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WILKES-BARRE — This is no place for hate.

Those words repeatedly echoed off the steps of the Luzerne County Courthouse at sunset Tuesday, as about 100 marchers gathered to speak out against recent efforts by the Ku Klux Klan to recruit new members in the city.

But the gathering also commemorated events farther away, Wilkes-Barre NAACP president Larry Singleton explained. Also on Tuesday, national civil rights advocates arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the culmination of a 1,000-mile march from Selma, Alabama intended to highlight issues related to criminal justice, voting rights and economic opportunity.

“This is a very symbolic day for us,” Singleton told the diverse group: black, white and Latino; young and old; Christian and Jewish. City Council members and mayoral candidates mingled with community activists and families toting young children.

“This is our Washington,” Rabbi Roger Lerner, of Temple B’nai B’rith in Kingston, announced to the crowd after the local marchers had trekked from Public Square to the courthouse on River Street.

As Lerner and other speakers underscored, the character of Tuesday’s marches in Washington and Wilkes-Barre were of an entirely different character than those which took place in 1965, when voting rights demonstrators were attacked by police outside Selma.

“We have police protection today, much different than it was 50 years ago” Lerner observed, gesturing toward the Wilkes-Barre police squad cars that provided an escort for marchers as they crossed busy streets en route to the courthouse.

[video width="640" height="360" mp4="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Anti-racism.mp4"][/video]

Given rising tensions between police and members of minority communities in many parts of the country in recent years, community activist Angel Jirau urged better relations with law enforcement, reminding the audience that there can be bad people in any line of work, but they do not represent the entire profession.

“We must stand with them, the majority who protect us,” said Jirau, head of Spanish American Leaders Serving All.

As much as Tuesday’s march was in kinship with events elsewhere, it arose in response to the recent KKK recruiting efforts.

Jirau explained that there was talk of sending a local delegation to Washington, before the Klan fliers began showing up at a handful of homes last month. The papers were distributed by supporters of the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire.

If there were any KKK supporters mingling or observing Tuesday’s march, they didn’t show themselves — certainly not after speakers at the courthouse called out to the crowd to ask if any were in attendance.

“Hate has no place in this area,” Singleton said.

But some speakers also suggested that the KKK fliers might have quickly faded into deserved obscurity were it not for handling of the story by the Citizens’ Voice newspaper, which used of a photo of a hooded Klansman on the front page of its Aug. 26 edition. The photo was accompanied by a headline reading, “The KKK wants you.”

According to the accompanying story inside the paper, that message appeared on a Klan-affiliated website associated with the telephone number on the fliers.

Citizens’ Voice officials later met with civil rights leaders to discuss the matter, and published a story explaining that the photo and headline were intended to encourage discussion of racial issues in the region.

Lerner said he feels the actual outcome was to misrepresent the state of race relations here, giving the fliers undue exposure.

“They made it seem like there was a race war here,” the rabbi said.

“We don’t accept that characterization of who we are in the Wyoming Valley.”
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<img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk2.jpg" alt="" />
<div class="neCaption">Marchers celebrating America’s civil rights movement, and protesting a recent KKK recruiting effort in Wilkes-Barre, listen during speeches Tuesday outside the Luzerne County Courthouse.</div>
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<div class="metaInfo">https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk2.jpgMarchers celebrating America’s civil rights movement, and protesting a recent KKK recruiting effort in Wilkes-Barre, listen during speeches Tuesday outside the Luzerne County Courthouse. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</div>
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<img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk3.jpg" alt="" />
<div class="neCaption">Angel Jirau, head of Spanish American Leaders Serving All, carries a sign promoting diversity during a civil rights awareness march Tuesday along North Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre.</div>
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<div class="metaInfo">https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk3.jpgAngel Jirau, head of Spanish American Leaders Serving All, carries a sign promoting diversity during a civil rights awareness march Tuesday along North Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</div>
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<img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk1.jpg" alt="" />
<div class="neCaption">Rabbi Roger Lerner, of Temple B’nai B’rith in Kingston, addresses anti-racism marchers from the steps of the Luzerne County Courthouse on Tuesday.</div>
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<div class="metaInfo">https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091615protestwalk1.jpgRabbi Roger Lerner, of Temple B’nai B’rith in Kingston, addresses anti-racism marchers from the steps of the Luzerne County Courthouse on Tuesday. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</div>
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<div class="metaInfo">Event spotlights national march, takes aim at KKK recruitment</div>
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By Roger DuPuis

rdupuis@www.timesleader.com

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Reach Roger DuPuis at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @rogerdupuis2.

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‘No place for hate,’ Wilkes-Barre civil rights marchers say