Rasp
Senior Editor
Nigger-loving meddlers receive letter from Grand Dragon
Klan letter warns mother
BAINBRIDGE - A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent said Monday a Bainbridge mother whose son plays in an AAU basketball program here should turn over to local law enforcement agents a letter sent to her on apparent Ku Klux Klan stationery.
GBI Agent-in-Charge Mike Lewis said that while the letter's text may not have been overtly threatening, the Klan markings are enough to warrant law enforcement attention.
"There has been no Klan activity in Southwest Georgia in quite some time," said Lewis, who is stationed in the GBI's Sylvester office. "There was that rally in Donalsonville a few months back, but generally if we hear of Klan activity in Georgia, it's in north Georgia.
"Still, anyone who receives such a letter should let law enforcement see it. If this letter is legit - and that's a big if - well, it's ominous in nature simply because of the history of the Klan."
Mae Arsenault, whose son is one of the few white students participating in a Bainbridge-based AAU basketball program coached by Lee Thomas, wrote a letter to the local Post-Searchlight newspaper suggesting that school officials allow the AAU program to lease the gymnasium at a local middle school, which is scheduled to be closed this year, for team practices. The matter was turned over to the Decatur County school system's athletic director, Ed Pilcher.
According to Post-Searchlight Publisher Jeff Findley, who covers school board meetings for the paper, Pilcher denied the request because he said students outside Decatur County were participating in the program.
Arsenault said Monday she's not buying that line of reasoning.
"What looks so bad is that all the other youth programs i
n the community are allowed to use school facilities for practices and games," she said. "And I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like our kids are not allowed to use the facilities because it's a mostly black program.
"(Community officials) try to portray Bainbridge as being like Mayberry, but something like this just blows my mind. What are we saying to these young kids?"
Arsenault said she sent copies of the letter printed in the Bainbridge paper to media outlets throughout Southwest Georgia, to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Rep. Sanford Bishop and to the local NAACP chapter. A letter signed by "Grand Dragon Gregg Wolf" and postmarked July 21 was delivered to her home over the weekend.
That letter read, in part:
"We understand you are very concerned about the poor little Black basketball team 'Not having an air conditioned gymnasium To play in.' In fact you have been writing letters calling Senators and talking With School Board Members and s
tirring up the black Population in order to force the School Board to allow your little Team to play on School properties.
"... The bottom line is this. You have Segregated your team from the rest of The school, but you want the tax payers to pay the bill. We will not sit by Idly and let this happen. The Knight Riders Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan support your decision to segregate but you will have to pay your own Bills!!!!"
Arsenault said she did not feel particularly threatened by the language of the letter.
"When I got this, I thought it was from a church because of the stamp on the envelope (which reads 'In God We Trust') and I almost discarded it," she said. "But when I opened it and saw what it was, I had to sit down and read it a couple of times. My first reaction was that Hank Williams (Jr.) song where he says 'I'd like to spit Beech Nut in that guy's eyes.' I was mad.
"Then I looked at that part where they said they're 'not going t
o sit idly by,' and I wondered what they thought they were going to do. The sad thing is that my son didn't even understand the significance of this coming from the Klan. He asked me, 'Mom, are black people mad at us'?"
The letter to Arsenault continued:
"There are Citizens in Decatur County who have the Idea you Are just the kind of person who wants something for nothing. Who does nothing for her community and is a leech on the backs of Working Class Citizens. We ask that you have some pride and stop these shameless activities.
"You are not a Martin Luther King nor do you have ties with Jesse Jackson. So why do you feel that you must become a great Civil Rights Leader? Aren't you White? If you want to be remembered as a great savior of the Black Race we suggest that you build them a several million dollar Arena for them and you have your name placed on a granite corner stone.
"... We really don't like your politics and at this point I don't think we like yo
u either."
Capt. Liz Croley with the Decatur County Sheriff's office said she was not aware of any local Klan chapter or Klan activity in the county that sits along the Georgia/Florida border in the southwestern corner of the state.
"I'm not aware of any kind of Klan meeting that's taken place in this county since I've been here," Croley, who has served with the sheriff's office for four years, said. "Certainly we take anything like this seriously, and Ms. Arsenault should bring this letter by so that we can take a look at it.
"It very well could be a fake, but we still need to look into it."
Both Croley and GBI Agent Lewis said they had no record of a man named Gregg Wolf being involved in Klan activities. An online search listed a pair of north Georgia phone numbers under the name Gregg Wolf, but one in Peachtree City was disconnected and the other in Fayetteville yielded a recording that said the number was "not in service for incoming calls."
Thomas, who
moved to Bainbridge from New York City in 1996 so that he could be near his daughter after his marriage dissolved and his wife moved, said the letter makes him more aware of "where I am."
"I came down here because I didn't want my daughter to grow up without her father around," he said. "I started this basketball program to give kids an outlet, and because I felt like the time has come for our men to step up and say to our kids there is an alternative to drugs, crime and the streets.
"I would have understood if we'd been asking anybody for money, but this is a self-sustaining program. Our kids have car washes and other fundraisers to fund the program; I don't take any money out of the kids' or their parents' pockets. For the life of me, I can't understand why this community wouldn't support our program. That excuse they gave about kids outside the county being in the program is not true. All of our kids are from Decatur County."
Thomas said some 32 students are currently involved
in his AAU program. And while he admits that the letter Arsenault received is disturbing, he says that won't stop him from conducting his program.
"They're not intimidating me," he said. "I've been shot at, stabbed ... I had a 9 mm pistol laid upside my head and a shotgun pointed at my chest. I'm telling you the God's honest truth, and I honestly believe God has kept me around for a reason.
"I'm going to keep doing my thing, teaching these kids. I told Mae, I'm not doing this for power. I'm doing it for the kids."
Thomas and his 13-under boys, 15-under girls and 17-under boys AAU teams will compete in the Big Bend Showdown Classic in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend.
Klan letter warns mother
BAINBRIDGE - A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent said Monday a Bainbridge mother whose son plays in an AAU basketball program here should turn over to local law enforcement agents a letter sent to her on apparent Ku Klux Klan stationery.
GBI Agent-in-Charge Mike Lewis said that while the letter's text may not have been overtly threatening, the Klan markings are enough to warrant law enforcement attention.
"There has been no Klan activity in Southwest Georgia in quite some time," said Lewis, who is stationed in the GBI's Sylvester office. "There was that rally in Donalsonville a few months back, but generally if we hear of Klan activity in Georgia, it's in north Georgia.
"Still, anyone who receives such a letter should let law enforcement see it. If this letter is legit - and that's a big if - well, it's ominous in nature simply because of the history of the Klan."
Mae Arsenault, whose son is one of the few white students participating in a Bainbridge-based AAU basketball program coached by Lee Thomas, wrote a letter to the local Post-Searchlight newspaper suggesting that school officials allow the AAU program to lease the gymnasium at a local middle school, which is scheduled to be closed this year, for team practices. The matter was turned over to the Decatur County school system's athletic director, Ed Pilcher.
According to Post-Searchlight Publisher Jeff Findley, who covers school board meetings for the paper, Pilcher denied the request because he said students outside Decatur County were participating in the program.
Arsenault said Monday she's not buying that line of reasoning.
"What looks so bad is that all the other youth programs i
n the community are allowed to use school facilities for practices and games," she said. "And I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like our kids are not allowed to use the facilities because it's a mostly black program.
"(Community officials) try to portray Bainbridge as being like Mayberry, but something like this just blows my mind. What are we saying to these young kids?"
Arsenault said she sent copies of the letter printed in the Bainbridge paper to media outlets throughout Southwest Georgia, to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Rep. Sanford Bishop and to the local NAACP chapter. A letter signed by "Grand Dragon Gregg Wolf" and postmarked July 21 was delivered to her home over the weekend.
That letter read, in part:
"We understand you are very concerned about the poor little Black basketball team 'Not having an air conditioned gymnasium To play in.' In fact you have been writing letters calling Senators and talking With School Board Members and s
tirring up the black Population in order to force the School Board to allow your little Team to play on School properties.
"... The bottom line is this. You have Segregated your team from the rest of The school, but you want the tax payers to pay the bill. We will not sit by Idly and let this happen. The Knight Riders Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan support your decision to segregate but you will have to pay your own Bills!!!!"
Arsenault said she did not feel particularly threatened by the language of the letter.
"When I got this, I thought it was from a church because of the stamp on the envelope (which reads 'In God We Trust') and I almost discarded it," she said. "But when I opened it and saw what it was, I had to sit down and read it a couple of times. My first reaction was that Hank Williams (Jr.) song where he says 'I'd like to spit Beech Nut in that guy's eyes.' I was mad.
"Then I looked at that part where they said they're 'not going t
o sit idly by,' and I wondered what they thought they were going to do. The sad thing is that my son didn't even understand the significance of this coming from the Klan. He asked me, 'Mom, are black people mad at us'?"
The letter to Arsenault continued:
"There are Citizens in Decatur County who have the Idea you Are just the kind of person who wants something for nothing. Who does nothing for her community and is a leech on the backs of Working Class Citizens. We ask that you have some pride and stop these shameless activities.
"You are not a Martin Luther King nor do you have ties with Jesse Jackson. So why do you feel that you must become a great Civil Rights Leader? Aren't you White? If you want to be remembered as a great savior of the Black Race we suggest that you build them a several million dollar Arena for them and you have your name placed on a granite corner stone.
"... We really don't like your politics and at this point I don't think we like yo
u either."
Capt. Liz Croley with the Decatur County Sheriff's office said she was not aware of any local Klan chapter or Klan activity in the county that sits along the Georgia/Florida border in the southwestern corner of the state.
"I'm not aware of any kind of Klan meeting that's taken place in this county since I've been here," Croley, who has served with the sheriff's office for four years, said. "Certainly we take anything like this seriously, and Ms. Arsenault should bring this letter by so that we can take a look at it.
"It very well could be a fake, but we still need to look into it."
Both Croley and GBI Agent Lewis said they had no record of a man named Gregg Wolf being involved in Klan activities. An online search listed a pair of north Georgia phone numbers under the name Gregg Wolf, but one in Peachtree City was disconnected and the other in Fayetteville yielded a recording that said the number was "not in service for incoming calls."
Thomas, who
moved to Bainbridge from New York City in 1996 so that he could be near his daughter after his marriage dissolved and his wife moved, said the letter makes him more aware of "where I am."
"I came down here because I didn't want my daughter to grow up without her father around," he said. "I started this basketball program to give kids an outlet, and because I felt like the time has come for our men to step up and say to our kids there is an alternative to drugs, crime and the streets.
"I would have understood if we'd been asking anybody for money, but this is a self-sustaining program. Our kids have car washes and other fundraisers to fund the program; I don't take any money out of the kids' or their parents' pockets. For the life of me, I can't understand why this community wouldn't support our program. That excuse they gave about kids outside the county being in the program is not true. All of our kids are from Decatur County."
Thomas said some 32 students are currently involved
in his AAU program. And while he admits that the letter Arsenault received is disturbing, he says that won't stop him from conducting his program.
"They're not intimidating me," he said. "I've been shot at, stabbed ... I had a 9 mm pistol laid upside my head and a shotgun pointed at my chest. I'm telling you the God's honest truth, and I honestly believe God has kept me around for a reason.
"I'm going to keep doing my thing, teaching these kids. I told Mae, I'm not doing this for power. I'm doing it for the kids."
Thomas and his 13-under boys, 15-under girls and 17-under boys AAU teams will compete in the Big Bend Showdown Classic in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend.