http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/534059.html
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
KKK loser dies
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/534059.html
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
KKK loser goes to jail!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTN4X0wjHOqwUq80wkQpbe8qVXlgD96EC0T83
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The alleged leader of a Ku Klux Klan group was indicted on a second-degree murder charge Wednesday in the shooting death of an Oklahoma woman who police said was killed during an initiation in south Louisiana.
A grand jury indicted Raymond Foster, 44, and three other suspected group members in the death of Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Okla. She was recruited to join the group over the Internet and was shot to death when a disagreement arose during an initiation in November, authorities have said.
Foster's 20-year-old son Shane and another suspect were indicted on an obstruction of justice charge by the grand jury meeting about 30 miles north of New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish. A fourth suspect was charged as an accessory after the fact.
Four others arrested in the case were not indicted.
I
nvestigators said they found weapons, Confederate flags and six Klan robes at the campsite where Lynch was killed.
All the suspects are from Washington Parish, where the Klan flourished in the 1960s. Now, however, the KKK is considered weak and loosely organized at the local and national levels.
Lynch's former attorney had described her as lonely and troubled and said she may have sought a sense of belonging with the group — referred to at times as the Sons of Dixie or the Dixie Brotherhood. Investigators said in November that statements from suspects suggested Lynch didn't get along with Raymond Foster and was shot after she asked to be taken away from the initiation site, a remote camp in northern St. Tammany Parish, near the Washington Parish line.
In November, Sheriff Jack Strain said an investigation began soon after the shooting when two members of the group went to a convenience store and asked a clerk how to remove blood from clothing. She notified the sheriff's office.
Foster would face mandatory life in prison if convicted on the second-degree murder charge. His attorney did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The alleged leader of a Ku Klux Klan group was indicted on a second-degree murder charge Wednesday in the shooting death of an Oklahoma woman who police said was killed during an initiation in south Louisiana.
A grand jury indicted Raymond Foster, 44, and three other suspected group members in the death of Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Okla. She was recruited to join the group over the Internet and was shot to death when a disagreement arose during an initiation in November, authorities have said.
Foster's 20-year-old son Shane and another suspect were indicted on an obstruction of justice charge by the grand jury meeting about 30 miles north of New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish. A fourth suspect was charged as an accessory after the fact.
Four others arrested in the case were not indicted.
I
nvestigators said they found weapons, Confederate flags and six Klan robes at the campsite where Lynch was killed.
All the suspects are from Washington Parish, where the Klan flourished in the 1960s. Now, however, the KKK is considered weak and loosely organized at the local and national levels.
Lynch's former attorney had described her as lonely and troubled and said she may have sought a sense of belonging with the group — referred to at times as the Sons of Dixie or the Dixie Brotherhood. Investigators said in November that statements from suspects suggested Lynch didn't get along with Raymond Foster and was shot after she asked to be taken away from the initiation site, a remote camp in northern St. Tammany Parish, near the Washington Parish line.
In November, Sheriff Jack Strain said an investigation began soon after the shooting when two members of the group went to a convenience store and asked a clerk how to remove blood from clothing. She notified the sheriff's office.
Foster would face mandatory life in prison if convicted on the second-degree murder charge. His attorney did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
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