BOSTON -- Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson was hit byan egg and had to duck a punch from a member of a live television talk show audience Thursday during an uproar in which the host was shoved aside.
Wilkinson appeared on WBZ-TV's 'People are Talking' show to debate segregation and the Klan's youth recruitment with Frank Jones, a member of the Boston Committee, a multi-racial body working to improve the city's racial climate.
Wilkinson said he intended to go to court in Boston Friday to press felony assault charges against at least two people.
'I'm going to court in the morning in Brighton to press charges. I definitely intend to prosecute these people,' he said.
Wilkinson said he could identify 'to my satisfaction' two people involved and may be able to identify two others. The name of at least one person was shown by the television station.
About eight minutes into the show, host Nancy Merrill went into the audience to take questions and a black woman took an egg from her handbag and threw it at Wilkinson and Klan Youth member Angie Stringer, 17, of Mississippi.
Program manager Richard Kurlander said 'it appeared several people threw several eggs,' only one of which hit Wilkinson on the left lapel.
Then several members of a group that identified itself as the International Committee Against Racism began chanting 'Asians, Latins, Black and White, Against The Klan We Must Unite,' and pointed at Wilkinson.
Ms. Merrill tried to stop one man from getting too close to Wilkinson, but the unidentified man shoved her aside brusquely and swung his right fist at the standing Wilkinson, who ducked.
The studio was in an uproar for several minutes while the anti-racism committee held up signs and chanted slogans. Staff members of WBZ-TV rushed onto the set while the cameras were rolling and restrained the audience.
Kurlander said about five people were escorted out of the studio.
No one was arrested or charged, although an angry Wilkinson later demanded that Boston police 'arrest those people' as he was being escorted out of the station.
'I wouldn't say it got completely out of control, but it came close,' Kurlander said later.
During the assault, the studio was in confusion and the picture blacked out momentarily before the station cut away to commercials.
A group from the Black Professors of Massachusetts and the Urban League of Boston which was invited but couldn't get into the studio had to watch from a monitor.
The group's president, Dr. Larry Singleton of Southeastern Massachusetts University, 'I think the KKK has a right to express it's views.'
He said the professors were 'very peeved' they had been unable to participate in the questioning of Wilkinson.
