MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Members of the Ku Klux Klan have begun a rally in downtown Memphis to protest the renaming of three Confederate parks.
About 50 members arrived Saturday afternoon, some wearing pointed white hoods and waving red and black flags with the letters "KKK' and swastikas on them. One leader, who spoke through a megaphone, said "you're not going to take our parks.''
Security was extremely heavy and police Director Toney Armstrong said his officers were prepared to keep the peace.
A North Carolina-based faction of the Klan received a protest permit after the City Council voted to change the names of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park.
Forrest was a slave trader, Confederate cavalryman and member of the first version of the Klan.
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