Klan rally in Maitland... (in Orlando Sentinel, October 1995) - Van R. C. Wisner site
"Klan rally in Maitland draws 1,200 protesters"
by Susan Jacobson
OF THE SENTINEL STAFF
The Orlando Sentinel, October 29, 1995, page 3B
MAITLAND - Largely at the urging of two radio talk-show hosts, about 1,200 people gathered at the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando complex Saturday to protest a demonstration by 23 white supremacists.
Law officers arrested seven protesters on charges including inciting a riot, breaching the peace and resisting arrest. No supremacists were arrested.
Robed and hooded Ku Klux Klan members and a few apparent skinheads lined up on the sidewalk along Maitland Avenue shortly before 1 p.m. They held signs bearing anti-Jewish slogans and displayed Nazi, Confederate, American and Klan flags. They left at 3 p.m., an hour before scheduled.
Onlookers, holding their own signs, intermittently jeered and chanted, "KKK, go away." The crowd stood on a median and across the street, seperated from Klan members by a law enforcement team of 85 that included Maitland police and Orange County deputy sheriffs.
The federation complex, which was closed because of the demonstration, contains Central Florida's Jewish Community Center, Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center and Hebrew Day School.
Federation officials recommended ignoring the demonstration. But 104.1 FM (WTKS) radio personalities Ed Tyll and Jim Philips urged their listeners to confront the KKK.
"This is the conscience of the community today," said Tyll, who attended the rally.
The demonstration, organized by the Black Knights of the KKK, was to tell Jews to "get over" the Holocaust, according to a news release.
Members of the opposition, which included Christians, Jews, Hispanics, blacks and gays, said they came because they thought it was important to speak out against racism and hatred.
"We came down to show them that there's more than the Jewish community they're up against," said Danny DeWitt, 50, a construction worker from Geneva.
