KKK's Washington Football Team rally: fail or hoax?

On the 19th of October, there was no sign of the KKK or the rally supporting the Washington Football Team's racist name they were supposed to have. There was some suspicous activity, however. A far-right wing truck festooned with anti-abortion signs appeared-but turned out to be a local street preacher. At almost exactly the right time, the Secret Service closed off the Ellipse., as close to the "White House South Lawn" the City Paper story called for as anyone was likely to get. At about 8PM part of it was reopened. It is possible the KKK was there but in so small a presence they could not be seen, or that the Secret Service was making sure they did not get near the White House.

The call looked odd from the start, as there has never been a Klan rally after dark in living memory within the borders of DC. Also, the KKK has not been here since 1990, since then every racist rally seems to have been neo-Nazis. Most references to this event pointed to the same Washington City Paper advertisement. One Twitter post said "I may have to go to DC to oppose this." after receiving an email about it. The person holding down the fort at the White House antinuclear vigil said he had heard the KKK was supposed to be "on the other side of the White House" from the vigil, and identified the street preacher's truck as a regular presence and not the Klan's transport.

For the KKK to support the Washington Football Team would be no surprise. The name is racist to the core and the team was the very last team in the NFL to be integrated. It is possible some inxperienced KKK sheethead had planned this rally, only to call it off after the ad appeared in the City Paper and word began to circulate. It's also possible the City Paper ad was a hoax outright. Such a hoax could have been placed by the Klan to support the team, by anyone wanting to harass DC anti-racist activists, or by somone simply hoping to point out just how racist the Washington Football Team and their name really are. All of these are possible, as is the KKK having shown up for real and rallied with Seceret Service protection but in so small an event they could not be seen from the edge of the Ellipse. Certainly the time the Ellipse was closed would be convenient for that.

Many activists were unsure if this was real or a hoax from the start. Due to the large area in question (the ellipse) it is impossible to determine how many anti-racist activists were cruising the area just waiting for the KKK to show up. Certainly there were plenty of tourists, maybe "tourists" to be seen. A precedent for this would be the April 2008 neo-Nazi march on DC, when it at first appeared that only a relatively small group of activists were on hand to stop them. When the Nazis showed up, half the crowd on the Mall moved against them, having blended in with the tourists and not been easily seen until they mobilized.

Two promos for counterprotesting the Klan were published here: https://dcindymedia.org/node/916 was the original announcement. It cited the Washington City paper ad that was taken down after Monday, Nov 19 and also quoted a KKK answering machine message in the name of as saying James Spears saying “We will be at the White House standing up for our proud Southern heritage.” The answering machine message was on a machine tied to the KKK’s "Loyal White Knights" according to this report.

An updated promo appeared shortly before the event, saying “We are organizing … to meet hatred with love.” https://dcindymedia.org/node/921 There was no visible sign of any counterprotesters, but this could have been due to the lack of any detectable presence of the Klan combined with the extremely large area surrounding the Ellipse.