Don’t Get Snookered Again

Don’t Get Snookered Again

R. Earl

Lake Wales

The former United Klans of America (UKA) Grand Dragon, John Paul Rogers, is once again, running for Seat 5 on the Lake Wales City Commission.

If you recall, Mr. Rogers ran for Mayor of Lake Wales last year and was defeated by an overwhelming 66% to 34%, a 2-1 margin, in a historical Lake Wales voting turn out record.  

Additionally, Mr. Rogers’s campaign manager, Booker Young, was accused of intimidating elderly voters living in public housing to vote for Rogers.  See links (http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/article/202134/8/Campaign-worker-for-former-klansman-accused-of-violating-Sunshine-Law--) and (http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=186906)   

Also view following link that captured Mr. Rogers’s lashing out against his opponent upon conclusion of the Mayoral race last year http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374082/Former-KKK-leader-John-Paul-Rogers-loses-Lake-Wales-Florida-mayor-election.html

For those who maybe new to the Central Florida / Lake Wales area, one may not be aware that Mr. John Paul Rogers proudly proclaims he rose through the KKK and UKA ranks and held the Florida Grand Dragon office.

John Paul Rogers, at right in foreground, meets with other Ku Klux Klan members in this undated photo.   Rogers was a klan member for almost 25 years, including time as grand dragon of Florida

Wikipeda states that “…A "Grand Dragon", for example, was the highest ranking Klansman in a given state….”

Mr Rogers claims to have ‘retired’ from the UKA 25 years ago, (1986 / 1987 time frame) when the UKA was bankrupted when a federal jury awarded a $7 million judgment against the United Klans of America for the murder of Michael Donald, a black teenager beaten to death by Klan members and hanged from a tree in Mobile, Ala. 

The following are a few nationally known events in history that took place during Mr. Rogers affiliation with the KKK and UKA:

· The 1963 16th Street Bombing that killed 4 young girls  

· The 1965 murder of Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from the North, who had decided to go help support racial equality in the South. 

· During “…1960s, the Klans functioned as a clandestine movement that spearheaded the resistance to a national trend toward equality for all Americans. Like their predecessors, the `60s Klans employed terrorism and a form of guerrilla race warfare to carry out their purposes. The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s..” 

Mr Rogers states that if by being against communism, against drugs, and in favor of States rights was wrong, then he was wrong.

However, Mr Rogers refusal to address the violent history of the UKA, an organization that he not only belonged but held its highest office, surmounts to nothing more but a strong tacit endorsement and support of the violent nature of the UKA and how it used violence to promote the UKA's goals and objectives.

In an article by By Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent, in Print: Sunday, September 6, 2009 in the St Petersburg Times “Lake Wales Commissioner has a history in klan” documented Mr. Roger’s extensive involvement in the KKK and the UKA.  See link http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/local/article1033790.ece

Susan Taylor Martin mentioned in her article that:

'People got snookered'

In the '90s, Rogers ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state and the state House. More recently, he served on Lake Wales' zoning appeals board, positioning himself to run for City Commission on a platform of fiscal prudence.

Many newcomers were unaware of Rogers' klan history. He didn't mention it. And some of those who knew didn't bring it up because they never thought he would win.

"I went to a candidate forum and I feel I let myself down by not asking: Do you still have the same racist views? Will you tell the black community you're sorry?'' says Kay, the Jewish lawyer.

"But nobody raised that as a question. It's embarrassing to those of us who care that we didn't make it known.''

In regular balloting, Rogers' 179 votes put him third in a field of four. But he got 282 absentee votes — 43 percent of the total and far more than any other candidate. Word had it that he was helped by a black friend, 79-year-old Booker Young, who purportedly encouraged many elderly blacks to request absentee ballots and vote for Rogers.

"Half of them don't read or write that well,'' says Clinton Horne, a black community activist. "People got snookered.''

The Lake Wales City Election will be held on 3 April 2012 – consider your vote carefully and don’t get snookered again.