The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990 Page: 7 of 8
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THE RICE THRESHER MONDAY, JULY 9, 1990 7
KKK parades past Rice gates hailing 'white power,' racial separation
By Brian R. Hecht
Harvard University
Wearing traditional hooded
white robes and carrying confeder-
ate flags, approximately 80 members
of the Ku Mux Klan marched down
Main St Saturday in a demonstration
which drew more cou nterprotesters
than Klansmen.
A police force of approximately
300 officers dressed in riot gear and
bullet-proof vests separated the
Klansmen from the several hundred
demonstrators, many of whom were
members of pro-gay groups. The 90-
minute demonstration frequently
deteriorated into a shouting match
between the Klan and the counter-
demonstrators.
The Wan shouted racist and anti-
gay statements at the protesting
crowd, calling for "white power" and
an end to racial integration. But Wan
members interviewed during the
march said they did not mind the
counter-protest
"We are so proud to be hated by
the scum of Houston," said one Wan
member, dressed in an outfit remi-
niscent of a German army uniform. "I
love my race and I hate the faggots,"
he said.
Three busses of Wan members
arrived at the Sam Houston statue at
Hermann Park in the early after-
noon, and members were far out-
numbered by counterdemonstra-
tors and police officers. The officers
formed a ring around Hermann
circle as the Klansmen posed under
the arch of the statue.
After marching down main past
Rice University, the Klansmen re-
turned to the statue for a 30-minute
rally. Counter-protestors heckled
the Wan speech, which, amplified by
a single megaphone, was barely
audible.A young boy carried a con-
federate flag in the midst of the
Klan march prompts
angry demonstrations
by Shelley N. Fuld
Rice University
Protesters outnumbered Ku Wux
Wansmen in Saturday's Wan march
down Main Street by more than four
to one, with over 350 protesters to
only 75 Wansmen.
Before the march even began,
different groups of protesters en-
gaged in shouting matches. Melissa
Valdez, a Rice freshman was crying
and arguing with activists about the
role of the police.
Valdez said the police were pro-
tecting everyone, not just the Wans-
men. "The cops arextrying to protect
us. We wouldn't be safe. They can
control the Wan. It's safety—that*s
all it is," she said.
The activists argued with Valdez
that "the Wan uses these kids (the
police) to protect them" !w
Valdez said the Constitution pro-
tects the right of free speech for
everyone, including the Wan. "If it
weren't for the Constitution I
wouldn't be here. Don't you see the
relative freedom in the United
States? I don't believe in anything the
Wan is saying, but everyone has the
right to speak," she sad.
About 100 of the demonstrators
were gay rights activists who fol-
lowed the Wan procession behind
police lines while taunting, scream-
ing and shouting at them.
Richard Prawitz, a member of the
radical gay rights organization AG
TUP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power, screamed at marchers,
"Even the Wan has AIDS." Prawitz
sad, "They're going to get AIDS just
like everyone else—that's our mes-
sage."
Brian Bradley of Houston, an
ACTUP member said, "I believe the
citizens of Houston are self-respect-
ing people, but these are misan-
thropic people. I don't care if I piss
them off. I'm on my way to the fu-
neral home. I carry the HIV virus."
Bradley said the skinheads
shares the Wan's beliefs but do not
have enough experience to have a
real understanding. "What type of
world do they expect to create from
this? They're just doing it for a thrill.
They are under the influence of igno-
rance. I want to know where their
parents are."
Johnny Amos, a black man in the
crowd was wearing a black hood and
calling himself the "Grand Dragon."
He and his wife and children were
telling the crowd that the hood cost
only 65 cents and shouting, "Anyone
can wear a hood."
Amos' children were pointing at
the Klansmen and shouting, "That's
my daddy. And he hasnt paid his
child support this month."
They [the Wansmen] need to
get their children out of there,"
Amos said of one of the young boys
marching with the Wan. His daugh-
ter, Angela Amos, who is thirteen
years old said, "Their parents really
force them to do it"
Connie, a Hispanic woman who
asked that her last name not be used,
was taking her son and daughter,
who are seven and nine, to the zoo in
Hermann Park.
She did not know the march was
taking place, but said, "I'm glad they
saw this so that they can grow up and
know this is not of God. One day [the
Wansman] are going to have to face
God." She sad her children were
very afraid and could not understand
the Wan. "Two of their best friends
are white. They cant understand
why these people are different"
Not everyone in the crowd was
anti-Wan, however. About 15 youths
calling themselves skinheads sup-
ported the Wan and provoked shout-
ing matches early on, even before
the Wan arrived.
A female skinhead said her par-
ents support her activities one
hundred percent "There's no place
for us anymore," she said. "The
white race is going down the drain."
The number of protesters almost
matched the number of police on
hand to keep the two groups sepa-
rate. One of the Houston Police offi-
cers said between 350and 400 police-
men were working the march. An-
other officer who refused to be iden-
tified said of protecting the Wan,
"Sure it makes me mad, but they're
[the Houston Police Department]
forcing me to be out here."
Houston City Councilman Jim
Greenwood, a Rice alumnus, said the
extensive police protection was the
logical result of the past peaceful
Wan marches in Houston that were
marching Klansmen. "This is al-
right," he sad of the march. "It will
help get white people equal rights.
[The protestors] are just mad be-
cause they are gay," the boy said.
Klansmen sad they had chosen
to march in Houston on the eve of the
Economic Summit of Industrialized
Nations in order to protest aid to
third world nations. "We do not want
to support third world nations," said
one hooded Wansman during the
march. "We should just worry about
ourselves."
Although a vast majority of the
counter-protestors decried the
Wan's racist message, some youths
affilited with the white supremist
"skinhead" group urged on the
marchers, greeting the Wansmen
with a "Hitler salute."
"White revolution is the solu-
tion," shouted one young skinhead.
"I believe in what [the Wan] is trying
to do for my race."
The marchers conveyed their
racist message not just by their
words, but also through their appear-
ance. In the sea of white robes, two
marchers were wearing all black.
"I'm a nigger," said Rick Ferguson, a
Wansman from Texas.
"Every town has got to have a
nigger. That's me," he said. "I'm a
nigger," he explained. "I'm the
nigger for this town."
"All these people have something
wrong with them," Ferguson said,
gesturing towards the protesting
crowds.
Another man, dressed in army
fatigues refused to acknowledge the
"folks" in the crowd at whom he was
shouting. "I don't see no folks," the
Wansman said. "Those ain't no folks.
Those is animals," he said.
"These people are blind," an-
other marcher said of the crowds.
"Blind to their own race."
The Wan marchers were pre-
dominantly male, but the few women
marchers said they were not made to
feel inferior to the Klansmen. "We
women hold the same beliefs as men
do," said one woman, who was also
dressed in the tradional hooded
white robe.
"It's not an issue of gender," said
the woman, who came to the march
from Chicago. Many of the marchers
said they were not from Texas, but
had been asked to come to Houston
for the summit demonstration. One
marcher, who said he was active in
his local Wan organization in North
Carolina, added that many of the
marchers had come from other
states.
Houston police officers arrested
two photographers for breaking their
barricade. "Why am I being put in
jail," shouted Andrew Sowder of
KTBC television in Austin as he was
being arrested. "What have I done
wrong?"
1
Skinheads marching with the Ku Klux Klan salute in front of the Rice University main gates Saturdev.
well secured by the police, as well as
violence that had erupted during
Wan marches in other cities in the
early 1980*s.
"The police persuaded the Wan
to get together in a remote area ride
into Houston, and be protected for
two reasons. One, we could be sure
they weren't carrying any weapons
or objects that could be used in any
violent way, even defensively. Sec-
ond, they could get in and out and not
be attacked or attack others."
While the added police protec-
tion was expensive, it was consistent
with past policy and worth the ex-
pense, Greenwood said.
"It's just one of those things that
the Bill of Rights and the right of fr ee
speech allow unpopular views to be
protected as well," Greenwood said.
Contributors: Sam Hananel,
Brian Hecht, Myra Rucker, Noelle
Vance.
Marchers bring WAVE to Houston
by Noelle Vance
University of Michigan
The silence was broken for at
least 100 women Saturday as they
walked through the streets of Hous-
ton condemning "rapist ethics" and
violence. But for many women,
domestic violence is still a subject
one doesnt shout about
Wearing green and purple rib-
bons symbolizing peace, supporters
of the local organization, Women
Against Violence Everywhere, took
up a variety of chants urging men
and women to speak out against vio-
lence—especially domestic vio-
lence, child abuse and rape.
"It doesnt matter if they have is-
sues about abortion or homeless-
ness or whatever," said Pam Payne, a
member of the National Organiza-
tion for Women and a feminist
Women's Group. "It's women
against violence."
Approximately 150 people—both
men and women—made the walk
from the First Unitarian Church to
Hermann Park, where speakers told
of their experiences with brutality
and encouraged participants to vote
for people who are sensitive to the
problems of violence and crime in
the world.
"The silence has persisted too
long," said Jacsun Shah, WAVE or-
ganizer and spokesperson. "Rapes
happen not only in the dak alleys,
but in the safest places...our homes,"
she said.
Though many organizations in
the past five years have spoken
against rape and domestic abuse,
such violence remains largely un-
heard of or uncriticized in the coun-
tries represented at the 1990 Eco-
nomic Summit
"I'm sure it does happen," said
Nicoletta Pisano, a journalist with
the 11 Domani, about domestic vio-
lence. "But it doesn't happen as often
as it happens in the United States."
Pisano said the low numbers of
cases reported might be due to the
Italian family structure or to fear of
embarassment if a case is reported.
She cited the incident of young
woman who reported she was
abused by her father as an example.
The woman's accusations became a
major scandal which ruined her fa-
ther's career. Yet later, doctors dis-
covered the woman's bleeding
which she had used to back her state-
ments was caused by a tumor.
The past three years have seen a
rise of reported cases of violence in
Japan, said journalist Yuki Sato of the
Mainichi Shimbun. But she added,
the incidents are "sporadic" and still
"really shocking events."
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990, newspaper, July 9, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245754/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.