Killen case could reflect Klan decline

MEMPHIS, March 21 (UPI) -- The upcoming trial of Edgar Ray Killen on charges of killing three civil rights workers might demonstrate the erosion of influence of the Ku Klux Klan.

Killen has denied involvement in the Klan, but at least one branch of the KKK is asking its members and friends to send letters of support and money to Killen.

Killen stands trial a second time next month for the Philadelphia, Miss., killings. An initial tried ended in 1967 with a federal court jury failing to reach a verdict.

But how much support Killen can expect from the KKK is questionable. The Southern Poverty Law Center told the Memphis Commercial Appeal the Klan had some 5 million members during the 1920s, but its various factions now total about 7,000 people.

Mark Potok of the SPLC told the newspaper: "The Klan is, by and large, being replaced by much harder groups, neo-Nazis and skinheads. The Klan is quite despised by large swaths of the radical rights who tend to be smarter and better educated. They view the Klan as a bunch of rednecks."