Some Birmingham residents woke this morning to find streets in their neighborhood littered with fliers seeking recruitment for a well-known white supremacist group.
Residents in Southside discovered pamphlets from the Ku Klux Klan asking for Alabamians to “rise up” and join the organization.
“Despite having little political power, the Klan has been increasing their “literature drops” around the country in the last two years,” says Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery. The organization tracks white supremacist groups like the KKK.
“There are about 5,000 to 6,000 Klansmen in the United States today, compared with about 4 million at the Klan’s peak nearly a century ago,” Potok says.
These KKK literature drops usually occur around major news events, such as the presidential election.