The mere existence of the KKK is enough cause for both alarm and questioning of our federal government as to why an outright racist, violently hateful organization has been allowed to exist for so long, but apparently, conservative media personality Tomi Lahren didn’t get that memo.
Lahren appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Wednesday evening and when Noah shifted the conversation to her unfounded criticisms of the Black Lives Matter Movement, she foolishly tried to defend her tactic of describing the modern-day civil rights organization as “the new Ku Klux Klan.”
“When the Black Lives Matter movement is going out with signs saying ‘fry em like bacon’ and ‘f the police,’ and when they’re going out and saying, ‘if you see a White person, target them,’…that is happening, Trevor,” she said.
The most cringe-worthy moment of Lahren’s spiel came when she attempted to minimize the KKK’s violent history of racist attacks, inhumane murders and torture.
“So, when that now becomes the narrative and you’re starting to loot, burn and riot….what did the KKK do?” Lahren asked. Naturally, her bogus question was met with a barrage of ‘boos’ from the audience and a puzzled look from Noah himself.
In an effort to remind Tomi Lahren and anyone else who seems to be suffering from a slight case of amnesia with regard to the history of violent crimes committed by the KKK in America, here’s a look at just a few of them.
1. Tulsa Race Riots – Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921
Between 21 and 200 Black people were murdered after residents began rioting when a Black man was accused of raping a White woman. Tulsa KKK founder W. Tate Brady participated in the riot.
2. Murder Of Emmett Till – Money, Mississippi 1955
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was badly beaten to the point that his face was disfigured and one of his eyes was dislodged from its’ socket before being fatally shot, tied to a fan and thrown in the Tallahatchie River by two White men for allegedly flirting with a White woman while visiting a local store.
3. Murder of Judge Edward Aaron – Birmingham, Alabama 1957
Edward Aaron was a Black handyman who was abducted by the KKK, badly beaten, castrated with a razor and left to die in a nearby creek.
4. Murder Of Willie Edwards – Alabama River, Alabama, 1957
Willie Edwards was abducted by Klansman and severely beaten in his car before being forced at gunpoint to jump 125 feet to his death off a bridge over the Alabama River.
5. 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing That Killed Four Black School Girls – Birmingham, Alabama 1963
The KKK claimed responsibility for strategically placing bombs underneath the Black church just as Sunday school was coming to a close. The bombs later exploded and killed four Black schoolgirls between the ages of 11 and 14.
6. Murder Of Medgar Evers – Jackson, Mississippi, 1963
Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist, husband and father who was assassinated by KKK member, Byron De La Beckwith, in his driveway while returning home from a meeting with NAACP lawyers.
7. Murder Of Viola Liuzzo – Selma, Alabama 1965
Viola Liuzzo was a White civil rights activist, mother and wife. She was shot twice in the head by four KKK members who became enraged after seeing her riding in the car with a Black man, who was also an activist.
8. Michael Donald Murder – Mobile, Alabama, 1981
Michael Donald was killed by KKK members after being questionably charged with the murder of a White policeman. The Klan members beat him with a tree limb, strangled him with a rope and slit his throat, before later hanging him from a tree in a local neighborhood yard.
9. Mount Zion AME Church Burning – Greelyville, South Carolina 1995
Mount Zion AME Church was burned to the ground by KKK members before later being rebuilt.
10. Murder of Jason Smith – Eros, Louisiana, 2011
Jason Smith was a 14-year-old Black student from Louisiana who was found dead in a local lake with his organs missing. Although his death was ruled an “accidental drowning,” his father and family maintain that the killing was the doing of local KKK members.
11. Jewish Community Center Murders – Overland Park, Kansas 2014
Former KKK leader Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. murdered three people after opening fire at a local Jewish community center.
12. Stabbing Of Anti-KKK Protesters At Klan Rally – Anaheim, California 2016
Three people were stabbed by members and supporters of the KKK while protesting against their rally in California.