Ku Klux Klan members hide their faces behind a flag in New York on Saturday

October 24, 1999
Web posted at: 3:06 a.m. EDT (0706 GMT)

In this story: Court unmasks Klan, ACLU appeals to Supreme Court Al Sharpton supports Klan's right to rally Organizer lost prison job because of Klan ties RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thousands of anti-Ku Klux Klan protesters began dispersing Saturday afternoon after the fewer than two dozen Klan supporters were moved inside by police, apparently for their safety.

A minor scuffle broke out at 2 p.m. EDT as police escorted more than a dozen people dressed in robes of the Ku Klux Klan toward the site of the rally.

Police said three men dressed in plain clothes who had identified themselves as Klan members to gain access to the Klan demonstration area attacked the robed group as they approached.

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CNN's Gary Tuchman reports the appeals court upheld an 1845 New York state law that prohibits groups from gathering with disguises, except for authorized entertainment. Windows Media 28K 80K Correspondent Frank Buckley reports on the clash that resulted when the Ku Klux Klan rallied in New York City Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

The face of one of the approaching robed men was cut, drawing blood. Police took the three attackers into custody.

Once the scuffle cleared, fewer than two dozen people -- including at least three women -- stood in the area reserved for the KKK. Most of them were wearing hoods and sunglasses, but no one wore a mask.

Members of the Partisan Defense Committee, a coalition of labor groups and other activists, carried placards reading "Stop the KKK" and spoke into bullhorns at makeshift podiums. The crowd of anti-Klan protesters was estimated at about 6,000. There were about 2,000 onlookers, police said.

Said one protester: "We came together today to reject hatred and bigotry."

The KKK supporters were moved inside a federal court building after counter demonstrators began to pelt them with "D" batteries. Police said five arrests were made, and two police officers suffered injuries, apparently minor.

Major Rudolph Giuliani appeared at the scene after the demonstration and said the vast numbers opposing the small Klan contingent were "a powerful statement against hatred."

Court unmasks Klan, ACLU appeals to Supreme Court

A Friday decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Klan members had to remove their masks reversed a ruling issued Thursday by a pair of federal judges.

Attorneys representing the Klan said they have filed an emergency appeal of the Friday ruling to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who handles such appeals for New York.

Klan members leave the protest area under police escort

There was no immediate action by Ginsburg, who can either grant the request to lift the appeals court order, deny it or refer it to the full court.

The city went to court to block the Klan event by invoking an 1845 state law that bars groups from congregating in public places in masks or disguises, except for authorized parties or entertainment.

In Friday's ruling, the appeals panel noted that the case was different from other cases across the country in part because the city was not trying to bar the rally because of the Klan's anti-Semitic, anti-minority rhetoric -- just enforce an existing state law.

In Thursday's ruling, two federal judges dismissed the city's effort to make the Klan abide by the law, saying the First Amendment guaranteed the KKK the right to rally with masks.

Al Sharpton supports Klan's right to rally

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of the KKK after the city refused to grant the Klan a permit unless participants agreed not to leave off their masks.

Among those supporting the KKK's right to march were activist Al Sharpton's National Action Network and the Amsterdam News, a newspaper that calls itself a "significant voice of Black America."

Daniel Connolly, a city lawyer, had argued that the antimasking requirement is an important tool aimed at avoiding violence. He said when people are allowed to gather wearing disguises there is a "removal of accountability."

Organizer lost prison job because of Klan ties

The Rev. James Sheeley, a Klan leader who applied for the permit, said his group chose New York to try to overturn the mask law. The Klan has won similar court orders in Indiana and Pennsylvania.

The state confirmed that Sheeley, the grand dragon of new York and New Jersey, was forced to resign in 1997 from an 18- year career with the state Department of Correction -- a job that included counseling inmates.

He resigned in 1997 after an investigation by the department's inspector general discovered he had white supremacy literature, including KKK magazines and related periodicals and documents, a corrections department spokesman said.

Sheeley worked as a counselor at the Wallkill Correctional Facility. There was no indication the white supremacist material had been disseminated in the upstate prisons. He could not be reached for comment.

Correspondent Frank Buckley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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