Mom Lets Son Wear KKK Costume

Halloween is over, but the controversy surrounding one child's costume remains.

Neighbors were outraged to see the 7-year-old dressed up as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but his family says the costume is seen as a family tradition.

The child said he wanted to wear the costume because "it looked cool," after seeing it in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes."

His mother, Jessica Black, says there is nothing wrong with the costume, or the KKK, which still has a strong presence in their hometown of Craigsville, Virginia.

"I did tell him that, you know, if you do it, you know there's going to be people talking about you, there's going to be people saying bad things about you when you do wear it," said Jessica.

A neighbor, Wendy Sprouse, said, "I just think it's really sad like that a kid is being taught that, that young. Because they don't know any better. You don't hear that much about it nowadays."

"It's suppose to be white with white, black with black, man with woman and all of that. That's what the KKK stands for. The KKK every year, raises money to donate to the St. Jude's," said Jessica.

Sprouse added, "It's not okay, you're offending a lot of people by one little action."




Anna-Lysa Gayle
Jessica Black, Jackson's mother
Wendi Sprouse

"Bringing a Message of Hope and Deliverance to White Christian America!" - KKK website.

Controversial costume. A kid named Jackson dressed up for Halloween as a Christian from Ku Klux Klan.




About the Christian groupKu Klux Klan:

William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher, organized a new Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1915 as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. This new Klan directed its activity against not just blacks, but immigrants, Jews, and Roman Catholics. The Ku Klux Klan grew rapidly from there and had more than two million members throughout the country by the mid-1920s. D.W. Griffith's film THE BIRTH OF A NATION, which glorified the Klan and denigrated blacks, was used as a recruiting tool.

Although the Klan still reverted to burning crosses, torturing and murdering those whom they opposed, the organization became a powerful political force in the 1920s. Many state public officials throughout the nation were members. Eventually the organization was weakened by disagreements among the leadership and because of public criticism of Klan violence. By 1944 the Ku Klux Klan had lost most of its influence and membership. It was revived during the Civil Rights era and continues today as a small organization that continues to stage demonstrations in favor of white supremacy and fundamentalist Christian theology.

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