KKK files 'Adopt-A-Highway' request in Ga.

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ATLANTA, June 11 (UPI) -- Georgia's Department of Transportation is reviewing a request from a branch of the Ku Klux Klan to enter the state's "Adopt-A-Highway" program, officials said.

The Union County KKK filed a request on May 21 to clean a stretch of highway in North Georgia in exchange for a sign advertising its cleanup efforts, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The request by the white supremacy group is a controversial one.

"This is about membership-building and rebranding their name in a public way," said State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, head of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials.

"What's next, are we going to let neo-Nazis or the Taliban or al-Qaida adopt highways?"

But the KKK said it's trying to become more mainstream and civil.

"We just want to clean up the doggone road. We're not going to be out there in robes," a KKK spokesman said.