A Ku Klux Klan organization based in Missouri has sent a letter to Lee County Commissioner Larry Kiker opposing the removal of the portrait of General Robert E. Lee from county commission chambers.
The letter suggests being from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, with a PO Box address in Park Hills, MO. Click here to read the letter
Frank Ancona, the self-described “Imperial Wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan organization based in Missouri, said today by email the group cares about the Robert E. Lee portrait controversy “because we look out for the interests and the rights of Americans and preserving our history is one of the things that we do.”
His organization, the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, sent a letter addressed to Lee County Commissioner Larry Kiker and copied to all the other commissioners in support of keeping the Lee portrait hanging in commission chambers.
“They always want to go back to race, race, race,” said Ancona of the NAACP, which wants the portrait taken down. “There a plenty of Blacks who fought under the Confederates.”
Ancona said the controversial issue was brought to the group’s attention by local members of the organization. “That is one of the things our members do is keep an eye on issues in their community.”
According to the letter, “In the past several years the NAACP and other Black activists working with liberal organizations have worked tirelessly to erase our southern heritage, history and culture,” the letter states. “Organizations like the NAACP will always cry racism if they cannot get their way because they know it is a useful tool in accomplishing their agenda.”
The letter notes that commissioners have welcomed “thoughtful conversation” about the issue and provides a history of Robert E. Lee’s career, as well as a letter Lee wrote in 1856 calling slavery “a moral and political evil.”
Ancona said that the nationwide organization has different “realms” in different states, along with local “klaverns,” or chapters. The Southwest Florida klavern has about 20 to 50 members, he said. “We’ve got klansmen all over Florida.”