KKK doesn't regret distributing fliers on Bloody Sunday
The Ku Klux Klan distributed about 6,000 fliers throughout Montgomery as well as Selma on the weekend of Bloody Sunday.
Jeremy Jones, who oversees KKK operations in Alabama, said the flier distribution was intended as a recruitment effort, not an intimidation tactic. (Jeremy, an Exalted Cyclops in the Klan, did not want to give his last name, and asked to be referred to as Jones).
Jones said the distribution of the fliers was not intentionally timed to align with Bloody Sunday.
"That weekend just happened to be the weekend I'd already arranged for 15 people to come down and do a flier drop. When I went to south Alabama two weekends ago, we picked an area about the same size and we did the same thing down there," he said.
However, Jones said he does not regret coincidentally distributing thousands of KKK fliers on a historical civil rights anniversary and he now believes it was not a bad decision.
"It was actually a good decision to do it on that day, even though it was a coincidence," he said. "I wish we'd put out more now that I look back at it."
Neither the Montgomery County Sheriff's office nor the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate group activity across the nation, received complaints from anyone who received the fliers.
Jones did not name a specific location where the fliers were delivered.
About six months ago, similar activity occurred in Prattville, when KKK members distributed fliers for recruitment purposes.
Heidi Beirich, who works at the SPLC, says these recruitment efforts have become more frequent in the past year.
"This happens a lot, at least once a month for sure," she said. "People are always horrified or disgusted or upset (when they report receiving a flier). The Klan has been doing a whole lot of this kind of fliering all over the country. I don't think it reflects any strength of the organization, but it has been a common activity."
Beirich also said no recent violent activity connected with the KKK has been reported.