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Woman in silent stand against Klan
Supremacist group ends Bowling Green rally moments later
By Deborah Highland
dhighland@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Laquetta Shepard, a diminutive 24-year-old black woman
from Louisville with tears in her eyes, stepped into the middle of a group of
about five Ku Klux Klan supporters yesterday.

She said nothing.

But the fact that Shepard, a senior at Western Kentucky University, was there
with her arms crossed as she stood in silence, brought what was billed as a
major Klan rally to a halt 40 minutes earlier than planned.

''I cried when I first got there and heard 'nigger,' '' Shepard said.

Her original intent was to stand with sign-toting anti-Klan protesters, about
50 of whom were gathered in a cordoned-off area of the Warren County Justice
Center parking lot. In another cordoned-off area were about 15 Klan
supporters. Facing both groups were 14 robed members of the Louisville-based
SS Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. About 180 other people watched.

As the anti-Klan shouts began to drown out the Klan members, they began
blasting what they called ''white music,'' a rendition of ''Johnny B.
Goode,'' which was written and performed by black musician Chuck Berry.

After exchanging obscenities with the protesters, the Klan members said a
prayer for white supremacy.

Something came over Shepard and she decided to leave the protest area and
walk over to the area cordoned off for Klan supporters.

''They have the freedom to stand there and say what they want, and I have the
freedom to walk where I want to walk,'' Shepard said. ''They told me I was
standing in the wrong place.''

Shepard stood silently and trembled as tears streamed down her face.

A Klan supporter draped in a whitesupremacy flag leaned over the police line
and asked a Kentucky State Police trooper to remove Shepard. The trooper
shrugged and said the woman wasn't doing anything wrong.

About a minute later, the Klan supporters walked away, and the Klan members
packed their bags, loaded their cars and left.

''It was just getting hot, plus things were getting out of hand, so we just
wanted to pack it up and go home,'' Scott Smith, imperial wizard of the SS
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said afterward.

City and county officials, along with religious organizations and civic
groups, planned a Unity Day celebration as an alternative to the Klan rally,
and it drew nearly 1,000 people.

After the rally, Shepard left to attend that celebration.