Copyright Mechanicsburg Patriot News
Several Mechanicsburg residents Tuesday night shared frustrations with council members after they said business cards for the “Women of the Ku Klux Klan” (WKKK) were found in children’s candy bags following the borough’s Oct. 14 Halloween parade. The business cards included the words “Invisible Empire,” “Family-Country-Liberty,” and “A revival of the American spirit,” alongside an email address and a central Tennessee phone number, posts on social media showed. Mechanicsburg’s borough council members and mayor issued a joint statement regarding the business cards at the beginning of Tuesday’s council meeting. “The reported distribution of hate-based literature at our community’s Halloween Parade has left us deeply saddened and disturbed. Although our Police Department reported no illegal activity during the event, this act directly contradicts our shared values in the Borough of Mechanicsburg,” the statement said. “We want to state clearly and without reservation that any message or organization promoting racism, intimidation, or discrimination stands in direct opposition to the values of our community,” the statement continued. The first resident who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting asked council members if they had in mind a way to stop people from coming in and “doing nefarious things.” A solicitor for the borough responded that the business cards in question are protected speech under the First Amendment, explaining to the room of about 50 people that violating anyone’s Constitutional rights could be financially detrimental to the borough as a whole. It is unclear how many WKKK business cards were distributed at the parade. While the community members who spoke acknowledged the protections granted by the First Amendment, one man said the situation has left him feeling uneasy. “As someone who grew up in the South — with grandparents and great-grandparents that stood against the KKK and their communities — this is not a civil organization. They have a well-documented history of violence and intimidation in communities,” the man said. “How do we document this? How do we alert the FBI here? How do we get others involved, not that we are trying to squash someone’s rights, not that we are asking people to silence them or anything like that,” he said. Council member Sara Agerton responded, “There are federal agencies that have been alerted, personally, by members of this council that will continue to track this behavior, and they are aware of individuals that could be in the community.” Another resident, a local educator, said a written statement condemning the business cards is not enough, suggesting a unifying event as the most effective response. “I understand that the First Amendment does protect freedom of speech, but I think we as a community need a plan to move forward to show that hate has no home here. That love wins, and that there is far more love in this town than there is hate,” she said. The Rev. Kathryn Z. Johnston, lead pastor at Mechanicsburg Presbyterian Church, said the local clergy is planning a peace rally in response to the business cards. The rally will not be religious, but will stand up against hate, racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination. “Everyone is going to be invited, and it is so important that we all, like, swell out into the streets wherever this is going to be. So that the folks who did this know that this is not welcome here, it is unacceptable, and it is not what Mechanicsburg is all about,” Johnston said. Johnston said more information about the peace rally will be posted on social media soon. The borough’s statement thanked the Mechanicsburg Chamber of Commerce for its help putting on the “joyful, family-friendly” Halloween parade each year. “Our community is founded on the principle that all individuals are created equal, and we strive to foster an environment of love, inclusion, and mutual respect. We celebrate the rich diversity of our residents and endeavor to ensure that everyone in our community feels safe, valued, and welcome,” the statement said. PennLive was not able to reach WKKK for comment. However, CBS21 received the following statement from the organization: “Some ladies have reached out and said they saw your local news story about a W.K.K.K. card that was supposedly put into a child’s candy container. We assure you that wasn’t the case at all. That’s not who we are. Children are precious and are not to be used as pawns. Not saying cards weren’t passed out in the local area. But not in that way. It is not illegal to belong to the Women of the K.K.K. Our mission is to help support our family, our community and our beloved country. Thank you for reaching out. God bless the wonderful state of Pennsylvania.” In 2024, there were 110 active white nationalist groups across the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. That figure is down from a “historic high” of 165 in 2023. The Southern Poverty Law Center said the following five white nationalist groups are active in Pennsylvania: Active Club, Antelope Hill Publishing, Gab, New Columbia Movement and Patriot Front. In 2021, white supremacist groups distributed propaganda in Pennsylvania at a historically high rate, with nearly 475 incidents reported, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Office in Philadelphia. Nationally, those numbers also rose. In 2023, for the second year in a row, ADL recorded its highest-ever number of white supremacist propaganda incidents, with a total of 7,567 cases. This was a 12 percent increase from the 6,746 incidents in 2022.
