1 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:10,040 Speaker 1: Col Zone Media, Welcome back to the second half of 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: the story of Barry Black, the Pennsylvania Clansman. Barry Black's 3 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: main claim to fame as being the black in Commonwealth 4 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 1: of Virginia v. Black, the two thousand and three Supreme 5 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: Court case that found Virginia's crossburning statute unconstitutionally overbroad. I 6 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: set out to learn a little more about that landmark 7 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: decision and the life of the man who won it, 8 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,239 Speaker 1: because it comes up often in some cases going on 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: now the prosecutions of the torch bearing white supremacist who 10 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,239 Speaker 1: came to Charlottesville in twenty seventeen, and I found a 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: lot more than I bargained for. I don't know what 12 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: I expected, but last week's story of a small town 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 1: war and a rural gay bar complete with side characters 14 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: like a notorious federal informant who worked for Lynton LaRouche 15 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: and a street preacher who was a central figure in 16 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:03,280 Speaker 1: the Obama Birtherism conspiracy, definitely surprised me. This week, though, 17 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: we'll actually get to Barry's infamous cross burning and the Black, 18 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: a CLU lawyer who fought for the clansman's rights. 19 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,559 Speaker 2: That victory. What worldwide I said case presence, I said 20 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 2: case law, and we proved that the law does work. 21 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 2: Yet I can light across anywhere in the United States 22 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 2: of America that I want to light it. 23 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: Berry Black fought the law, and he won. But a 24 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,559 Speaker 1: new law was born from the ashes of the one 25 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: Barry burned. I'm Molly Conger. This is one of the 26 00:01:43,240 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: little guys. When we left off last week, Barry Black 27 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: and his Keystone Knights had gotten into a little hot 28 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: water at their white bride picnic. In July of nineteen 29 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: ninety eight, Barry held a clan picnic on a farm 30 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: owned by Don and Lisa Penrod in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 31 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: when Berry held a clan rally at Kasanova Lounge, the 32 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: county's only gay bar the year prior. The Penrod's farm 33 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: was the pre rally staging area and the site of 34 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,560 Speaker 1: the post rally cross burning later that evening. They weren't 35 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,079 Speaker 1: just concerned neighbors whose opposition to the gay bar made 36 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: them unlikely allies with the clan. They were members. Lisa 37 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: Penrod in fact commanded the Women's Auxiliary Unit and served 38 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: as the Imperial Secretary of the Invisible Empire International Keystone 39 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: Knights of the Ku Klux Klan under Berry's leadership, and 40 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: on July twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, Don and Lisa 41 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: Penrod were two of the ten clan members standing at 42 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,360 Speaker 1: the fence line on the Penrod farm demanding answers from 43 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: a man in their neighbour's tree. That man turned out 44 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: to be a state trooper, and Don Penne was one 45 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: of four attendees at the clan picnic who was arrested 46 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,399 Speaker 1: for threatening the trooper at gunpoint. Barry himself posted Don 47 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: Penrod's ten thousand dollars bond. The week after the picnic, 48 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,080 Speaker 1: Cambria County District Attorney David Tulowitski filed a petition with 49 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: the court to have Berry Black removed from the office 50 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: of Constable, an elected law enforcement position he'd won by 51 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:25,120 Speaker 1: a single rite in vote the year prior history was 52 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:29,359 Speaker 1: repeating itself. Barry was elected constable of Johnstown's twenty first 53 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: ward in nineteen ninety one, and was removed from office 54 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: just a few months later when the county prosecutor filed 55 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: a petition to have him removed on the grounds that 56 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: his criminal record made him ineligible to hold a position 57 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: of public trust. A judge agreed. Barry appealed that decision 58 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: and fought it all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 59 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: holding clan rallies at court houses and in small towns 60 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: throughout the year and a half long appeals process. The 61 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:57,119 Speaker 1: state's highest court told Barry in nineteen ninety three that 62 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: he wasn't allowed to be the Constable and nothing in 63 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: the law had changed in the five years since. But 64 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: here he was fighting the same fight all over again. 65 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: This time around, he argued that the petition to remove 66 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: him from office was retaliation, pure and simple. The county 67 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: was punishing him for his clan rally and for the 68 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: complaint he'd filed against the state troopers who arrested his 69 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: friends at the picnic in mid August of nineteen ninety eight. 70 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: The issue of whether the Clansmen could continue operating as 71 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: Constable was with the courts. There was no injunction preventing 72 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: him from acting as a law enforcement official, but the 73 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: county had apparently instructed officers of the court to use 74 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: him to serve Warrens as sparingly as possible. In the meantime, 75 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 1: Barry's lawyer shrugged this off, telling the local paper. I 76 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: think he's pretty well preoccupied with his grand wizardry in 77 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: the clan, and that's true. He was keeping busy, And 78 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,600 Speaker 1: it was in August nineteen ninety eight that Barry Black 79 00:04:55,440 --> 00:05:00,479 Speaker 1: took a road trip. This wasn't Barry's first out of 80 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: state clan field trip. Six people were arrested when the 81 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: crowd got out of control during Barry's opening prayers at 82 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: a clan rally in Millville, New Jersey, in nineteen ninety. 83 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 1: When Barry head lined across burning in Maryland in nineteen 84 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: ninety one, the Washington Post printed the slurs that came 85 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: out of his mouth. When clan leaders from six states 86 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: converged in Ohio in nineteen ninety five, Barry told the 87 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: Cincinnati Inquirer that it was like a family reunion and 88 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:30,599 Speaker 1: lamented that no one ever gives the clan credit for 89 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 1: all the good things we do. When clansmen in South 90 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: Carolina came under federal investigation for burning down black churches, 91 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: Barry was there at a cross burning in Lexington in 92 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,719 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, pledging the support of the Keystone Nights 93 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: in this legal battle to come. No, his lawyer was right. 94 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:53,479 Speaker 1: Barry was very busy being the grand Wizard. He was 95 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,479 Speaker 1: always driving off to Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, or just the 96 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: other side of Pennsylvania for some appearance at a clan event. 97 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: This trip to Virginia should have been like any of 98 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: the others, show up, make a scene, light across, upset 99 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:14,600 Speaker 1: the locals, and head home again. But this time was different. 100 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: The Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan packed up 101 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: their white robes and their crossburning supplies and made the 102 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,680 Speaker 1: six hour drive from Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Hillsville, Virginia, a 103 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:28,920 Speaker 1: small town in Carroll County in Virginia's far southwest tip, 104 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:33,159 Speaker 1: not far from the North Carolina border. And here's Barry 105 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: in his own words, talking about the event in an 106 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: interview recorded in two thousand and five for Duke University 107 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: School of Law's Voices of American Law Project. 108 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,360 Speaker 2: What I was doing down there was starting a new den, 109 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 2: or starting a new clavern, giving the people the books 110 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 2: to read, telling the people what we expect to them 111 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 2: and how we want them to become pillars in their community. 112 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:03,320 Speaker 1: Pillars of the community, he says. And when he was 113 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: placed in the back of a deputy's patrol car, that night, 114 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,920 Speaker 1: he offered some insight into what he meant by that 115 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: to Carroll County Sheriff's Lieutenant Rick Clark. Here's Virginia's Solicitor General, 116 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: William Hurd relaying that statement to the Supreme Court. 117 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 3: What we had in the case of Barry Black was 118 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 3: he heard that he's from Pennsylvania. He heard that down 119 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 3: in Carroll County, blacks and whites were holding hands on 120 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 3: the sidewalk. 121 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:39,480 Speaker 1: Barry Black was arrested that night, handcuffed and taken away 122 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: while the cross was still burning, because, regardless of why 123 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: he came, what he'd done was a felony here in Virginia. 124 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: The first half of this story opened with a twelve 125 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: foot cross set ablaze in a peanut field in Suffolk, Virginia, 126 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty eight. Local agricultural union workers denounced it 127 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: as an act of terrorism and demanded a response from 128 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,280 Speaker 1: state government officials. After being brushed off by local law enforcement, 129 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: it just wasn't a crime. Newspaper archives for the next 130 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: few years show a frustrating pattern. Crosses were burning all 131 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: over the state, and every time it happened, it was 132 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: dismissed as some isolated incident. Some kind of prank, some 133 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 1: kind of childish active vandalism. Every cross that burned in 134 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: Virginia was written off by newspapers and cops here in Virginia, 135 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: But those same papers ran stories of flaming crosses in 136 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:38,679 Speaker 1: Tennessee and South Carolina, properly identifying those as what they were, 137 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: a burning line in the sand, keeping black Southerners from 138 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: moving into white neighborhoods, from getting elected to office, from 139 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 1: gaining civil rights, and from feeling safe in their homes. 140 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: In late nineteen forty nine, a series of cross burnings 141 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: culminating in an explosion, destroyed the construction site for a 142 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: planned housing project for black residents in Nashville. After Judge 143 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: Wade's wearing open South Carolina's previously whites only primaries to 144 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:09,760 Speaker 1: black voters, his home was targeted repeatedly with crosses burning 145 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: on his front lawn in nineteen fifty. But the same 146 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:16,160 Speaker 1: papers that ran those wire stories from cities and other 147 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: states wrote their own local coverage of crossburnings closer to home, 148 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:23,319 Speaker 1: with a very different tone. When a cross burned in 149 00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:27,439 Speaker 1: Nashville or Charleston, it's safe to say that those cities 150 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:32,480 Speaker 1: have racial unrest. Those cities have the clan. In the 151 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:35,920 Speaker 1: summer of nineteen fifty, several black residents of Colonial Beach, Virginia, 152 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: found a lawsuit to force the locality to allow them 153 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: to swim in a public beach. The town relented, there 154 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,560 Speaker 1: was no need to go to court. The beaches are 155 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: open to all residents. But when those black residents and 156 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:50,160 Speaker 1: their attorney went to the beach to see if that 157 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: was true, five hundred white men attacked the fifteen black beachgoers. 158 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: Later that week, crosses burned all down the beach. Another 159 00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 1: cross was erected and burned outside of the Black church, 160 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: accompanied by rifle fire, and the letters k k K 161 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:15,240 Speaker 1: were scrawled on sidewalks all over black neighborhoods. The town 162 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: council took no official notice of the crossburnings and said 163 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: they not only had no obligation to anticipate on the 164 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: rest of the beach, but it would in fact amount 165 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 1: to discrimination to have done anything to ensure those black 166 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: residents could access the beach. There was no KKK in 167 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,959 Speaker 1: Virginia in nineteen fifty. Just look at any newspaper anywhere 168 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,080 Speaker 1: in the state. When a woman had found a cross 169 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 1: burning on her front porch in Noffolk in September of 170 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty. The police told then Offolk Ledger Dispatch that 171 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:45,199 Speaker 1: it was only a small cross, just two feet high, 172 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: and quote the clan usually puts on a bigger show. 173 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 1: There had been eight cross burnings in neighboring Nansaman County 174 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:56,440 Speaker 1: in just the last few months, but this was probably 175 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: just mischievous kids. The Bristol, Virginia Time in the Sea 176 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: and reported in October of nineteen fifty that the twelve 177 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,120 Speaker 1: foot cross burned on a hillside near the reservoir, where 178 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: it was visible to hundreds of residents, was just a prank. 179 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,160 Speaker 1: There's no way to know what those men in hoods 180 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: were doing up there, and a police captain told the 181 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: paper that the Confederate flag left behind was evidence that 182 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,840 Speaker 1: this was obviously just a prank. That same newspaper had 183 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: been running coverage of a clan march in South Carolina 184 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,400 Speaker 1: just six weeks earlier. After letting up a cross in 185 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach, the clan marched into town surrounding a black 186 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: dance hall. There was a riot. Charlie Fitzgerald stood in 187 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:40,560 Speaker 1: the doorway of his bar with a gun, but he 188 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: never had a chance to fire it before the mob 189 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,240 Speaker 1: beat him and shoved him into the trunk of a car. 190 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: The clansmen emptied their guns into the sides of the building, 191 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 1: riddling the walls with bullet holes and shattering all of 192 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 1: the windows. Amidst all this chaos, one of their own 193 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:57,839 Speaker 1: took a stray bullet in the back. When his robes 194 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,160 Speaker 1: were removed to the hospital where he died, he was 195 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:06,000 Speaker 1: wearing a policeman's uniform. Underneath. These stories running in the 196 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: same paper may give you some insight into a small 197 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: town police officer's eagerness to explain away these flames on 198 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: a hillside, but you can draw your own conclusions. The 199 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:22,079 Speaker 1: clan was thriving again across the South. In January of 200 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:24,959 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, the state of Georgia outlawed crossburning in 201 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,520 Speaker 1: an effort to stem the tide of this white robed violence. 202 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:31,440 Speaker 1: In February of nineteen fifty one, crosses were lit outside 203 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:34,079 Speaker 1: the homes and businesses of black residence in Guchland and 204 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: in Reiko Counties in Virginia. Black families reported seeing half 205 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 1: a dozen men firing their guns into the air as 206 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,559 Speaker 1: they ran back to their cars after lighting the flames. 207 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 1: The FBI said it was a local matter. The sheriff 208 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:52,679 Speaker 1: said it was pranksters. When the local NAACP demanded an investigation, 209 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: the county prosecutor said, there is definitely no racial relations 210 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: question connected to the recent crossburnings. By June of nineteen 211 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:06,600 Speaker 1: fifty one, Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina had joined Georgia 212 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:11,480 Speaker 1: in banning crossburning across the South. The crosses burned, and 213 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:15,320 Speaker 1: there was no question about what it meant except when 214 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:19,440 Speaker 1: it happened here. The same papers that ran the wire 215 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:23,480 Speaker 1: stories about the legislative attempts to combat clan activity everywhere 216 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: else said the six foot cross doused and gasoline in 217 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,160 Speaker 1: the middle of Route one in Stafford was just a prank. 218 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:34,880 Speaker 1: It was just kids messing with traffic. In August of 219 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 1: that year, a widow and Appomatox was awoken in the 220 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:39,040 Speaker 1: middle of the night by the sound of an explosion. 221 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: The cross burning on her front lawn had ignited the 222 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:46,720 Speaker 1: dynamite late at its base. A postcard from the clan 223 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:51,200 Speaker 1: was left to the scene. The newspaper ran the headline 224 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:56,600 Speaker 1: crossfire lacks motive, with the sheriff quoted saying, my office 225 00:13:56,679 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 1: dropped the matter. It was probably a personal thing or 226 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: just some children. In my haphazard search of newspaper archives, 227 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:10,440 Speaker 1: I found nearly a hundred of these pranks in Virginia 228 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,199 Speaker 1: and the nineteen fifties. A white cop tells a white 229 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,840 Speaker 1: reporter that there's nothing to worry about here, it's only 230 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: a joke. As a black family douses the burning embers 231 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: on the law. No one could see the racial terror 232 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,480 Speaker 1: we already had here at home. It was always kids 233 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: or vandals or pranksters. But in nineteen fifty two, the 234 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:50,520 Speaker 1: Virginia State legislature was finally ready to act. Responding to 235 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: reports that Florida Clan leader Bill Hendrix was planning a 236 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: rally in Richmond and South Carolina Clan leader Thomas Hamilton 237 00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: was planning to start chapters in more than a dozen 238 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:02,760 Speaker 1: towns in Virginia, a bill was introduced to outlaw the 239 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 1: wearing of masks in public. At the urging of religious groups, 240 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: a ban on crossburning was added. The threat of these 241 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: out of town clansmen pushed the bill through without significant pushback, 242 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:17,760 Speaker 1: and it was signed by Governor John Battle in April 243 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two. But changing the law didn't change anyone's attitudes. 244 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:26,880 Speaker 1: Throughout the nineteen fifties, most of the crossburning stories I 245 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:31,200 Speaker 1: could find were dismissed as pranks, and if I'm being 246 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: entirely honest, some of them might have been. There were 247 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,440 Speaker 1: several crossburnings in Newport News that teenage boys eventually confessed to, 248 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: with one cross being placed on the law of a 249 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 1: state delegate by mistake. The boys said they were pranking 250 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 1: their high school teachers, and I did find at least 251 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: three stories of high school teachers and Newport News who 252 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: had crosses burned on their lawn. The boys' names were 253 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: never published, so I don't know what they got up 254 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: to later in life, and I have to wonder exactly 255 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:07,000 Speaker 1: what kind of pranks these were. It's the fifties. Had 256 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: those teachers expressed support for integration, Did they go on 257 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: dates with black women or rent property to black tenants. 258 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: It wasn't unheard of for behavior like that to earn 259 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,560 Speaker 1: a white man a visit from those seeking to enforce 260 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:24,280 Speaker 1: the established social order. But it's impossible to say seventy 261 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,240 Speaker 1: years later what prompted those nighttime visits from their students. 262 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: And I tell you about these ones that maybe were pranks, 263 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: because I don't think any of them being pranks really 264 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,000 Speaker 1: helps explain it at all. If anything in underscores how 265 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:44,840 Speaker 1: widespread and commonly understood this was as a symbol. You 266 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: didn't have to be a clansman to know what it meant. 267 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 1: You didn't have to mean it yourself to know how 268 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: it would be read. In nineteen sixty five, George Lincoln Rockwell, 269 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: the founder of the American Nazi Party, ran for governor 270 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:08,359 Speaker 1: here in Virginia. He didn't win, obviously, he got nearly 271 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:12,040 Speaker 1: six thousand votes, though one percent of the total caste. 272 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: The new governor was Mills Godwin, once a staunch segregationist 273 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,159 Speaker 1: who had distanced himself from the political machine of Harry Bird. 274 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:24,320 Speaker 1: Whether he had a change of heart or just saw 275 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: the writing on the wall after the failure of Virginia's 276 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:31,359 Speaker 1: massive resistance to school desegregation is impossible to say, but 277 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 1: in December of nineteen sixty six, Governor Mills Godwin announced 278 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,920 Speaker 1: a one thousand dollar reward for information leading to the 279 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:45,160 Speaker 1: arrest and conviction of cross burners. In response, the Klan 280 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 1: burned a cross outside the Governor's mansion. 281 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 4: The clan dead rear its head in certain areas of 282 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:57,239 Speaker 4: Virginia in that period, even to the extent that they 283 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,919 Speaker 4: burned a cross on the sidewalk right by I'm the 284 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:05,360 Speaker 4: Governor's mansion. And we made some arrest and there were 285 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 4: some sentences meeted out to those that were convicted, and 286 00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:14,880 Speaker 4: it had a real deterring effect. 287 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 1: A rash of cross burnings followed. Crosses burned all over 288 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,520 Speaker 1: the state of Virginia in protest of Governor Godwin's declaration 289 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: of war against the Clan. On New Year's Day nineteen 290 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:30,160 Speaker 1: sixty seven, Wilson Ralph Price and his wife, Nanny Jane 291 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,680 Speaker 1: Price were arrested for burning across on a sidewalk in Richmond. 292 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,399 Speaker 1: All three of their young children were waiting for them 293 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 1: in their parked car, where police found several loaded guns, 294 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:44,000 Speaker 1: a second cross they intended to burn elsewhere later that day, 295 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,919 Speaker 1: and a stack of Clan literature. Barry Black wasn't the 296 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,120 Speaker 1: first clansman to fight this law, and win. Price had 297 00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:56,159 Speaker 1: his conviction overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court a year later, 298 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:01,120 Speaker 1: with the court ruling that technically the law didn't apply here. 299 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:06,399 Speaker 1: The Prices had burned that cross on public property on 300 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:11,479 Speaker 1: the sidewalk not on the property of another, as stated 301 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:15,359 Speaker 1: in the statute. The Virginia General Assembly amended the law 302 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:19,240 Speaker 1: that year to include a bannon crossburning on public property 303 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:23,359 Speaker 1: as well. In nineteen sixty eight, the state Supreme Court 304 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 1: seemed to believe that the purpose of banning crossburning was 305 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 1: to protect private property. The law didn't protect people, it 306 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: protected their laws, and with this amendment, the legislature clarified 307 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: their intention. The law isn't about property or truspass or 308 00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,679 Speaker 1: the possibility of danger from the flames themselves. It is 309 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:49,639 Speaker 1: intended to prevent a particular act of intimidation. But in 310 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: their efforts to close off this avenue of attack, they 311 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,639 Speaker 1: accidentally created another. This amendment to the statute also added 312 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:01,440 Speaker 1: language that the unlaw full burning of a cross shall 313 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: be primaphacia evidence of the intention to intimidate a person 314 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 1: or group of persons. This language was likely intended to 315 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:13,119 Speaker 1: get around the defense of whill it was just a prank. 316 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: Burning across is such a heinous act with no other 317 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,679 Speaker 1: purpose than to intimidate that if you can prove it 318 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 1: was done at all, then the starting assumption is that 319 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:28,199 Speaker 1: it was done to intimidate. So this amendment to the 320 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: law shifts the burden of proof to the party trying 321 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,399 Speaker 1: to prove otherwise. So when Bury lit that cross in 322 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: Carroll County on August twenty second, nineteen ninety eight, the 323 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,359 Speaker 1: law on the books read, it shall be unlawful for 324 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:46,080 Speaker 1: any person or persons, with the intent of intimidating any 325 00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:49,480 Speaker 1: person or group of persons, to burn, or cause to 326 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: be burned across on the property of another, a highway 327 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,199 Speaker 1: or other public space. Any person who shall violate this 328 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,440 Speaker 1: section shall be guilty of a classic spelony. Any such 329 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:02,919 Speaker 1: burning of a cross shall be primophacia evidence of an 330 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: intent to intimidate a person or group of persons, And 331 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,439 Speaker 1: Barry had done that. When the sheriff's lieutenant arrived, he 332 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 1: asked who lit this cross, and Barry stepped forward and 333 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,679 Speaker 1: claimed responsibility. He was charged in Carroll County and released 334 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: on bond, but he was having a hell of a 335 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,080 Speaker 1: time finding a lawyer. Most lawyers in the area wouldn't 336 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:29,920 Speaker 1: even return his calls. But then, as in so many 337 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 1: cases of extremists trying to force their way into the 338 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:38,520 Speaker 1: conversation about civil rights, the ACLU stepped up without even 339 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:43,040 Speaker 1: having to be asked. 340 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 2: Well, I walked into the courthouse. I just looked at him. 341 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,760 Speaker 2: He says, is there something wrong here? And I says, 342 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,879 Speaker 2: you're David Ball. He said yeah. I said you're black. 343 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 2: He says yeah. I said, are you going to fight 344 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 2: for me? Are you going to give me one hundred 345 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 2: and fifty one percent? He says, I'm not going to 346 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,600 Speaker 2: change your views. He says, in my views about you 347 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 2: aren't the greatest in the world either. He says, but 348 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 2: I will give you one hundred and fifty one percent. 349 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,640 Speaker 2: You have my word on that, sir. He says, I'll 350 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,320 Speaker 2: defend you to the end. And I says, good enough. 351 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 1: The Virginia ACLU was no stranger to this strange bedfellow's 352 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,080 Speaker 1: type of attorney client relationship. Just a few years earlier, 353 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,800 Speaker 1: they'd taken on the case of Buddy Hernandez, a clansman 354 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 1: who was arrested in nineteen eighty nine for handing out 355 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,840 Speaker 1: clan literature while wearing full clan regalia, including a hood 356 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: that covered his face. Like the crossburning law, Virginia's anti 357 00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 1: masking Statute was adopted in nineteen fifty two with the 358 00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: explicit intention of curtailing clan activity. The anti masking statute 359 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 1: was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, and the actual 360 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,040 Speaker 1: Supreme Court declined to hear Hernandez's case. In nineteen ninety four, 361 00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,439 Speaker 1: ACLU attorney David Baugh went to Batford Barry, and he 362 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: spent years on the case. When the pair first appeared 363 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,920 Speaker 1: in court together, the Richmond Times Dispatch ran the headline 364 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:13,800 Speaker 1: crowd likely as black defends klansmen. The news stories can 365 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:18,160 Speaker 1: be a little tough to parse sometimes because our klansman's 366 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: name is black, and the African American attorney representing him 367 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,439 Speaker 1: is being referred to often in these newspapers as a 368 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: black and the case was getting a lot of publicity. 369 00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,040 Speaker 1: This tiny town of just twenty seven hundred was suddenly 370 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:38,359 Speaker 1: swarming with reporters and lawyers. The state Attorney General's office 371 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,879 Speaker 1: sent a team to assist the local prosecutor. Carroll County 372 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:46,640 Speaker 1: District Court Clerk Christine Beck told the paper, it's going 373 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: to be a circus, and added, I guess some things 374 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,800 Speaker 1: are just fascinating, like the sex lies of the President. 375 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:57,640 Speaker 1: This would have been right around the time the Star 376 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 1: report was released to the public, and everyone was just 377 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:05,800 Speaker 1: in a frenzy about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The last 378 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: few months of nineteen ninety eight were hectic for Barry. 379 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: Now he was fighting his own case down in Virginia, 380 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: but the four clansmen arrested at the White Bride picnic 381 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: were still fighting their cases at home in Pennsylvania. A 382 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,399 Speaker 1: few weeks after this cross burning, Barry was kicked out 383 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,480 Speaker 1: of the court room during a hearing in Don Penrod's 384 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,120 Speaker 1: case for pointing his rifle at that state trooper, and 385 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: Barry had to appear in court repeatedly in his fight 386 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,200 Speaker 1: to keep his job as constable. He's under more scrutiny 387 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,520 Speaker 1: than ever his local prosecutor, state troopers, and the courts 388 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,880 Speaker 1: in Virginia were just waiting for Barry to make a mistake. 389 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: In March of nineteen ninety nine, a judge in Virginia 390 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,840 Speaker 1: ruled against emotion to dismiss Barry's criminal case, rejecting the 391 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:51,119 Speaker 1: argument that cross burning was protected First Amendment conduct. A 392 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:53,600 Speaker 1: few days later, Barry was back in court in Pennsylvania, 393 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,920 Speaker 1: railing against the corrupt judicial system trying to take away 394 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: his job as constable. He told reporter in the hallway 395 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: after the hearing that if they would just let him 396 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,639 Speaker 1: keep the job, he would be too busy working to 397 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: keep up his clan activities. That's not really a great 398 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,280 Speaker 1: argument if you ask me, you know, just let me 399 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,440 Speaker 1: be a cop and I'll be too busy to do crime. 400 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: I don't know that that's very convincing. And while we're 401 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,440 Speaker 1: on the subject of guys who probably should not be cops, 402 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,800 Speaker 1: I want to pick up a thread from the story 403 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:33,080 Speaker 1: last week. Barry's involvement in the war on the Casanova 404 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: Lounge doesn't really factor into this week's story. He's too 405 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: busy with his own problems at this point to be 406 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,879 Speaker 1: bothering with that gay bar. But the situation was ongoing, 407 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: and it was around this time, in the spring of 408 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:49,160 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, that something the bar's patrons had long 409 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:54,239 Speaker 1: suspected was proved to be true. The bigots had an 410 00:25:54,240 --> 00:26:00,320 Speaker 1: inside man. Ron Immler, the police chief and neighboring Connamaw Township, 411 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:05,240 Speaker 1: had been running license plates for the protesters and supplying 412 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,720 Speaker 1: them with the names and home addresses of the people 413 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:12,119 Speaker 1: who visited the gay bar. Imler denied these accusations, but 414 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: he suddenly retired. The Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Technology 415 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 1: Service informed the town's supervisors in a letter that Ron 416 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,159 Speaker 1: Imler had violated state and federal law by providing confidential 417 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:29,320 Speaker 1: information obtained through state computer databases to an unauthorized person. 418 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: It's not clear to me if Immler was ever charged 419 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,400 Speaker 1: or prosecuted for this. There's no record in the online 420 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,840 Speaker 1: information system for Pennsylvania's courts. It could be that this 421 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,680 Speaker 1: is very old. I did find other records from that year. 422 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,640 Speaker 1: It could be that he had it sealed or expunged. 423 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,439 Speaker 1: But it's possible that he was just never charged. So 424 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,240 Speaker 1: we do have on record that the state police informed 425 00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: the township that their police chief had broken the law, 426 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,480 Speaker 1: but it's not clear that the local prosecutor ever brought 427 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,840 Speaker 1: those charge. So it's not always as literal as that 428 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,720 Speaker 1: dead clansman in South Carolina who was wearing his police 429 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,359 Speaker 1: uniform under his robes. And Barry wasn't the only law 430 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,959 Speaker 1: enforcement official in the area whose vision of law and 431 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:17,760 Speaker 1: order included harassing that bar out of existence. But back 432 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,480 Speaker 1: to Barry, things didn't improve much for Barry, as nineteen 433 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 1: ninety nine, wore On Don Penrod and two other clansmen 434 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: were convicted for threatening those state troopers at the White 435 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:31,600 Speaker 1: Pride picnic, and Barry was once again removed from the 436 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,159 Speaker 1: office of Constable by the courts. He tried to appeal 437 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: the decision as he had the first time around, but 438 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,440 Speaker 1: it didn't work out. He filed a federal lawsuit against 439 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: the state police, but his case got tossed before it 440 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,400 Speaker 1: even got off the ground. He had to bail his son, 441 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 1: Barry Junior, out of the local jail three times that year, 442 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:53,199 Speaker 1: including one night after the younger Barry was arrested for 443 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,160 Speaker 1: threatening someone with a gun. And in June of nineteen 444 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,560 Speaker 1: ninety nine, an all white jury in Carroll County liberated 445 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:05,360 Speaker 1: for just twenty five minutes before finding Berry Black guilty 446 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,399 Speaker 1: of cross burning under that Virginia statute. They had the 447 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: option of giving him up to five years behind bars 448 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: for this classics felony, but the jury decided on just 449 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: a twenty five hundred dollars fine. 450 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 2: I can't just say, hey, no, here's twenty five hundred dollars, 451 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,320 Speaker 2: forget it. If I did that, I'm letting my race down. 452 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 2: I have to make people know that America is still 453 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 2: a land of opportunity, that America is still a land 454 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,360 Speaker 2: of democracy, and that the Constitution United States of America 455 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,160 Speaker 2: still means something. 456 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 1: His attorney, David Ball, vowed to appeal the conviction, saying 457 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: the cross was burned as part of their ceremony, not 458 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:49,400 Speaker 1: because they wanted to intimidate anyone, and the first appeal 459 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,400 Speaker 1: didn't go their way. In December of two thousand, the 460 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: Virginia Court of Appeals upheld Berry's conviction, but they kept fighting. 461 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: A year later, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed with Barry 462 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 1: Virginia's crossburning law was unconstitutional. The opinion noted that similar 463 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 1: statutes in Maryland and South Carolina had been ruled unconstitutional 464 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,440 Speaker 1: in recent years, and the law on the books was 465 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,440 Speaker 1: indistinguishable from the Minnesota law struck down in the nineteen 466 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 1: ninety two Supreme Court case rav versus City of Saint Paul. 467 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: The issue here arises in that nineteen sixty eight amendment 468 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: to the law about the act itself being sufficient evidence 469 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:33,440 Speaker 1: of intent, and just a quick side note here. I 470 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: don't want a Monday morning quarterback the State Supreme Court, 471 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: but they are mistaken about something here. The opinion incorrectly 472 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: states that the prima fascia evidence of intent language was 473 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: added in nineteen seventy five, but it was nineteen sixty eight. 474 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:50,720 Speaker 1: And I can promise you that I pulled copies of 475 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,719 Speaker 1: the Acts of the General Assembly for every legislative session 476 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 1: that this code section was touched. The prima facial requirement 477 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 1: was inserted when the law was amended in nineteen sixty eight, 478 00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: after the State Supreme Court overturned Wilson Price's conviction. I 479 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 1: think the origin of this error is that the code 480 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: section does show a revision was made in nineteen seventy five, 481 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: but if you pull the full text of the nineteen 482 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 1: seventy five session, it's because everything in Title eighteen was 483 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: technically amended in nineteen seventy five, because they rearranged and 484 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: recodified the entire Criminal Code. So the language of the 485 00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,000 Speaker 1: statute stayed the same between nineteen sixty eight and nineteen 486 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: seventy five. They just changed the numbers. That doesn't matter 487 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: at all. I didn't need to tell you that. I'm 488 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: just flexing on some court clerk from twenty four years ago. 489 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:48,120 Speaker 1: I guess sorry, But anyway, this decision rested on that language. 490 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: The law couldn't be content neutral if this baked in 491 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: assumption of intent rested on the historical context of crossburning. 492 00:30:57,600 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: So basically, the court is saying you can't have it 493 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:04,160 Speaker 1: both ways. Either the law is constitutional because it is 494 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,720 Speaker 1: content neutral it applies to everyone regardless of their motivation, 495 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:13,240 Speaker 1: or you can justify the inference of intimidation by relying 496 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,240 Speaker 1: on the history of the clan. But both of those 497 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: things can't be true at the same time. And because 498 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,080 Speaker 1: Barry wasn't the only person arrested for burning across in 499 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,600 Speaker 1: Virginia in nineteen ninety eight, this appeal to the state 500 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:30,920 Speaker 1: Supreme Court was actually three cases rolled up into one, 501 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,560 Speaker 1: so the court wasn't just reversing Barry's conviction in this opinion, 502 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: They were also throwing out convictions against Richard Elliott and 503 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: Jonathan O'Mara, two men had been convicted for burning across 504 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 1: on a black family's lawn. Now Barry has an argument here. 505 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: I don't like it. I don't have to like it, 506 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:55,800 Speaker 1: but it's true there wasn't really a victim in this case. 507 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: He was on private property at the invitation of the owner, 508 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,840 Speaker 1: and they didn't really intend for anybody to see what 509 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,560 Speaker 1: they were doing. The landowner's niece by marriage, who was 510 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: living elsewhere on the property, did testify in the original 511 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,480 Speaker 1: case that she saw the cross burning and had been frightened, 512 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:17,600 Speaker 1: but she was arguably not any kind of intended audience. 513 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,560 Speaker 1: It's not even clear if they knew she was there. 514 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: For Elliot and O'Mara, though their cases did not rely 515 00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,920 Speaker 1: on prima facia evidence of intent, there was actual proof 516 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 1: of intent. There was a victim here. They absolutely intended 517 00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,840 Speaker 1: to intimidate that family and should rightfully be punished under 518 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,400 Speaker 1: this law. So the State of Virginia appealed the state 519 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,920 Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling to the Supreme Court, and all three 520 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 1: of these cases rolled right on up together. And I'll 521 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: admit that, before I started picking this story apart, my 522 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,440 Speaker 1: sort of general understanding of Commonwealth feed Black was that 523 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: the Supreme Court ruled Virginia's crossburning law was unconstitutional, and 524 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: that is what happened. But it's not entirely straightforward. Even 525 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: the men's own lawyer, Rodney Smolla, wasn't sure what to 526 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: make of the decision the day he read it. 527 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,840 Speaker 2: I'm reading, and I read the first sentence, and I think, well, no, 528 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:15,720 Speaker 2: I wantcons I says, no, I lost, And. 529 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 3: Then I get through the first set of opinions by 530 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,200 Speaker 3: Justice O'Connor, and I wasn't sure. 531 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 1: The decision announced by Justice Sandrada O'Connor was kind of 532 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,880 Speaker 1: a mixed bag. The court ruled it. Yes, the Virginia 533 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: Supreme Court was right about the prema facia element of 534 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:33,600 Speaker 1: the law, making it unconstitutional. 535 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,479 Speaker 5: The act of burning across may mean that the person 536 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:45,080 Speaker 5: is engaging in constitutionally proscribable intimidation, or it may mean 537 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,800 Speaker 5: only that the person is engaged in core political speech. 538 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 5: The prim of face sheet provision blurs the line between 539 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:57,960 Speaker 5: these meanings. The First Amendment does not permit such a shortcut. 540 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 5: Thus Black's convict cannot stand and the judgment as to 541 00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:03,200 Speaker 5: him is affirmed. 542 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,280 Speaker 1: But they were also clear in their opinion that Virginia 543 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:13,840 Speaker 1: can enforce a law banning crossburning so long as that 544 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,480 Speaker 1: law requires an intent to intimidate. If it can be 545 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: proven that the act was carried out with such an intent, 546 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,440 Speaker 1: it's not free speech anymore. It's a true threat, and 547 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: threats are not protected by the First Amendment. 548 00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:32,160 Speaker 5: We hold that a state consistent with the First Amendment 549 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:37,400 Speaker 5: may ban crossburning carried out with the intent to intimidate. 550 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,000 Speaker 5: While a burning cross does not always convey a message 551 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:47,319 Speaker 5: of intimidation, often the crossburner intends that the recipients of 552 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:51,480 Speaker 5: the message fear for their lives, and when a cross 553 00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:55,799 Speaker 5: burning is used to intimidate, few, if any, messages are 554 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:57,279 Speaker 5: more powerful. 555 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:04,759 Speaker 1: Very one. His conviction was overturned. The highest court in 556 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: the land agreed it was his constitutional right to light 557 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,680 Speaker 1: that cross. The Supreme Court did reverse the Virginia Supreme 558 00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:17,320 Speaker 1: Court rulings that had overturned Richard Elliott and Jonathan O'Mara's convictions. 559 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 1: Their cases were kicked back down to the lower courts, 560 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: and ultimately they were convicted and did serve time. And 561 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: after a lifetime of fighting losing battles, you might think 562 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:34,960 Speaker 1: Barry came away from this emboldened, empowered, ready to ride 563 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:40,480 Speaker 1: this victory into more marches, more recruiting, more crossburnings, more anything. 564 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:46,239 Speaker 1: But he didn't really. He was fifty five the year 565 00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:48,840 Speaker 1: the Supreme Court gave him their blessing to burn crosses. 566 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:53,360 Speaker 1: He probably did burn a few more, but none of 567 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: them made the news. He'd planted some seeds as an 568 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,920 Speaker 1: imperial wizard, but none of them really thrived. Corporate entities 569 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,400 Speaker 1: with names that seemed to tie them to Barry's Keystone 570 00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:09,080 Speaker 1: Knights existed in several states, but most of them withered 571 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:13,440 Speaker 1: and died. The International Keystone Knights of the Realm of 572 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: Ohio registered with the State of Ohio in two thousand 573 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,640 Speaker 1: and two, but they stopped filing annual paperwork in twenty thirteen. 574 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:25,560 Speaker 1: The Invisible Empire International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 575 00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:29,920 Speaker 1: Incorporated was registered in Indiana by Barry himself in nineteen 576 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:34,400 Speaker 1: ninety seven. The South Carolina based nonprofit Barry incorporated in 577 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:39,120 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine technically still exists on paper, despite the 578 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: deaths of both Barry and the local clansmen. He ran 579 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:45,920 Speaker 1: it with a Virginia chapter of the Keystone Knights Incorporated 580 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 1: a few months after the Supreme Court victory in two 581 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:50,560 Speaker 1: thousand and three, but there's no record I can find 582 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,399 Speaker 1: of the chapter getting up to anything, and all record 583 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:55,879 Speaker 1: of the entity disappears entirely after two thousand and eight. 584 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: Stephen Dnkle, the one time leader of a Keystone Night 585 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 1: Knights chapter in Alabama, was convicted of a federal hate 586 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,200 Speaker 1: crime in twenty fourteen for a crossburning. After his release, 587 00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,040 Speaker 1: he was convicted again for a federal firearms related offense, 588 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: and in twenty seventeen he was sentenced to ten years 589 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:19,440 Speaker 1: for sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman. A man named Willis 590 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,799 Speaker 1: Fraser still files annual paperwork with the IRS for the 591 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,839 Speaker 1: Indiana based entity using the Keystone Knights name. In two 592 00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:28,800 Speaker 1: thousand and four, Fraser tried to sue the State of 593 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:30,960 Speaker 1: Arkansas after he was fired from his job as a 594 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,840 Speaker 1: prison guard for being a member of the Keystone Knights, 595 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,600 Speaker 1: but his suit was dismissed. The only place the Keystone 596 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: Knights have popped up in recent years was their legal 597 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,400 Speaker 1: battle with the state of Georgia over the denial of 598 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,440 Speaker 1: their application to the state's adopt a Highway program. The 599 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,400 Speaker 1: ACLU stepped in to help secure the clan's right to 600 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 1: put their name on a sign on the side of 601 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:56,960 Speaker 1: a Georgia highway. That Keystone Knights chapter in Georgia seems 602 00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,759 Speaker 1: to be the only one that really still exists, with 603 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,720 Speaker 1: hid Willis Fraser's name on some of that paperwork, tying 604 00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:06,320 Speaker 1: it all the way back to Barry. The Keystone Knights 605 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:10,800 Speaker 1: are more or less dead, and Barry Black is entirely dead. 606 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,239 Speaker 1: He passed away in twenty eighteen. He lived a life 607 00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:19,719 Speaker 1: of hatred. He spent most of his life feeling persecuted 608 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,720 Speaker 1: and aggrieved, fighting what he saw as a righteous battle 609 00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:27,160 Speaker 1: for his civil rights. His right to disrupt life in 610 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,719 Speaker 1: a small town with his clan rallies, his right to 611 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: serve as constable, his right to lead armed mobs that 612 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,879 Speaker 1: threatened to shoot cops, his right to burn crosses, his 613 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:43,239 Speaker 1: right to make his bigotry your problem. The part of 614 00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:47,040 Speaker 1: Barry's legacy I'm most interested in, though, is the law 615 00:38:47,080 --> 00:39:05,040 Speaker 1: written to stop the next Berry Black. While berry Black's 616 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,040 Speaker 1: crossburning appeals were working their way through the appeals process, 617 00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,920 Speaker 1: the Virginia General Assembly had already corrected the problem. They 618 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,600 Speaker 1: knew the law they'd used to prosecute Barry wasn't going 619 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:20,080 Speaker 1: to hold up, and instead of amending the existing statute, 620 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,759 Speaker 1: they passed a new law in two thousand and two. 621 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,960 Speaker 1: The language about prima fascia evidence of intent was gone, 622 00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:34,480 Speaker 1: of course, but there was another huge change. The cross 623 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:41,719 Speaker 1: itself was missing. This new law outlawed burning anything if 624 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:45,520 Speaker 1: it was done with the intent to intimidate. It's still 625 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:50,440 Speaker 1: understood to be a cross burning law, but it doesn't 626 00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:55,800 Speaker 1: actually say that. It doesn't say that at all. Cross 627 00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: burnings never stopped. Of course, they still happen here from 628 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,080 Speaker 1: time to time. In twenty twenty, a man named James 629 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,840 Speaker 1: Brown burned across outside the home of a black teenager 630 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:11,319 Speaker 1: who'd been involved in organizing Black Lives Matter protests in Marion, Virginia. 631 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:15,480 Speaker 1: He served eighteen months for criminal interference with federally protected rights. 632 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,960 Speaker 1: Darryl Orange was convicted in twenty ten under the original 633 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,880 Speaker 1: cross burning law, which was left on the books for 634 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,880 Speaker 1: some reason, after he burned a cross on his neighbor's 635 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:32,160 Speaker 1: lawn in Bedford, Virginia. Many crossburnings go unsolved or unprosecuted, 636 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,160 Speaker 1: and some of them are still dismissed as pranks. This 637 00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:41,879 Speaker 1: new law has never really been tested until last year. 638 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:44,680 Speaker 1: I can only find a single case where it's ever 639 00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:48,520 Speaker 1: even been used to charge someone. On the fourth of 640 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,279 Speaker 1: July and twenty nineteen, a man in Williamsburg pulled up 641 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,880 Speaker 1: in front of a wal Mart, got out of his car, 642 00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,279 Speaker 1: put an American flag on the ground, and set it 643 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:02,239 Speaker 1: on fire. He didn't threat anyone, He just lit it up, 644 00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:06,760 Speaker 1: shouted a bit about how he hated America, and drove off. 645 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:11,800 Speaker 1: Wasn't shouting in anyone in particular. He wasn't particularly close 646 00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 1: to anyone or anything, and no one was injured and 647 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:20,719 Speaker 1: nothing was really damaged. The charge almost certainly would not 648 00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:23,080 Speaker 1: have held up to any kind of scrutiny in this 649 00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: particular case. The local cops outright said that they probably 650 00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:29,960 Speaker 1: wouldn't even have arrested him at all if he'd burned 651 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:33,840 Speaker 1: a towel instead of a flag. It was the flag 652 00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,480 Speaker 1: that had people worked up, but the First Amendment right 653 00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:41,719 Speaker 1: to burn a flag, is well trod legal territory. He 654 00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:46,080 Speaker 1: ultimately pled down to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, so 655 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,640 Speaker 1: the court hasn't really ever had to deal with this 656 00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:56,719 Speaker 1: burning object law until now. You see, seven years ago, 657 00:41:57,719 --> 00:42:01,840 Speaker 1: hundreds of torch bearing White supremests marched through the grounds 658 00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,879 Speaker 1: of the University of Virginia. They'd come to Charlottesville from 659 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,800 Speaker 1: across the country, taking Friday morning flights or taking turns 660 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:12,520 Speaker 1: at the wheel for cross country drives, and rented vans 661 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,280 Speaker 1: with guys they met on message boards. Arriving early before 662 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,680 Speaker 1: the big event the next day, they gathered in a 663 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: field near the tennis courts and lined up two by two, 664 00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:27,840 Speaker 1: torches in hand. Men with walkie talkies clipped to their belts, 665 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:33,719 Speaker 1: some with wired earpieces barked orders. Elliott Kleine, an ambitious 666 00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,720 Speaker 1: young white nationalist organizer calling himself Eli Moseley after twentieth 667 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,880 Speaker 1: century British fascist Oswald Moseley, shouted at the crowd as 668 00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:43,360 Speaker 1: they formed into a line. 669 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:47,520 Speaker 6: So we're going round right through, and anyone who we 670 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,120 Speaker 6: picked for the journey, let us know if we can do. 671 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:55,360 Speaker 1: It all right, we're clicking, big guys, no female. Klein 672 00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:58,240 Speaker 1: was selecting the biggest marchers to lay down their torches, 673 00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: they might need her hands free. The march wound its 674 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,160 Speaker 1: way through the university grounds, up the lawn, and then 675 00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,280 Speaker 1: up the steps of the University of Virginia's iconic rotunda. 676 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,480 Speaker 1: On the other side of the rotunda, gathered near a 677 00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:17,120 Speaker 1: statue of Thomas Jefferson, a small group of anti racist 678 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:21,640 Speaker 1: activists waited. In her testimony during a later civil trial, 679 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,520 Speaker 1: one of the women who was terrorized that night said, 680 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:30,000 Speaker 1: when we heard the roaring of the approaching crowd, we 681 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:34,120 Speaker 1: just linked arms and held hands and started to sing. 682 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,920 Speaker 1: She said, at first it sounded like thunder, like the 683 00:43:39,960 --> 00:44:05,200 Speaker 1: earth was growling. As the sound grew closer, but before 684 00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:08,040 Speaker 1: she could see the light of the torches, she began 685 00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:12,680 Speaker 1: to make out the chance hundreds of voices raised in unison, 686 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:18,520 Speaker 1: shouting blood and soil. Testifying about that night years later, 687 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:21,600 Speaker 1: she said she still hears it in her nightmare sometimes. 688 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:25,880 Speaker 1: And by the time that small group of mostly students 689 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,680 Speaker 1: realized the magnitude and ferocity of the approaching mob, it 690 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,880 Speaker 1: was too late. They were surrounded at the base of 691 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:38,799 Speaker 1: the statue by hundreds of torch wielding white supremacists for 692 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,759 Speaker 1: just a few minutes, minutes that those trapped at the 693 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:44,320 Speaker 1: base of the statue said they believed might be their last, 694 00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:48,080 Speaker 1: as they were doused in lighter fluid, maced, kicked, and punched. 695 00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:55,160 Speaker 1: There was a melee. After the crowd dispersed that night, 696 00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,040 Speaker 1: and after the deadly rally the next morning, those men 697 00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:05,280 Speaker 1: went home. Some started businesses, some joined the military, others 698 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,400 Speaker 1: got kicked out of the military, and some did both. 699 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,399 Speaker 1: Some died of heart attacks and drug overdoses and self 700 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:17,600 Speaker 1: inflicted gunshot wounds. They beat their wives and choked their 701 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:22,680 Speaker 1: girl friends, went to grad school, went to prison, trafficked drugs, 702 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:27,720 Speaker 1: started families, got divorced, ran for office, tried to overturn 703 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,240 Speaker 1: a presidential election, left the movement, tried to lead the movement, 704 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:37,000 Speaker 1: or just tried to disappear. There are as many stories 705 00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,560 Speaker 1: as there were flames in the night when their voices 706 00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:45,400 Speaker 1: joined us, one shouting Jews will not replace us, and 707 00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:50,000 Speaker 1: then dousing the flames, going their separate ways back to 708 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:55,240 Speaker 1: the communities they came from. Last year, the Aldmorle County 709 00:45:55,239 --> 00:45:58,800 Speaker 1: Prosecutor's Office decided to put this law to the test. 710 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:04,959 Speaker 1: This mom had burned objects, They had intimidated people with them. 711 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:09,320 Speaker 1: If this law was meant to punish anyone for anything, 712 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,000 Speaker 1: it was meant for men like this with their flaming torches. 713 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:17,319 Speaker 1: And if you're listening to this the day it came out, 714 00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,799 Speaker 1: the odds are pretty good that I'm sitting in a 715 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:24,359 Speaker 1: little county courtroom with one of them right now. 716 00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:31,480 Speaker 6: Weird Little Guys a production of Cool Zone Media. Or 717 00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:35,160 Speaker 6: more from coal Zone Media. Visit our website Polzonemedia dot 718 00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:38,000 Speaker 6: com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app or 719 00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:39,960 Speaker 6: wherever you get your podcasts.