Lake Wales Candidates Heat Up Forum Over One's Klan Involvement
John Paul Rogers
Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 11:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 11:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 11:37 p.m.
LAKE WALES | Two city commissioners nearly came to blows during a candidates' forum after John Paul Rogers' history with a Klan organization came up in a question, witnesses said.
Mayor Jack Van Sickle said he stood between Commissioners Mike Carter and Rogers as the two exchanged words face-to-face Sunday night. Carter and Rogers are running for a one-year term as mayor in the April 5 election.
In Lake Wales, the mayor is elected from among the sitting commissioners.
All three were at a candidates' forum Sunday night at the Lake Ashton subdivision.
The ruckus started after a woman in the audience asked: What was Rogers' affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan and how did he think it would affect his ability to represent Lake Wales as mayor?
Van Sickle, who is running for re-election to the City Commission, said the room got so quiet "you could hear a pin drop."
In response, witnesses said, Rogers clarified he once belonged to the United Klans of America, not the KKK, and that it was in the past. Rogers left the Klan nearly 25 years ago, he said.
Carter said he suggested to Rogers that it was an opportunity to apologize for his affiliation with the United Klans of America or for anything the group did to harm race relations in Lake Wales.
Rogers responded that if being against communism, against drugs, and in favor of states' rights was wrong, then he was wrong, according to Howard Kay, a local lawyer who was present at the meeting. Kay is president of Unity-in-Community, a local group dedicated to creating harmony among Lake Wales residents.
He's never denied he was a member," Carter said. "He's clearly not ready to renounce it."
Van Sickle's answer to the question was that every person has something in their past they aren't proud of, and gave the example of three speeding tickets he had.
"We should judge people on what they've done for the city, not on what they've done in the past," Van Sickle said.
After the questioning, Kay said, Rogers walked over to Carter and got face-to-face with him with clenched fists.
"Mike didn't do anything to aggravate the situation," Kay said.
But Van Sickle's wife, Brenda, who has been managing her husband's campaign, said many people told her after seeing Carter's behavior at the forum that they favored Rogers.
"John Paul conducted himself like a gentleman," she said.
By all accounts, the two did exchange heated words.
Some voters who elected Rogers to the City Commission three years ago didn't know then that he had once been the Florida Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America.
Rogers, 70, joined the Klans in 1963 or 1964, according to what he told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents seeking historical information on the Klan in 2005.
In 1988, the United Klans group went bankrupt after the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama won a $7 million judgment for the family of a man who had been lynched several years earlier.
All of United Klan's assets were seized, and Rogers retired, according to an interview he gave three years.
On Thursday, Rogers said he doesn't discuss it after all of these years.
"I've served in public service and never held any group over any other," Rogers said. "I'll let the record speak for itself."
Rogers served for six years on the Lake Wales Zoning Board of Appeals before being elected to a three-year term on the City Commission.
Carter said that as long as that's true, this will continue to be an issue.
1 comment:
Hypocrisy has finally reared it's ugly head at Lake Ashton. When an elected CDD Supervisor embraces and defends a former Grand Dragon of the KuKluxKlan, and people accept it as "normal" behavior, then we, who have the ability to think for ourselves can surmise that there is something very wrong with a segment of our community. The message is loud and clear. NO Blacks, Jews, Muslims, or other minorities wanted here! Believe in Jesus Christ as taught by us, and our Church, or be excluded from our social circle. Think as we think, and believe as we believe, or you will be shunned and denied social advantages.
These are the same people who go to Church regularly, hold Bible Study Meetings, and engage in Prayer Groups. Hypocrites ALL!!! At least it is all out in the open now, and those of us who recognize that it is what it is can deal with it in our individual ways.
The Pontious-Van Sickle- Robinson clique embraces hatred, prejudice, and racism as surely as the sun rises in the morning. Thanks to Brenda, it's now out in the open for all to see. Residents, beware.
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