Two dozen members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan held a downtown rally in an usually quiet dairy community to show support for college students who threw a party that was criticized for being racist.
Three people were arrested on Saturday after a scuffle broke out with counter-protesters near the end of the 90-minute rally, but no other violence was reported. The event drew about 500 bystanders who booed and held anti-hate signs.
The group chose the small town for the rally in response to a controversy two months ago at a local college. Tarleton State students held an off-campus party on Martin Luther King Jr Day, eating fried chicken, drinking malt liquor from bottles wrapped in brown paper bags and dressed as Aunt Jemima and other stereotypes of blacks.
The school later chastised them and held a student forum to discuss race relations and a unity rally. At least one student shown in party photos posted on the Internet later apologized.
Last month, the San Angelo area-based Klan members distributed literature around town. During the rally, one Klan member said Tarleton State was a good school but had a "spineless administration" for how it handled that situation.
"We felt like those kids were railroaded ... and we felt like that was handled totally wrong by the college and by the people of Stephenville also," Roger Davidson, the Klan's grand dragon of Texas, said after the rally. "We stand behind anybody's freedom of speech."
The Traditional Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, who wore black T-shirts or suits and not the white robes and hoods traditionally associated with the group, were separated from onlookers by two fences and dozens of law enforcement officers.
Faye Landham of Arlington said she was appalled when she heard the Klan still existed, much less was holding a rally.
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