April 28, 2000: SLRC & KKK Protest At Franklin High School (Macon County, NC) Over Confederate flag suspensions.

Two members of the Otto, NC based KKK led by Jim Ward stood outside Franklin High School in Macon County, NC on April 28, 2000 to protest the suspension of four students for waving the Confederate flag during a recent track meet. Eighteen schools, several having African-American athletes, had come to Franklin High School for a regional meet. The students later apologized and told the Principal they wanted nothing to do with the KKK.

Southern Legal Resource Center "Chairman" H.K.Edgerton, an African-American, protested at Franklin High School on two earlier occasions over the same suspensiions. He was reported by one observer as protesting early on the morning of April 27 but was not seen demonstrating at the same time as the KKK. The SLRC describes itself as a "civil rights organization for the Confederate flag" and has as its "Chief Trial Attorney" Kirk Lyons who has been called by the Southern Poverty Law Center a leader in the white supremacy movement. Edgerton, who was suspended, then forced out as President of the Asheville Branch of the NAACP in 1998 has been the center of local controversy since taking up with white supremacists. Click here to see WNCCEIB letter to Franklin Press published in early May 2000.