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LYONS — Local activists, both black and white, linked hands and prayed yesterday, holding up the Ku Klux Klan robes they had just purchased at auction. Unable to stop the items' sale, they had decided to buy them. Earlier, they had stood outside the Great American Auction House on Route 31 and protested, carrying signs decrying the Klan and the auction. Greene said the group bought the items because its members wanted them go to a museum. The items are of historical value, he said, but should not be bought and sold because of the hatred they represent. Inside the auction house, WARE member Jim Wood of Sodus successfully bid on all but one of the items. At least some of them will now go to the Buffalo Historical Society, which helped WARE fund its purchases. Two of the Klan's characteristic white robes sold for $300 apiece. A foot-high doll representing a robed Klan member cost $150, a ticket to a Klan rally $45 and a photo of a Klan member on horseback $75. A black-and-silver Klan sword — which Wood lost to an anonymous absentee bidder — sold for $500. “They went pretty cheap,” said Otis Davis of Palmyra, who also bid on the items. WARE members and Rochester TV news crews had to hustle out of the way as Davis backed his pickup truck out of the parking lot afterward. LeGrand said he received the Klan items from two separate sources, whom he declined to identify. LeGrand said he tried to keep the sale as low-key as he could. Word of the auction began spreading last week after an advertisement promoting it appeared in a local publication. The Klan items were listed along with a depression-era portrait of Abraham Lincoln, a Steve Urkel doll, signed television scripts and other assorted items. Huling Hummel is president of the village's Inter-church Council, which met Thursday and unanimously voted to oppose the auction. The council works for justice and equality, Huling Hummel said. The council sent a letter to the auction house asking it to cancel the sale. But the owner replied that he was under contract to sell the items, Huling Hummel said. Greene and several others — including his son, daughter and wife — stood outside the auction house yesterday and handed out leaflets asking people not to bid on the Klan items. “People should not be profiting from the sale of items that represent hatred and violence toward Jews, Catholics, African-Americans, gays and those with disabilities,” the leaflets read. “Some people have said, ‘So what,' and others have said, ‘We agree with you,'” said WARE member Kay Embrey of Sodus as she passed out the leaflets. A plainclothes state trooper stood by in case of trouble. The protesters waited for the bidding to start before entering the building, where they stood near the back and quietly awaited the auction's outcome. “No to hatred in Wayne County,” one read. “Shame on those who profit from the KKK,” read another. WARE members had contacted several museums to find out if they would be interested in the items. The Buffalo Historical Society agreed to take several, including one of the robes and the photograph — which shows a robed, hooded figure whose horse wears a KKK blanket — because they came from the Buffalo area. Others items came from elsewhere in New York. Wood said the group would offer all the items to the historical society. If it doesn't want those that didn't come from Buffalo, “It may be that we burn them,” he said. In his letter to the Lyons churches, LeGrand wrote that he did not want to promote the Klan or cause anyone pain, Huling Hummel said. LeGrand offered the protesters coffee yesterday and checked to see that they were being treated well by the 100 or so people who attended the auction. Greene, the pastor of the Church of Christ of Newark, said he hoped the protest would show people that they have a voice and the power to affect change. “This is a great educational opportunity today,” he said. African-Americans and others fought long for their freedom, Greene said — something he does not want forgotten. The Anti-Defamation League characterizes the Klan as a terrorist organization, responsible for numerous lynchings and other violent acts. It had nearly 100,000 members at its peak in the 1920s, and some 40,000 robed Klan members paraded down the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1924. A chapter of the Klan was active in the Geneva area at around the same time. Various groups use the Klan name today, but there is no longer a central Klan organization, according to the ADL. In 1989, one such group attempted to recruit members in Dundee. Klan-related items have become sought-after collectibles, with several dozen currently listed on the online auction site eBay. LeGrand said he would consider selling such items again on a case-by-case basis. This is cache, read story here
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