COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Ku Klux Klan will hold a rally at the South Carolina Statehouse next month to protest efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds.

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan requested the rally from 3 to 5 p.m. on July 18.

The Klan is expecting 100 to 200 people to attend, according to a copy of its state event form.

Calling itself the “Largest Klan in America,” the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are based in Pelham, N.C., according to the group’s website.

A man identifying himself as the “grand titan” of the North Carolina chapter of the Loyal White Knights left a message with The State saying his group is holding the demonstration because “to us they are erasing white history and white culture right out of the history books. That’s why they want to take that flag down.”

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who along with other state political and business leaders has called for banishing the flag from the Statehouse grounds, said of the KKK rally: “This is our state, and they are not welcome.”


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