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KKK tries to recruit black legislator for membership

Kalyn McMackin Contributor
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Idaho state Rep. Cherie Buckner-Webb, a black female legislator, has receiver an application via mail to join the Ku Klux Klan.

“When they think of Idaho, it is not Sun Valley, or our rivers or our mountains. It is the Aryan Nations. That is still what they think about Idaho,” Buckner-Webb told the Idaho Statesman. “I hear it all the time.”

As part of the application, applicants are asked to submit $35 in annual dues, a photo and a statement proclaiming “I am a White Christian man or woman.”

The envelope, hand-addressed to Buckner-Webb, did not contain a personal note but included a newsletter titled “An Introduction to the Knights and National Director Thomas Robb.” Robb is the current national director of the Ku Klux Klan.

Thinking that the envelope was a direct target to her, Buckner-Webb said she was more surprised than threatened by the mailing.

“Initially, I wondered what was someone’s thought process in sending that to me. My first inclination was someone wants me to know the Klan is still around,” she said.

Although she does not consider herself a victim, she added that the incident “was a sign for me to remain vigilant, to remain careful and to remain thoughtful.”

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