District Attorney Maeghan Maloney will lead a forum on discrimination Wednesday in the wake of Ku Klux Klan fliers that were placed in Augusta and other places around the state last week.
Maloney, who represents Kennebec and Somerset counties, is inviting residents of Augusta, Gardiner and other communities to come to the town hall discussion at the University of Maine at Augusta, according to a news release from the university.
Last week, residents of the Sand Hill neighborhood in Augusta awoke to find fliers in their driveways purporting to be for a “neighborhood watch.” The Augusta fliers said, “Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” with a drawing of a hooded figure in a Klan robe flanked by “KKK,” with its letters in flames, on either side. It describes itself as “a movement of white people for the highest standards of western, Christian civilization.”
Similar fliers were found in Gardiner, Freeport and Topsham. In a radio interview, Gov. Paul LePage called them “appalling” and “disgusting.”
Two days later, a new batch of fliers that declared “NO KKK FOR ME!” and “ALL ARE WELCOME HERE!” showed up on utility poles in the same part of Augusta.
Speakers at the Wednesday night forum will include Attorney General Janet Mills and UMA social science professors James Cook and Lorien Lake-Corral.
The talk will go from 6 to 9 p.m. at Jewett Hall Auditorium.
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