'Sporadic scuffles' reported in Columbia as Klan confronts group led by former New Black Panther

Brett T. | 5:01 PM on July 18, 2015

https://twitter.com/theweiser/status/622485428059439104

Dueling rallies by the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Black Educators for Justice, based in Jacksonville, Fla., resulted in some fighting and plenty of name calling outside the State House in Columbia, S.C., Saturday afternoon.

Two parties to a shouting match, filled with racial slurs, outside the South Carolina State House. pic.twitter.com/nVnNGXWkDc

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

Already some shouting between battle flag supporters and opponents. Police scramble into the crowd. pic.twitter.com/tP2E7voDVf

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

Some shout "white power!" Others shout "black power!" Some jeers in the crowd outside the South Carolina State House.

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

Although several news outlets previewing the rally incorporated file photos of Klan members in white robes and hoods, that familiar costume was absent as Klan members showed up carrying Confederate flags.

The Ku Klux Klan group is arriving outside the South Carolina State House. Its members are not wearing white hoods and robes.

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

"White power" protesters arrive outside the South Carolina State House. pic.twitter.com/InDYwtXuRD

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

Asked a Klansman why he's not wearing white, and he shrugged. But he told me he has his hood and robe nearby.

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

things seem to be getting fiesty out there at the State House… http://t.co/WbuREXWMgV pic.twitter.com/hB0B3A5MfR

— Matt Walsh ? (@MWalshMedia) July 18, 2015

White supremacy rally is tightly controlled; the demonstrators are in an area that has been barricaded.

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) July 18, 2015

While nearly all press attention devoted to the protests has focused on the white supremacist group, not much has been said about the Black Educators for Justice. The group certainly has a press-friendly name, but few have noted that it is run by James Evans Muhammad, a former director of the New Black Panther Party and national education director of the Black Power Movement.

“The flag coming down is not progress. It is an illusion of progress,” Muhammad told The State newspaper in Columbia. “White privilege had stuck a knife in black people back in South Carolina and America as a whole. You can’t pull a 12-inch knife out two inches and call that progress.”

Speaking of flags coming down: