KKK seeks to clean up US road, causing legal conundrum
The Ku Klux Klan wants to sponsor a stretch of US road to clean it up, creating a legal conundrum for local officials. Members of the white supremacist organization applied to the "Adopt-A-Highway" program in the southern state of Georgia last month, which enlists the help of volunteers to remove trash from the sides of major roads. Groups who participate are provided with free garbage bags and safety vests. In addition, special signs recognizing their efforts are put up next to the strip of street they sponsor. "We submitted the application to 'Adopt-A-Highway,' which covers a one-mile stretch of Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains near the North Carolina border in Georgia," Harry Hanson, a local KKK member, told AFP. "We just want to keep the road clean, we don't promote violence." He added his group would not say more until the issue was resolved legally. Jill Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, declined to comment until the case is cleared up. Authorities in the state of Missouri rejected a similar request from the Ku Klux Klan in 1997 on the grounds that it came from a group that was discriminatory in nature. However, a federal appeals court later ruled in favor of the far-right KKK, arguing the US Constitution prohibited the state from denying an application due to a difference in opinion.
