John Howard can be accused of having several unpleasant characteristics but being a hypocrite is not one of them. Howard runs the Redneck Shop in Laurens, South Carolina where he sells, according to a report on Charleston’s WCBD (May 2010), “racist t-shirts, stickers, and even robes from the Ku Klux Klan.”
Racist Store Opens in Old Theater
Laurens, South Carolina is a community of about 10,000 people in the northwestern part of the state. The town takes its name from slave trader Henry Laurens.
Just off the main square is the old Echo Theater, a segregated movie house in its heyday. By the 1990s the abandoned theater belonged to Michael Burden, a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1996, Burden leased some space in the building to friend and fellow Klansman John Howard, who opened his shop.
In 1997 Frank Beacham of Orlando Weekly paid a visit and found a place stocked with Confederate memorabilia, Nazi-inspired goods, and Klan paraphernalia. In the back there was a KKK Museum where the “centrepiece of the exhibit is a cluster of mannequins wearing Klan robes and hoods. The walls are covered with photos and posters.”
Beacham found what he described in one display case as a “chilling Klan calling card that stated: ‘You’ve been visited by the Ku Klux Klan. This was a social call. Please don’t make the next visit a business call.’ ”
Store a Favourite of White Supremacists
Howard does not lack customers; his store has become so popular with white supremacists that the owner now calls it “The World Famous Redneck Shop.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) notes that, “The store has served as headquarters for two different Klan factions and the neo-Nazi Socialist Movement; in 2006, the Aryan Nations Congress gathered there.”
WCBD reports that “the shop is openly affiliated with hate groups” and in December 2009 it hosted the American Nazi Party when it held its annual white unity Christmas party.
Act of Charity Changes Ownership
Michael Burden, owner of the Echo Theater, quit the Klan and fell into financial difficulties in 1997. He went to see Rev. David Kennedy a black civil rights activist and pastor of the New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Laurens.
The SPLC picks up the story: “Destitute and struggling to feed his family, he (Burden) asked Kennedy to buy the building. Kennedy felt compassion for Burden and believed that he’d broken free from his racist past.” Kennedy agreed to buy the building for $1,000, but a condition of the purchase was that Howard could keep his store until he died.
Burden later made his peace with the Klan and claimed he was drunk when he sold the building and the deal should be nullified. Then, records the New York Times (January 2012), “In 2006, Mr. Howard tried to sell the deed to the building to his wife and another person, court records show. So, Pastor Kennedy went to court to clear things up.”
In December 2011 a judge ruled that Howard’s attempt to sell was a slander of title and ordered him to pay more than $3,300 in legal fees.
But, the contract that allows Howard to keep his store in the building until his death cannot be broken; that is unless he fails to pay the court costs. Then, the store and its contents will go to the church. In addition, Howard is in his mid-60s and in poor health.
Sooner or later, the store will come into the church’s hands and Pastor Kennedy spoke about its future with the New York Times: “We know it won’t be a place for any race to have a supremacist mentality. Whatever we do, it will be a place that will not only talk about diversity, it will live diversity and celebrate it.”
Sources
- “The Redneck Shop.” WCBD-TV, May 13, 2010.
- “A Visit to the Redneck Shop.” Frank Beacham, Orlando Weekly, January 23, 1997.
- “Shop of Horrors.” Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Summer 2008.
- “Uneasy Neighbours in a Southern Gothic Tale.” Kim Severson and Robbie Brown, New York Times, January 12, 2012.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
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