Burden
Page 22
For details about the arrest of Herbert Neely and William Hoff, see the Clinton Chronicle, May 29 and July 17, 1996, and the Laurens County Advertiser, May 22, 1996.
Horace King’s involvement in the fires at Macedonia Baptist and Mount Zion AME has been written about extensively. For a definitive account, see Sandra E. Johnson, Standing on Holy Ground: A Triumph over Hate Crime in the Deep South (St. Martin’s Press, 2002) and Michael Chandler’s documentary film Forgotten Fires, Pack Creed Productions, 1998. For a general overview of the 1996 church fires across the south, see Martin Walker, “Fire and Loathing,” The Guardian, July 13, 1996. King’s quote about his childhood comes from the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, July 1997 (reprinted online at thetandd.com on July 20, 2008). The rally at his home in Pelion was covered by Susan Hogan-Albach and Douglas Pardue of the Knight-Ridder/Tribune news service (see Montgomery Advertiser, July 27, 1996). See also the Associated Press report in the Greenwood Index-Journal, July 1, 1996, and the Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1998.
The appearance of The Bible Answers Racial Questions at the Pelion rally was covered in the above Montgomery Advertiser article, as well as in an Associated Press report in the Greenville News, July 1, 1996. Eugene S. Hall’s involvement in the Montgomery bombings was covered extensively by the Montgomery Advertiser in February 1957. For an account of the mock hanging in the Montgomery courthouse square, see the Montgomery Advertiser, August 5 and August 6, 1956. For information about the booklet’s appearance in Boston, see the W. Arthur Garrity Jr. chambers papers on the Boston Schools Desegregation Case, 1972–1997, in the digital collection of the University Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston (http://openarchives.umb.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15774coll33), and the Stark and Subtle Divisions website, curated by graduate students in the History and American Studies department at UMass Boston (http://bodesca.omeka.net). The booklet’s arrival at the Redneck Shop is described in the Greenwood Index-Journal, May 13, 1996.
Seven: “This New Beginning, Ain’t It?”
Information about Rev. Kennedy’s plans to construct a multicultural center in Laurens is from the Greenville News, July 14, 1996.
In addition to my interviews with Rev. Kennedy and Michael Burden, the account of Burden’s repudiation of the Klan, his eviction from the Redneck Shop, and his subsequent apology to members of New Beginning Missionary Baptist was culled from a range of articles, including the Greenville News, July 10 and July 11, 1996; the Clinton Chronicle, July 10, 1996; and the Laurens County Advertiser, July 10 and July 12, 1996.
The information about homes in Laurens County in 1940 is from Jennifer Revels, “Historic and Architectural Survey of Eastern Laurens County,” 2003, South Carolina Department of Archives and History (nationalregister.sc.gov).
The statistics about the unemployment rate in Laurens are from the Greenwood Index-Journal, December 27, 1996.
For information about Laurens city officials’ plan to preemptively deny John Howard a business license, see the Clinton Chronicle, July 17, 1996; the Greenville News, July 12 and July 17, 1996; the Laurens County Advertiser, July 17, 1996; and the Associated Press report in the Montgomery Advertiser, July 21, 1996.
The quotes from Rev. Kennedy’s sister, Pam, are from videotaped interviews conducted in the mid-2000s by Mary Jo Marino Stemp.
Eight: “Let’s Talk Business”
For details of John Howard’s lawsuit filed against the city of Laurens, see the Greenville News, July 20, November 7, and November 21, 1996; the Laurens County Advertiser, July 24, August 7, November 20, and November 22, 1996; and the Clinton Chronicle, July 24 and November 27, 1996. For additional details of the Laurens City Council meeting in November 1997, see the Associated Press online archives, story number w051637, November 21, 1996.
Kennedy’s request for “full and public” investigations of the Redneck Shop comes from the Laurens County Advertiser, December 18, 1996.
Information about the SLED investigation into John Howard, as well as Michael Burden’s polygraph examination, was culled from South Carolina State Law Enforcement Notes pertaining to case number P97-260, obtained via Freedom of Information Act request. The quote from Kennedy’s lawyer about trusting his client’s instincts toward Burden “to some degree” is from the Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1997. The County Council’s debate over the Confederate flag at the Capitol dome was covered by the Laurens County Advertiser, December 11, 1996, and January 15, 1997, and the Clinton Chronicle, January 15, 1997. The information about the Klan’s plan to open a recruiting office above the Redneck Shop is from the Greenville News, March 2, 1997. The account of the Redneck Shop sticker placed on the door of Rev. Kennedy’s church is culled from the Clinton Chronicle, April 2, 1997, and the Greenville News, March 31 and April 1, 1997.
In addition to my interviews with Michael Burden, the account of his decision to sell the remainder interest in the Redneck Shop to Rev. Kennedy was culled from reporting in the Laurens County Advertiser, June 6, 1997; the Washington Post, July 27, 1997; and “Hope and Hate,” Primetime Live, ABC News, ed. Jim Sabat, October 1, 1997.
Details of Dwayne Howard’s arrest can be found in the Greenville News, May 20, May 21, June 14, and June 15, 1997; the Laurens County Advertiser, May 21, 1997; and the Clinton Chronicle, May 21, 1997. Details of Kennedy’s protests in and around Laurens throughout the fall of 1997 and the spring of 1998, including his protests of the Kemet Corp. plant closure and the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department, were culled from the Greenville News, August 29, 1997, and February 14, 1998; and the Clinton Chronicle, September 3 and December 24, 1997. The October 1997 Klan rally, at which Councilman McDaniel attempted to debate demonstrators “on any subject,” was covered by the Clinton Chronicle, October 29, 1997.
For Michael Burden’s arrest record and sentencing details, see Laurens County criminal court records F822419, second-degree burglary, grand larceny; F822421, second-degree burglary; F822423, second-degree burglary, grand larceny; F822424, second-degree burglary; F909070, second-degree burglary, grand larceny; F909077, second-degree burglary, grand larceny; and F909079, second-degree burglary, grand larceny, safe-cracking. Burden’s initial arrest in Woodruff was reported by GoUpstate.com on July 1, 1998 (http://www.goupstate.com/article/NC/19980701/news/605183990/SJ). Additional details about subsequent arrests can be found in the Clinton Chronicle, August 12 and August 26, 1998. For Investigator Chuck Milam’s quotes see the Greenville News, August 15, 1998.
Nine: The Substance of Things Hoped for, the Evidence of Things Not Seen
For information about the four Keystone Knights arrested at a rally in Boswell, see the Allentown Morning Call, July 31, 1998. Barry Black’s Supreme Court case battle has been reported on extensively in a wide variety of sources. For an overview of the case, see William Mears, “U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Cross Burning Arguments,” CNN, December 13, 2002. For information about Horace King’s trial and the collapse of the Christian Knights, see my notes for Chapter Sthis page. Morris Dees’s quote about the Christian Knights and their “day of reckoning” is from the Montgomery Advertiser, July 28, 1998. Bill Moore’s quote about hate groups becoming more cautious in the wake of the verdict is from an Associated Press report in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, July 26, 1998.
For information about the formation of the Carolina Knights and the rally in Burnettown, see the Augusta Chronicle, June 15 and September 17, 2000. Information about the rising number of hate groups in the early 2000s is culled from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, Spring 2008, and Brad Knickerbocker, “Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Fuel Ku Klux Klan Resurgence,” Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2007. For the bar patron who believed that residents of Laurens were “past” slavery, see John Saward, “Keeping It Casual: A Day with South Carolina’s 21st Century Racists,” Vice, February 22, 2016. Information about various white supremacist events hosted by the Rednec
k Shop was culled from posts on a range of white supremacist websites, including Stormfront.com and WhiteReference.com, as well as reporting by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League. For the 2006 Aryan Nations “World Congress,” hosted at the Redneck Shop, see John F. Sugg, “Inside the Secret World of White Supremacy,” Creative Loafing, October 18, 2006.
Information about John Taylor Bowles and his campaign platform comes from a report in the Columbia City Paper, February 2007, and Wikinews interviews, February 19, 2008 (https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_John_Taylor_Bowles,_National_Socialist_Order_of_America_candidate_for_US_President).
For general information about the history and rise of the National Socialist Movement, see the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, Spring 2006; Sonia Scherr, “Neo-Nazi Group’s Dirty Linen Aired in Leaked Emails,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 28, 2009; and “American Stormtroopers: Inside the National Socialist Movement,” Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, 2008. For the 2007 NSM rally at the South Carolina statehouse, see the Greenville News, April 27, 2007, and the Associated Press report in the Aiken Standard, April 15, 2007. The detail about the Keystone Knights barring fraternization with neo-Nazis is from a letter to the editor published in the Alexandria Times-Tribune, January 6, 1999, written by Allen Wood, Grand Klaliff of the International Keystone Knights, Realm of Indiana.
The fraudulent deeds between John Howard, Michael Burden, and Nicholas Chappell are recorded in Deed Book 809, page 226, and Deed Book 827, page 188, at the Laurens County Clerk of Court’s Office, and can be viewed at search.laurensdeeds.com. Rev. Kennedy’s quote about Burden “falling prey” to the Klan is from the New York Times, January 12, 2012.
For information about William Hoff’s death and Howard’s YouTube comments, and for John Howard and Michael Burden’s 2009 depositions, see my notes for Chapter Three. Nicholas Chappell’s comments about Kennedy’s claim to the Echo are from the Canadian National Post, March 24, 2008.
For Judge Frank R. Addy Jr.’s ruling in the matter of New Beginning Baptist Church vs. Michael Eugene Burden, John Howard, Hazel Howard, and Nicholas Edward Chappell, see Laurens County court record 2008CP3000708. See also the Laurens County Advertiser Extra, January 7, 2012; the Laurens County Advertiser, January 11, 2012; the Greenville News, September 2, 2008, and the Associated Press report in the Newport News Daily Press, March 11, 2008.
The online chatter about Rev. Kennedy’s lawsuit was culled from posts at (now defunct) WhiteReference.com. For an account of the fire at Rev. Kennedy’s church, see golaurens.com, September 11, 2013.
Afterword
The warning to residents of Jackson, Georgia, in advance of Burden’s filming was included in the “Press Release on ‘Burden’ by the City of Jackson,” published at jacksonbuttscounty.com.
Numerous reporters have likened Donald Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail to language employed by the 1920s-era Ku Klux Klan; see especially Kelly J. Baker, “Make America White Again?,” The Atlantic, March 12, 2016, and Yoni Appelbaum, “Why Won’t Donald Trump Repudiate the Ku Klux Klan?,” The Atlantic, February 28, 2016. For information about the nearly nine hundred hate incidents that took place in the ten days following the 2016 presidential election, see “Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election,” authored by Cassie Miller and Alexandra Werner-Winslow of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
John Howard’s obituary can be found at the Parker-White-Pruitt Funeral Homes and Crematory’s website (parkerwhitepruitt.com). Debbie Campbell’s quote about blacks and whites in Laurens “mixing more these days than ever before,” as well as Dianne Belsom’s assertion that Reverend Kennedy is a race-baiter and Superintendent Dr. Stephen Peters’s admission of feeling unsafe in Laurens, are from Adam Parker, “The Redneck Shop and the Preacher: In Laurens, A Long Saga of Racial Conflict Continues,” Charleston Post and Courier, October 1, 2017. For information about the Laurens School District 55 Board of Trustee’s proposed bond referendum, as well as the resulting racial strife, see the Laurens County Advertiser, August 30, September 6, September 27, and October 18, 2017.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COURTNEY HARGRAVE is a journalist and coauthor who has worked on numerous New York Times bestsellers. She lives in New York City.