Following Trump Win, KKK Clansmen Openly March in North Carolina-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A photo making the rounds of social media appears to show members of the KKK marching on a North Carolina bridge to celebrate Donald Trump carrying the state in the 2016 election.
The Truth:
A viral photo making the rounds on social media shows Donald Trump supporters marking across a bridge in Durham, North Carolina — but they weren’t KKK members.
That claim went viral on social media after Trump’s stunning upset win over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Figures seen marching across an overpass bridge seem to have a passing resemblance to hooded KKK members in these hazy photos, but, according to reporters on the ground, they were not.
The Burlington Times-News published clear photos of Trump supporters on the bridge waiving American flags and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags after “taking back” Alamance County. About a dozen Trump supporters were on the bridge, which they’ve done “15 to 30” times since February, the newspaper reports:
Peering over the Tucker Street overpass Tuesday, Barry Brown and roughly a dozen other Donald Trump supporters waved flags at the passing motorists below.
“I’m out here today because we as Americans have taken God out of America,” said Brown, of Liberty, who said he began his “Flagging 40” initiative on Alamance County Interstate 40/85 overpasses in February.
“I believe that a Trump America would be great for America.”
As he did Tuesday afternoon, each of those times since February, Brown has flown both a Christian and an American flag. On Tuesday, he was joined by other conservative demonstrators holding “Trump” and Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, along with more Christian and American flags.
Brown’s estimate of how many times he has waved flags over I-40/85 since February was “15 to 30.”
A day after the original story appeared, Times-News reporter Natalie Allison Janicello took to Twitter to confirm that she hadn’t seen any KKK members on the bridge when she was reporting the story:
https://twitter.com/natalie_allison/status/796381572295491584
Given all that, we’re calling reports that KKK members openly marched to celebrate Trump’s victory in North Carolina as “fiction.”