Klansman joins NAACP after secret meeting (video)

In a possible first and under heavy security, KKK and NAACP meet in Casper

Jimmy Simmons, left, president of the NAACP Casper branch, listens to John Abarr, a kleagle of the United Klans of America out of Great Falls, Mont., on Saturday night during a meeting at the Parkway Plaza hotel in Casper. Simmons spent several months attempting to organize the meeting due to concerns about reports of violence against black men and Ku Klux Klan pamphleting in Gillette. The gathering, which took place in private under heavy security, was the first formal meeting between Klan and NAACP representatives that either side was aware of.

September 02, 2013 7:00 am  •  By JEREMY FUGLEBERG Star-Tribune staff writer

Casper meeting with KKK didn't have approval of NAACP higher-ups 

They didn’t think he would come.

He was a Ku Klux Klan organizer, after all, and they were local leaders of the NAACP, historic enemies. They spent months negotiating the terms of his visit to Casper. There were ground rules, topics to be discussed and guarantees of a security team.

They wait in a small, low-ceiling conference room in the Parkway Plaza hotel. Four NAACP leaders. Ten mints, striped red and white, sit clustered on the table. The pitchers of ice water on the table drip sweat.

“Showtime,” a security man says. He’s here.

A security check, swipes with a metal-detecting wand, and he steps into the room.

Here is John Abarr, an organizer for the United Klans of America, carrying a brown briefcase, shaking hands, settling into a high-backed swivel chair, leaning in, ready to talk. This could be the first time representatives of the two groups purposely met in peace.

Keisha Simmons, the secretary of the Casper branch of the NAACP, pours the Klansman a plastic foam cup of water.

A security man locks the wooden conference room door.

* * *

Jimmy Simmons, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s branch in Casper, didn’t expect to get a return letter from the KKK.

For months he had been hearing reports that black men in Gillette were being beaten up. Invariably the men were with white women when assaulted. Then Klan literature showed up around town. Simmons considered rallying against the Klan, but then decided to try something different: talking.

“If you want to talk about hate, get a hater,” Simmons said later. “Let him tell you something about hate.”

http://trib.com/in-a-possible-first-and-under-heavy-security-kkk