RALEIGH — The streets of Downtown Raleigh are a lot quieter today than they were a week ago when Ku Klux Klan members from across the South gathered for a rally on the courthouse steps of this small Mississippi community.

The town is now what locals describe as “back to normal” and “the way things are suppose to be.”

“What we saw here Saturday is nothing like Raleigh,” said Allen Baggett, owner of Raleigh Diner & Cafe, located across the street from the courthouse. “Raleigh is a nice, quiet town.

“It’s a unique kind of place. Everybody respects one another. We don’t have a problem between blacks and whites here. It’s just these outsiders who came in tried to stir up things.”

According to Smith County Sheriff Charlie Crumpton, on Oct. 17, about 60 or 70 Klan members participated in the event. “I counted 48 in robes and there were another 10 to 15 in the audience,” he said from his Sheriff’s Department office, located directly behind the courthouse on Highway 35.

“First of all, there was no march,” he continued. “They gathered at the courthouse and gave speeches.”

As Crumpton sat behind his desk, recapping the incident he wishes never happened, he said there was actually one individual who had to do a little marching. The man and his wife illegally parked their vehicle just south of the courthouse.

“The man had gotten out of the vehicle at the place where they were parked,” Crumpton explained. “But when he went back to the spot after everything was over, he discovered that his wife was asked to move the vehicle.

“She parked at First Baptist Church, which was about 50 yards away,” added Crumpton. “I wasn’t about to give him a ride to his vehicle, so he had to march from the south end of town to the north end of town where his wife had parked.”

Why Raleigh?

Crumpton, like many in this town with a population of about 1,300, are upset about the Klan’s presence in their community. No one seemed to know who the group was, why they were there or why they chose Smith County.

“I really don’t know, but I heard they were here to talk about Mexicans who were working here illegally,” said Raleigh resident Misty Troney. “They also wanted to talk about interracial marriage and that people shouldn’t be unequally yoked.

“They were just throwing out a lot of racist crap. We don’t need talk like that here in Raleigh.”

On Stormfront.org, a White Supremacist Web site, a post dated in the forum link, last edited Jan. 8, 2009, stated that “The Mississippi White Knights will hold a rally at the Smith County courthouse in Raleigh, Mississippi on Saturday, October 17th. A crosslighting and fellowship will be held on private property that evening. The agenda will be illegal immigration and sex offenders. The crosslighting will be dedicated to the memory of Kathy Ainsworth, who was buried in neighboring Simpson County.”