What The Hell America!

A small and struggling faction of the Ku Klux Klan in Kentucky is latching onto talk of mass deportations by conservative elected officials to distribute racist propaganda, sow fear in communities and gain media attention.

The Klan faction known as the Trinity White Knights (TWK), which is led by William Bader, has distributed racist flyers several times in and around Kentucky this year. Bader was cited for littering in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Cincinnati in the early morning of Feb. 23 after he was caught throwing racist flyers from his vehicle. Just over two weeks prior, a neo-Nazi group held a rally on a highway overpass in the same neighborhood, which generated a lot of media attention after community members forced the neo-Nazi group to flee.

Klan groups, only 10 of which remain across the country, have seen their influence and membership plunge over the last three decades. Groups like the Klan choose to spread their propaganda through flyering because it is an easy, inexpensive and low-risk way to not only spread their message, but to cause panic in targeted communities and project an image of a larger and more well-organized group.

TWK’s recent flyering produced a flurry of media reports. Often, reporting on racist flyers can play into a hate group’s hands by overstating the group’s size and influence and, in some cases, reproduces the group’s message — in effect, further spreading its propaganda and recruitment efforts. Failure to provide context can perpetuate fear and anxiety that is out of proportion with the threat a group poses. While the Klan has a long history of racist violence, today’s version is made up of groups with only a handful of members yielding little influence even within the white power movement itself.

The Klan: Past and present

TWK is a small group that clings to Klan iconography and rituals, which the organization first developed after the Civil War.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, members of the Klan used terroristic violence to maintain white supremacy in government. While the white robes, pointed hats and racist speeches around burning crosses still exist, the Klan’s influence in the white power movement is negligible. As newer white power groups turned to social media, video games and music to radicalize younger white people, TWK and other Klan factions have been slow to embrace technological changes. Posting racist propaganda provides TWK a way to project strength in a movement that long ago moved on from the Klan.

Since the 2024 presidential election, TWK has targeted communities in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. The group’s recent activity coincides with the bigoted rhetoric of conservative elected officials, particularly on immigration, which TWK views as an opportunity to recapture its lost influence. Before the election, as far-right influencers and conservative leaders turned their anti-migrant bigotry to Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, TWK used the opportunity to post propaganda and drive more fear in Springfield communities, which drove media attention to the group.

In January, the group distributed a racist flyer that included an advertisement for an upcoming meetup in Indiana. It is unclear if this meetup — known as a “Klonklave” in the group — occurred. No mention or proof that this meetup occurred has been posted in known online forums TWK uses to share its propaganda. Hate groups typically use successful meetups to create online propaganda.

Why flyering?

Posting racist propaganda provides a cost-effective and low-effort way for these groups to appear larger and stronger than they are. In a propaganda run, one or two far-right activists can distribute hundreds of racist flyers within a 50- to 100-mile radius in one night.

Despite the recent uptick in flyering, TWK’s propaganda distribution efforts remain far smaller than those of other hate groups. In 2023, for example, TWK conducted eight propaganda runs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s map of U.S. hate group flyering. In comparison, Patriot Front — the most active white nationalist group the SPLC monitors — conducted more than 4,600 propaganda runs in that same period.

Community members who encounter racist flyers are encouraged to contact the SPLC’s tip line. They should discard or remove the racist flyers from their community and, if posting on social media, blur racist content and contact information. Community members who are being targeted by racist flyers should reach out to trusted organizations in their community.

Illustration at top by the SPLC.