Click here to read the letter<\/a><\/p>\nFrank Ancona, the self-described \u201cImperial Wizard\u201d of the Ku Klux Klan organization based in Missouri, said today by email the group cares about the Robert E. Lee portrait controversy \u201cbecause we look out for the interests and the rights of Americans and preserving our history is one of the things that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always want to go back to race, race, race,\u201d said Ancona of the NAACP, which wants the portrait taken down. \u201cThere a plenty of Blacks who fought under the Confederates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ancona said the controversial issue was brought to the group\u2019s attention by local members of the organization. \u201cThat is one of the things our members do is keep an eye on issues in their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the letter, \u201cIn 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,\u201d the letter states. \u201cOrganizations 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter notes that commissioners have welcomed \u201cthoughtful conversation\u201d about the issue and provides a history of Robert E. Lee\u2019s career, as well as a letter Lee wrote in 1856 calling slavery \u201ca moral and political evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ancona said that the nationwide organization has different \u201crealms\u201d in different states, along with local \u201cklaverns,\u201d or chapters. The Southwest Florida klavern has about 20 to 50 members, he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got klansmen all over Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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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.<\/p>\n