Huntington woman and boyfriend ride horses through city streets for Halloween. Mayor sees their costumes, issues statement: ‘We are not Klan members’
The woman has since defended their costume.
Halloween has become a festivity where both adults and children dress up as characters as they go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. However, some costumes end up being more questionable than others. That was the case for one couple who were spotted roaming the streets of Huntington, Indiana, on their horses while allegedly dressed as Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members.
The incident took place on Saturday, Oct. 31, when photos and video of a man and woman captured by families in a residential neighborhood began circulating on social media. In the video, the man appeared to be wearing a white sheet with a pointed hood and mask, closely resembling the attire of KKK members. Their horses were also draped in white sheets, while the woman wore a white hoodie instead.
The costumes quickly drew widespread discussion online. In a now-deleted Facebook post from the couple, they claimed to have posed with children throughout the evening, according to WANE 15.
Ku Klux Klan is an extremist hate group
The backlash from the incident prompted several city officials to release a formal statement condemning the couple’s actions, per 21Alive News. Richard Strick, the mayor of Huntington, described the costumes as “beyond poor taste” and said that Indiana’s history with the KKK is a “serious and painful chapter” that should not be taken lightly.
“I agree with the majority of our community in condemning the notion that the KKK or other hate groups are worthwhile costumes or humorous topics,” Strick said. “I hope that our neighbors that made this decision reflect on the outrage of their neighbors and learn from it.”
The KKK was a white supremacist and extremist hate group established at the end of the American Civil War in 1865 in the Southern states. It rose to prominence in the mid-1920s during its revival, when membership swelled to five million nationwide and was restricted to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, according to BBC.
In Indiana, 27% to 40% of native-born white Protestant men were members of the organization in the 1920s. These were reportedly men who had major political influence in the state, changing the landscape by perpetuating bigotry, prohibition, and nativism. KKK’s membership in Indiana rose to 5,000, which included both the rich and poor.
KKK heavily targeted Black people, often killing them by hanging through lynching. But over time, the hate extended to Jews, Roman Catholics, and other immigrants.
Huntington woman says nothing was wrong with their costume
The Huntington County Commissioners, Rob Miller, Terry Stoffel, and Tom Wall, also released a joint statement, saying, “We are publicly and privately condemning the egregious behavior of those who perpetrated a racist and inflammatory stunt under the guise of a Halloween prank.” They added that society should have zero tolerance for such “abhorrent behavior.”
State senator Nick McKinley echoed other officials’ sentiments. While he acknowledged Americans’ right to freedom of expression, he emphasized that this does not mean communities must remain silent in the face of symbols of hatred.
“We should be teaching our children to respect one another, not normalizing symbols that were historically used to terrorize our fellow Americans,” McKinley said. “We are better than this. Indiana is better than this. And we must never be afraid to stand up for what is right.”
On the other hand, the woman told 21Alive News that she had been doxxed and that she and her family are facing threats. However, she has defended her costume, claiming they were dressed as “1 ghost off the kkk, 2 ghost horses and 1 regular old ghost” for roughly 30 minutes, adding that the situation was “blown out of proportion.”
The woman cited the numerous controversial Halloween costumes in the past and believed that “there’s not much wrong” with their KKK symbolism. “Yes I do fully understand that some people were offended it just doesn’t give them the right to attack people when we didn’t attack anybody,” the woman said. “We are not Klan members, and we are not racists. We did nothing to physically harm anyone.”
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