‘My hands were just shaking,’ Centerville woman says of finding KKK flier in driveway

Dottie Stafford was shocked Monday morning to find a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flier in her driveway.

The flier, which was inside a zip-lock bag and included a peppermint mint, appeared the same day of the national holiday for civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The flier, of which photos were emailed to The Telegraph by Stafford, includes derogatory remarks about King.

“I was just so taken back and so upset that something like this would be out in my driveway that my hands were just shaking,” Stafford said. “It was so upsetting to read something like this.

“I know people feel this way, but for people to be dropping this off in other people’s yards and thinking that they feel this way, too. I mean, I was just shaking when I picked it up and saw what it was.”

Stafford said she saw similar fliers inside plastic bags and started to pick them up. But stopped because she did not want people to think she had left the fliers.

Stafford said she plans to let Centerville police know about the incident. But she said expects there is little that can be done because of the right of free speech and because the flier was left in her driveway as opposed to in her mailbox.

“We all have to duty to speak out against injustices,” Stafford said. “If we don’t speak up, we’re allowing the injustices to continue.”

The flier was allegedly distributed by the Real Knights of the KKK and included the website for Sacred Knights of the KKK.

Eddie Snelgrove, imperial wizard for the Sacred Knights of the KKK, said fliers were dropped by multiple KKK organizations including the Sacred Knights.

“The last thing we want to do is offend anybody, but we want the white community to know that they are being represented,” Snelgrove said.

He noted that the flier included an email that residents could contact to stop any future drops.

Snelgrove said he objects to the celebration of a national holiday for King when there are no holidays to celebrate Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson.

“My problem is the fact that we cannot celebrate our history without being called racists,” Snelgrove said. “But every day that I walk down the street, I’ve got to watch and make sure I’m not wearing a shirt that says, ‘white pride’ ... I got to be careful where I wear a picture of a Confederate flag, all because every bit of it might offend somebody.”

Police Capt. Chuck Hadden said he has not received any complaints about any KKK fliers, but plans to look into the incident.

“We’ll look into and see what’s going,” Hadden said.

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "‘My hands were just shaking,’ Centerville woman says of finding KKK flier in driveway."