The Georgia Department of Transportation is facing a major legal headache after the Ku Klux Klan unveiled a plan to ‘adopt’ a stretch of highway in North Georgia, which would potentially see the white supremacy organisation gain state recognition for cleaning litter from the road.
According to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, the department is reviewing the request and will meet lawyers from the state attorney general’s office to decide on what action to take.
Officials could be faced with several unpalatable options: approving the application, denying it and facing a legal battle, or scrapping the 23-year old Adopt-A-Highway scheme altogether.
Harley Hanson – the Exalted Cyclops of the Klan group – said: ‘We just want to clean up the doggone road. We’re not going to be out there in robes.’
State Representative Tyrone Brooks, head of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, said the state authorities should reject the application from what he described as a ‘domestic terrorist group’ even if it means a costly legal fight.