The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) claims they will be getting back to their roots with their visibility and participation in the annual European American Heritage Festival, which will be held October 26 in Pulaski, Tennessee.
The Knights Party wants participants to "show your pride" at the event. "By your attendance at the festival, we hope that you and your family will grow in knowledge about the rich and wonderful history of the European people and their descendants," notes the festival website.
Billed as a family event – there are "games for kids, cultural exhibits, an old fashioned cake walk, egg toss, face painting, craft making for kids" – the European American Heritage Festival takes place every year in "the beautiful town of Pulaski." It was there, on Christmas day in 1865, that six Tennessee veterans of the Confederate Army – John C. Lester, John B. Kennedy, James R. Crowe, Frank O. McCord, Richard R. Reed, and J. Calvin Jones - established the Ku Klux Klan.
Just two years before the KKK was founded, Confederate Sam Davis was hanged in Pulaski by the Union Army for espionage. In fact, part of the festival's suggested "Area Historic Sights" to visit include the Sam Davis Museum ("The Boy Hero") and Sam Davis Trail – both located on Sam Davis Ave.
Other suggested sites include James D. Vaughan Southern Gospel Music Museum, which honors James D. Vaughan, a white southern music teacher, composer and song book publisher who the museum considers to be the "Father of Southern Gospel Music." He was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1997.
Exhibits at this festival are also "intended to give visitors a look into the historical roots of their ancestors." According to festival organizers, past exhibits have included: the European foundation of America, Daughters of Liberty, Heroes of the Old West, White Heroes and Heroines of Europe, Dixie Land's Christian Heritage, Christian Foundation of Europe, Great Britain -True Cradle of Christianity, Myths and Truth of the Druids, People of Destiny, America's Immigration History and New Concerns, and Jacobs Pillar/Stone of Destiny.
Emphasizing that "Immigrants from many different European countries is what made America great," festival organizers suggest that those participating in the "European American Heritage Walk," "bring a flag to represent their particular European heritage whether it is Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Greek, German, Swede, Swiss, French, Hungarian, or another."
Among the sponsors of the festival are Voice of Reason Radio Network, the Nationalist Times, and Christian Revival Center, while entertainment will be provided by Heritage Connection, a female duo whose CD Aryan Awakening includes the Hit Song, "Aryan Warrior."