Another clash at Klan rally

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 9

Another clash at Klan rally

NZPA - Reuter Columbus, Ohio

! Demonstrators chanting | I "Ku Klux Kian, scum of the I land” stormed the podium at la Fourth of July Klan rally ion the steps of the Ohio State Capitol, smashed a I loudspeaking system, and i punched and tore the robes i<?ff Ohio’s K.K.K. Imperial (Wizard.

The rally quickly became a club-swinging melee. Four persons were injured, including Jerry Coleman, a cameraman, who was knocked unconscious when he was struck on the head with a board.

He was treated at a hospital and released. Others were treated at the scene for cuts and bruises.

Four persons were arrested.

Imperial Wizard Dale Reusch, of Lodi, was punched in the neck by a white man, and had his purple robes ripped off.

( But he remains unbowed. “I’m ready to fight,” he said 'after the rally. “I’m ready to drive the enemy right off of (this land.” ' The “enemy’,”? he said, were “the groups who favour busing. And there are a lot of communists involved. I like competition, but I don’t like it carried to this extreme.” Mr Reusch vowed to return to Columbus in the autumn, when the first phase of court-ordered busing for desegregation purposes is to begin. He said another rally would be held, and 'We’re going to stop this nonsense.” State highway troopers and city policemen in riot gear moved in and cleared the speaking area on the Capitol steps. Three whites and one black were arrested.

! The melee began when some 20 to 30 blacks and a handful of whites jammed in front of the podium and began taunting Mr Reusch as he began the rally, called to protest against school desegregation busing in Columbus, Cleveland, and other Ohio cities.