(NAME-MCE) Black Church Files Suit Over KKK Store

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Black Church Files Suit Over KKK Store

Myrtle Beach Sun News, South Carolina

September 4, 2008
The Rev. David Kennedy claims that his New Beginnings Baptist Church owns
the building that houses The Redneck Shop, a so-called Klan museum that
sells KKK robes and other racist paraphernalia.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/142/story/581080.html

Church sues over building housing KKK store By Katrina A. Goggins - The
Associated Press

A Black S.C. pastor and his church claim they own the building that houses a
so-called Klan museum and store where KKK robes and T-shirts emblazoned with
racial slurs are sold, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The Rev. David Kennedy said the property was transferred in 1997 to his
Laurens County church by a Klansman who was fighting with others inside the
hate group. A clause in the deed entitles John Howard, who runs the store,
to operate his business in the building until he dies.

Kennedy said he'd like to close the store, but at the very least should be
allowed to inspect the property.

"We've been outright denied," said Kennedy, pastor of New Beginnings Baptist
Church. "Right now what we're focusing on is removing this cloud of doubt
and this whole lie that we are not the real owners of the Redneck Shop
building."

The lawsuit seeks to establish Kennedy's church as the legal owner of the
property and stop Howard and associates from claiming to hold the deed.

According to the lawsuit, Howard and his associates have filed several court
documents since the property was given to Kennedy's church that attempt to
transfer the deed between various Klan-related owners.

"We think the actions they did were willful," said Kennedy's attorney Rauch
Wise.

Howard, who calls himself a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon for South
Carolina and North Carolina, said Tuesday he hadn't heard of the lawsuit and
hung up on an AP reporter.

The Redneck Shop has been the target of protests and attacks since it began
operating in an old movie theater in 1996. A few days after it opened, a
Columbia man crashed his van through the front windows of store and was
charged with malicious damage to property. High-profile black activists have
staged several protests.

Inside the store, hooded Klan robes hang on the same rack as racist
T-shirts. Pamphlets and pictures of burning crosses and of men, women and
children in Klan clothing tell a partial history of the organization.

Kennedy hopes the building will one day be the home for his New Beginnings
Missionary Baptist Church, which now meets in a doublewide trailer.