: from Urban News, (Jan. 11, 2012)

Laurens, SC – After a four-year legal battle, a black Baptist church in Laurens, South Carolina now is the legal owner of a building housing the infamous Redneck Shop located in the old Echo Theater building just off the Laurens Historic Square.

A member of the Klan broke ranks with the K.K.K. in 1997, renounced the Klan, and apologized to the local community. He also reportedly signed ownership of the property to Rev. David Kennedy’s New Beginning’s Missionary Baptist church. However, Redneck Shop operator John Howard was given a "life estate" in the old Echo Theater property, which has allowed continued operation of the site that claims to be "The Worlds’ Only KKK Museum." 

Even though actual ownership of the building was transferred to Rev. Kennedy’s church, Kennedy filed suit in 2008, after being unable to inspect the property that was deeded to his organization. 
Rev. Kennedy said he can’t wait to turn the landmark "into a place of diversity. I don’t want that business there. When our church takes over in full, that’s when that business will end. Basically, we just think it’s a matter of time – but soon." 

The minister said he already has been approached by civic leaders in Laurens and with others who have discussed turning the building into a fine arts center for youth or an auditorium for civic events. "There’s even talk about turning it into a theater again," he said, as well as discussions about moving the New Beginnings church into the building, but some members of the congregation are fearful of repercussions.

"I don’t want fear to overtake us again," Kennedy said. "At this point, we know it will be a place of diversity – where diversity isn’t talked about but lived and celebrated," he said.

Kennedy didn’t rule out the possibility of allowing the current tenant, former Klan leader John Howard, to peacefully remove his merchandise.