RALEIGH, N.C. _ A North Carolina Ku Klux Klan group has announced on its website that it will hold a rally and cross burning in May in Asheboro.
The event was scheduled by The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Pelham _ an unincorporated community about 45 minutes north of Burlington, near the Virginia line. Details of the rally are scarce, but the website said the event will feature speeches, dinner and a cross burning at dark.
The group has held other events, including a parade through Roxboro in December. The parade, to celebrate Donald Trump's presidential election victory, drew more than 100 participants.
The KKK's official newspaper, The Crusader, and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke embraced Trump, the Republican candidate in last year's presidential campaign.
Two Klan leaders, who organized a "White Lives Matter" rally that turned violent in Anaheim, Calif., in 2016, were arrested in North Carolina in December in connection with a stabbing before a Klan parade, according to a New York Times story. The Times said the men _ William Hagen, grand dragon of the Loyal White Knights, and Chris Baker _ were accused of stabbing a third Klan member.
The group was also behind a rally in South Carolina in 2015 protesting the removal of the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds.
According to the group's website, the Asheboro rally will be held May 6. The KKK has not announced an exact location or time for the rally, but its flier touts free parking as well as no drinking, drugs or weapons.
