She also interviewed an Alamance County Republican Party official at the bridge, but party leaders later told us there was no formal connection.
#Kkk victory march install
It received some notoriety this summer when it began raising money to buy and install Confederate flags along Interstate 40, which is the busiest road in a number of North Carolina counties.īut there were no Confederate flags or KKK regalia visible at the Trump celebration, Janicello said. The newspaper’s photos from the bridge show that some of the marchers were affiliated with the group Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County (ACTBAC). "No suspicious activity was observed nor reported." "Several members of law enforcement had observed these individuals over the past weeks, and never observed any paraphernalia related to the KKK nor Confederate symbols," the press release said. Janicello said they had actually come to that spot a few times a month, since February, to wave flags to passing traffic.įurthermore, neither the Mebane Police Department nor the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office received complaints of KKK activity close to the election – either at that bridge or anywhere else in the area. The sheriff’s office said in a press release Wednesday that calls only started coming in after the photo went viral, and that there’s nothing to substantiate the rumors. "These were just local conservatives who were out there for Trump." "There was no one claiming or professing to be part of the KKK," Janicello said. Instead, they had Trump signs, red-white-and-blue scarves and an assortment of American, Christian and "Don’t Tread On Me" flags. None of them were wearing any KKK regalia, she said, or carrying flags associated with the Confederacy or white supremacy movements.
She said she’s sure the group in the viral post is the same group she spoke with she could recognize the same flags and the neon yellow shirt of someone in the photo. Natalie Allison Janicello, a reporter for the local Burlington Times-News, was there interviewing them. The photo appears to show a group of Trump supporters that local media also interviewed.Īnd according to that news report and follow-up interviews, none of them were wearing KKK regalia, carrying Confederate flags or doing anything else that would link them to the racist group.Īlthough the tweet claimed the marchers were on the bridge in Mebane Wednesday morning, they were actually there on Tuesday afternoon and night. However, there's no proof that the Klan was on the march in North Carolina, like the viral post claimed. Make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump!" And after his victory became official Wednesday morning, former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke tweeted: "This is one of the most exciting nights of my life. Trump was endorsed by the KKK’s official newspaper. After spending some of Wednesday retweeting news that her post was trending internationally, she later deleted her account.
The Twitter user who started the viral rumors didn't respond to our requests for comment. That tweet alone has since been retweeted tens of thousands of times and has also been picked up by people ranging from football player Chad Johnson to terrorism expert Charles Lister and actress/activist Yvette Nicole Brown. "KKK on the bridge in Mebane, NC this morning," wrote Twitter user along with the photo. It’s a grainy photo that many woke up to Wednesday morning, hours after Donald Trump won the race for president – shrouded figures carrying flags or signs on a bridge above a busy North Carolina highway.
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