AAP

January 30, 2009 04:35pm

* KKK membership up since Obama’s win
* Actively recruiting in New Zealand
* Targeting poor, isolated youths

ONLINE registrations for white supremacy group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) have significantly increased following Barack Obama’s presidential win, a former KKK leader says.

Johnny Lee Clary, a former imperial wizard, the highest-ranked member of the KKK, said the current global financial crisis and political change in the United States were fuelling Klan membership for the first time in decades.

“It’s serious, serious enough that the FBI … and other law enforcement agencies are trying to get on top of it because the klan has made direct threats to Obama,” pastor Clary, who now fights against the group as a born-again Christian, said.

At one recent rally in Alabama, more than 300 people signed up, a number he said was “unprecedented”.

“They (KKK) actually sent me an email just the other day and were telling me that Barack Obama was the best thing that ever happened to them and they’re excited and happy because their membership is growing larger than it ever has,” he said.
Related Coverage

* Obama presidency ‘ignites KKK’NEWS.com.au, 30 Jan 2009
* KKK actively recruiting, says former memberNEWS.com.au, 30 Jan 2009
* Alarm at race-hate surgeHerald Sun, 4 Dec 2008

“Even when he was running against Hillary (Clinton) the klan went on YouTube and were talking about how they were going to get him.”

Pastor Clary also warned the notorious race hate group is actively recruiting in New Zealand.

He has told New Zealand media his contacts have informed him that KKK paraphernalia is being distributed in Auckland to recruit young members.

“As far as I know it’s happening in Auckland right now,” he told Radio New Zealand from his home in Alabama.

“There’s a clan leader in Auckland and he is putting out all kinds of literature and paraphernalia.”

He warned the organisation was targeting young people from low socio-economic backgrounds.

“They don’t go where people are happy with money in their pocket,” pastor Clary said.

“They pick on the poor, the miserable, the down and out.”

Pastor Clary left the KKK 20 years ago and now travels the world as an anti-racism motivational speaker.

“I will spend the rest of my life chipping away at that wall of hate.”