KKK Tries to Adopt a Highway

A Georgia Ku Klux Klan chapter has applied to "adopt" a stretch of highway in the Appalachian Mountains, and the state may actually have to allow it. The last time the Klan tried to adopt a highway, state officials in Missouri tried to block it, and wound up losing a court battle on First Amendment grounds. "We just want to clean up the doggone road," the Klan's exalted cyclops for the Realm of Georgia (yes, really) tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia's adopt-a-highway program officially allows "any civic-minded organization" to maintain a stretch of road in exchange for state recognition. The Klan insists it qualifies. "We're not racists," a secretary tells CNN. "We just want to be with white people. If that's a crime, then I don't know." But many are insisting Georgia turn down the application, no matter the legal consequences. "What's next," asks one state lawmaker. "Are we going to let neo-Nazis or the Taliban or al-Qaeda adopt highways?" (More KKK stories.)