Earlier this month, a letter with no return address was received by SMSU, marked to be delivered to the university newspaper. When opened, the letter was revealed to have allegedly been sent by a “Loyal American Patriot” from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In a heavy-handed cry for help, the organization was asking us to assist them in banning a book.

The letter begins with a defense of the organization, proclaiming that they are nowhere near the hate group they are made out to be and vaguely referencing the Bible as the foundation on which they stand.

They further their defense by claiming “loud-mouth literature” paints them in a bad light and poisons society against them, attacking the novel ‘The Slave Players’ by Megan Allen, printed by Burn House Publishing.

One quote from the book is offered as evidence of its “hateful” and “un-American” nature, with a plethora of suggestions given to the reader about how they could help remove the book’s website from the internet.

Articles written by other university newspapers show that this same letter was received at least by North Dakota State University, Valley City University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. All three publishers received the same unmarked postage with the exact same logo, content and signature in what could only be seen as a selective targeting of university newspapers.

Why university newspapers and these specific colleges were targeted is unclear, though the KKK has recently been active at public universities, most notably in Charlottesville earlier this year.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group focused in public interest and civil rights litigation, classifies the Ku Klux Clan as a hate group based upon their bigoted rhetoric and beliefs in white-skinned dominance. Until recently, the U.S. government had been strong opponents to the existence of the Ku Klux Klan as well, going so far as to infiltrate and attempt to dismantle the organization from within during the Civil Rights-era of the 1960s.