Is there a high KKK population in central PA? (Pittsburgh: insurance, house)

[Midwesterns45]

My friend told me that when he was in PA for a humanity project he ran into several people who asked him about his shirt which read Newark, NJ. They asked him why he would wear a shirt that represents black people.
They then gave him a KKK pamphlet. On his way back to NJ he took the back roads and told me that there were KKK signs on telephone poles and homes with burnt holy crosses on the porches.
Has anybody had these encounters with members of the KKK in central PA?

[lititzman2003]

I've lived in Central PA for over six years and I"ve never seen or heard of any KKK activity here. I'd be curious to know exactly where your friend was when this took place. Pretty sickening.

[pman]

perhaps it was just a coincidence, they were in town "recruiting" or whatever they do and posted pamphlets everywhere. hard to believe it wouldn't make the news if this was going on.

[LivingMoon]

What makes the news depends a lot on where it happens.

According to groups who monitor these things, PA is like a hotbed of clan activity. I've never seen a robed member, but I've heard some talk and seen signs along back roads that did not make me feel inclined to linger.

Do I think the average white person from small town PA is a Klan supporter? Absolutely NOT. A problem with people making ignorant comments about urban areas in states that share a border with Pennsylvania is the little fact that these folks have never been there. They are xenophobic more than racist, I think. The racist remarks are bluster to cover up their discomfort in speaking with a stranger...they think racism sounds tough and cool.

[Honest Bob]

I think that someone was smoking something.

I know about every back country road from State College to Altoona to Greensburgh to Erie to Warren to Bradford and back down through the Allegheny National forest to Lock Haven - Dubois, Clearfield, Punxsutawney - you name it - I have been there.

You will not see anything KKK related on peoples homes or on telephone poles.

The truth is - all telephone poles are owned by the utility companies and you are not legally even allowed to put a staple in them. It is very dangerous for a lineman to try to climb a pole - after some idiot put a bunch of nails in it.

There was a man that lived in the next town over that belonged to the KKK and was some kind of Grand Dragon or something, he made some people mad and he torched his own house and tried to say that the people in the town did it to get him to leave. When the state police proved that he did it himself, the insurance company got involved and he went to jail.

He did some other stuff and they threw him in jail and threw away the key.

His name was Ed Foster and he died a number of years ago.

The KKK is predominately a southern thing. The KKK does not like colored people - but they also don't like Catholic's either.

Ashamed, he fled the KKK

Interview With Kkk Grand Dragon C. Edward Foster - VidoEmo - Emotional Video Unity (http://www.vidoemo.com/yvideo.php?i=c0VEWFgzcWuRpME0xTVk&interview-with-kkk-grand-dragon-c-edward-foster - broken link)

[alleghenyman]

I go there a lot for outdoors activities and have friends who live there. While I have seen reclusive religious sects like Mennonites who shun the outside world, I have never seen anything remotely involving the KKK or organized racism in any of the counties from the New York border down to Harrisburg. Not saying it doesn't exist, but it's not commonplace in the least.

I'd argue that people in central PA tend to be more tolerant than in other rural areas I've seen, because of the history of religious groups there like the Amish and Mennonites, who actively resist integrating into mainstream society and live quite well all the same.

When I was in college in that area we published a fairly pretentious arts and letters journal and the cover photo was burning crosses, from the Guy Fawkes day parade I attended in Lewes, England, the home of Guy Fawkes. We weren't trying to be racist, we just thought it was a striking image, and a local printer refused to print it. We had to go to the bustling metropolis of Scranton.

(footnoote - Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament and was betrayed, the festival celebrates the prevention of the plot, was probably anti-Catholic in origin but is now the English Fourth of July with parades and fireworks).

[pman]

heh, not to get off topic, but that reminds me of when we got a lighter engraved in collge in a small town for a friend's birthday. we were getting some rather uncouth words engraved and the engraver in that town was an older gentleman...and his wife was with him. It was like swearing to you grandparents...in the end he looked at us for a while, asked who it was for, and laughed but it was still pretty odd.

[wanneroo]

I've never seen any sign of the clan around in rural PA and at least where I live I don't think it'd be tolerated.

[Hopes]

I havent seen the KKK recruting in Pittsburgh since the 80s.

They came up from the South and stood at major intersections on highways giving out pamphlets.

The grand-hoha, or whatever he's called, was with them.

I guess they weren't successful with recruitment since they never came back

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by LivingMoon

A problem with people making ignorant comments about urban areas in states that share a border with Pennsylvania is the little fact that these folks have never been there.

This is becoming a problem for mid-southeastern Pennsylvania since it's becoming a suburb for Maryland due to Marylanders moving to Pennsylvania for a lower cost of living.