Will Jacksonville’s once KKK grand dragon stop Rawls hate group?

With all the hate-mongering rearing its ugly head around St Augustine, racial epithets indiscriminately hurled at white citizens of St Augustine, false accusations of racism, bigotry, and white supremacy designed to annoy the peaceful members of our city because a small handful didn’t get their way, Historic City News found it ironic that a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who participated in the white nationalist march last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, has returned home to Jacksonville and has denounced hate groups.

The three-day “March for Change” that began in Jacksonville on May 15th and ended in St Augustine, on May 17, 2018 was a perfect example of people acting out of hate for everything.  The same marchers are characters in stand-ins, sit-ins, and picket lines for every hateful social cause you can imagine.  Depending on what sign they’re holding that day, you’ll see the usual suspects, wrapped in the Antifa flag or African flag and carrying a banner proclaiming their devotion to the New Florida Majority, Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, The Black Commission,

Take ‘Em Down Jax, The Northside Coalition, The New Black Panther Party, Occupy Jacksonville, Indivisibles, Women’s March; and, even more ironic, we find that the majority of the traditional minority group protesters are lily-white girls in their 30’s.

Perhaps Ken Parker, the Jacksonville resident who last year marched in Charlottesville and was both a grand dragon of the KKK and even wore, at one time, the uniform of the National Socialist Movement, an American neo-Nazi group, will denounce some of these Jacksonville hate groups who threaten to continue monthly protests in St Augustine simply to disrupt our businesses and make our residents feel uncomfortable — the same way black residents feel uncomfortable, according to Ronald Rawls of the AME political activist organization.

After his return to Jacksonville from Charlottesville, Parker approached an African-American neighbor who was having a cookout near the pool of his apartment complex.  The neighbor, William McKinnon III, is a pastor at All Saints Holiness Church in Jacksonville and the two began to meet up.  Parker became a member of the predominately black church, and he was baptized by the pastor in the Atlantic Ocean at Little Talbot Island.

McKinnon invited Parker to Easter services.  The former KKK leader stood before a predominately African-American church on April 17 and embraced their community.

“I said I was a grand dragon of the KKK, but that the Klan wasn’t hateful enough for me, so I decided to become a Nazi,” Parker said.  “But after the service, not even one of them had anything negative to say. They were all coming up and hugging me and shaking my hand, you know, building me up instead of tearing me down.”

Parker is in the process of getting his racist tattoos removed.  He has a swastika, a Klan symbol and a Confederate flag that reads “white pride”.”You can definitely get out of this movement. I mean, I was into that so much it was my life for six years. I never thought I would get out,” Parker said. “Get out. You’re throwing your life away.”