KKK Candy Drive Recruits in South Carolina, Residents 'Ashamed and Upset' at Klan Efforts

KKK candy bags were found on the steps of residents in Oconee County, South Carolina and across the northwestern part of the state on Saturday night and Sunday morning, according to reports. Neighbors, some white but others minorities, were shocked to find the bags on their porches along with encouragement to join the Ku Klux Klan.

The KKK candy bags came with a paper asking residents to "Save Our Land, Join the Klan." It also comes with a number that those interested can call, which leads to an automated message that talks about the Ku Klux Klan stand against illegal immigration.

"Be a man, join the clan! Illegal immigration is destroying America," the paper reads, adding that people should "always remember if it ain't white, it ain't right. White power."

Although the Ku Klux Klan has about an estimated 8,500 members across the U.S., Robert Jones, Imperial Klaliff of the Loyal White Knights, told Fox Carolina that his organization gets about 20,000 calls a day to the number and many people interested in joining.

South Carolina residents were disgusted with the literature being dumped on their doorsteps.

"[I] talked to several neighbors. They were very angry, very upset, very ashamed at the same time -- that this exists," one Seneca woman said under the condition of anonymity. "Ashamed to face our neighbors that do not have the same color skin that we do."

"You shouldn't have to wake up and fear that somebody might burn a cross in your yard or throw something like this out in your driveway with nothing but hurt in their intention," she added.

Jones said that putting Klan literature on minorities' doorsteps and porches was unintentional.

"I mean, we can't tell who lives in a house, whether they're black, white, Mexican, gay, we can't tell that," Jones explained. "And if you were to look at somebody's house like that, that means you'd be pretty much a racist."