By Patrick Roberts
JONESBORO, La. (KNOE 8 News) – Jonesboro on Saturday will see competing protests from both the black civil rights group NAACP and the white supremacist group Aryan Nations.
Both groups have promised peaceful demonstrations.
"Tomorrow's rally is going to be non-violent, peaceful, and non-partisan," Jackson Parish NAACP President Windy Calahan told us.
"We are not coming to Jonesboro to bring violence, in words or in deeds," said Aryan Nations World Leader Morris Gulett.
But that's where the two groups' agreement ends.
The NAACP wants to draw attention to what it sees as racial issues Jonesboro still faces. The group expects hundreds to join the morning march from the North Louisiana Baptist Association Center on Cedar St. over to Pearrie Park.
"Now the covers of races, and discrimination, and injustice comes off, in the forms of test scores, hiring practices, banking institutions, and the court and voting registrations," Calahan said.
Across town at the courthouse around noon, white supremacists from the Aryan Nations will stage a counter protest, aimed in large part at Jonesboro Mayor Leslie Thompson, who's attending the NAACP event.
"We're going to just go there and stand with the taxpayers of Jonesboro, and in opposition to, the mayor's cries of racism," Gulett said.
Jonesboro police don't expect any issues from the competing rallies, despite some uneasiness about the two groups protesting around the same time. The U.S. Department of Justice made inquiries about the Aryan Nations' counter protest.
"We don't expect any problems or anything, and actually, the two groups will be pretty far apart," said Jonesboro Chief Wesley Horton.
