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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 30 January 2020
Pastor's fight against KKK becomes

movie that may aid battle

By JEFFREY COLLINS dy for $1,000. But there was ple. Three people in the
Associated Press a twist. Under the agree- middle of nowhere South
LAURENS, S.C. (AP) — Not ment, John Howard, who Carolina did something
many years ago in a small, owned The Redneck Shop, that would be meaning-
rural South Carolina town would be allowed to stay ful to all people," Heckler
stood The Redneck Shop — and run his store as long said. "There is a pathway
a racist emporium and Ku as he lived. Howard aban- for fighting hate. It's not
Klux Klan museum housed doned the store years ago, easy. It's love, faith and not
in an old theater, where ignoring maintenance. giving up." Kennedy knows
In this Monday, Jan. 13, 2020 photo, Rev. David Kennedy stands white supremacist neo-Na- Duct work and piping were about not giving up. He
outside the Echo Theater holding a photo of his great uncle's
lynching, in Laurens, S.C. Kennedy has fought for civil rights in zis gave heil-Hitler salutes ripped from the walls. He protested when a South
South Carolina for decades. and flaunted swastikas and died in 2017, giving Kenne- Carolina county refused
Associated Press Rebel flags. dy complete control over to observe the Martin Lu-
That building, once the the building. ther King Jr. holiday, and
property of the Klan, now Kennedy estimates it needs he helped lobby to remove
belongs to a black preach- at least $500,000 in repairs the Confederate flag from
er and committed foe of that must be done careful- the Statehouse dome. In
racism who fought the ly because of the theater's his church office, he keeps
group for more than 20 age and historic location. a poster-size photo of a
years. The Rev. David Ken- That seems impossible for lynched black man swing-
nedy plans to transform it the minister whose New ing at the end of a rope.
into a shrine of reconcilia- Beginning Missionary Bap- It is his great uncle, killed
tion. How Kennedy, whose tist Church congregation more than 100 years ago
great-great-uncle was meets in a converted gun by a white mob in Laurens
lynched in the community, store several miles west of County.
got ownership of the old Laurens. Kennedy also has a photo
Echo Theater building from But a movie may provide a of white people about 15
an ex-Klansman — a man Hollywood ending. years ago in the back of
who once contemplated The story of the unlikely the theater, wearing uni-
murdering Kennedy — is friendship between Ken- forms with a Nazi swastika
the subject of a movie that nedy and Burden has been and raising their arms and
could end up raising funds made into a film called hands in a white power sa-
for that transformation. "Burden," scheduled for na- lute. "Racism is a strange
"It symbolizes right now in tional release Feb. 28. Star- kind of organism. It is sys-
the shape it's in — hatred," ring actor Forest Whitaker temic. And it probably will
Kennedy said. "But we as Kennedy, it was shown not go away in our life-
hope we can turn it into a at the 2018 Sundance Film times," Kennedy said.
building of love." Festival. Burden and Kennedy re-
A decade ago, the white 101 Studios, which distrib- main friends, though not as
supremacist store in Laurens uted it, has promised Ken- close as they once were.
was a place where one of nedy it'll help repair and Burden got married, turned
the few shirts sold without reopen the theater. They his life around and now
an overt racial slur said, "If have created a website drives a truck across the
I had known this was going at https://www.rehabhate. country.
to happen I would have com/ to accept dona- "When I changed my life-
picked my own cotton." tions and tell more people style I buried that guy," Bur-
The World Famous Ku Klux about the project. den said of his racist past.
Klan Museum with its racist "The South cannot rid itself Burden cautiously shares
meeting place was in the of its past. But we could rid his story with those he thinks
back. ourselves of the Redneck need to know that change
The KKK had put the title Shop," Kennedy said. is possible. The movie
in the name of a trusted The studio is getting com- named after him is a way
member, Michael Burden. panies to donate materi- to do that on a larger scale.
Burden says other Klan als and time and is selling "I'm willing to go through
members once suggested commemorative bricks this again," Burden said.
that he kill Kennedy, and that can be placed at the "Am I happy about it?
he considered it. Kennedy theater. Some days yes, some days
didn't know that when he The movie's director, An- no."
saw Burden, hungry, poor drew Heckler, first entered Kennedy recently gave a
and full of hate, and took The Redneck Shop in the tour of the theater to a few
him to a buffet to fill his late 1990s after reading visiting reporters. Through
stomach, then to a hotel so a short article about Ken- the soft winter afternoon
his family wouldn't have to nedy's fight. He knew it had sunlight, faded two-story
sleep on the street. to be a movie and finished paintings of Nazi and U.S.
Burden's girlfriend at the the screenplay in 2001, fi- flags can still be seen on a
time kept urging him to nally getting the green light wall. A Confederate flag
leave the Klan and in 1997, from 101 Studios to make remains on the theater
he did. He also bestowed the film a few years ago. marquee.
ownership of the old the- "I knew this story would The images are deteriorat-
ater building upon Kenne- mean something to peo- ing, but they linger.q