Regan Freeman had spent more than a year organizing a project to tell the story of a black pastor from South Carolina who reached out to members of the Ku Klux Klan who wanted him dead because of his race.
Freeman thought he knew the story well. Then came a tweet that took him to two gray storage boxes for some of the most racist newspapers, leaflets, posters, photographs and other material he had ever seen.
This brought the struggles of Rev. David Kennedy, as well as his patience, love and affection for all men – even those with evil in their hearts – into a clearer focus for Freeman, who is working to transform what was once a shop full of racist goods at a diversity center and museum on racial reconciliation.
Freeman was born three months after the Redneck Shop and the World Only Klan Museum, adorned with Confederate flags and a swastika on the back wall, opened in 1996 in Laurens. He raised more than $ 300,000 to renovate the historic Echo Theater, which was a segregated cinema before housing the store and a large meeting hall where dozens of hooded Klan members gathered in the back.
Freeman wants to collect stories of blacks around Laurens whose ancestors fought slavery and segregation and perhaps take on other projects, such as placing historic landmarks at the site of each of the more than 150 known black lynchings in the state.
“There are so many stories out there that haven’t been told or haven’t been told completely,” said Freeman.
And that took him to those gray plastic tubs.
In October, he responded to a tweet from a woman who now owns the land where the owner of the Redneck Shop, John Howard, lived, informing the Southern Poverty Law Center that she had a ton of her stuff.
The woman didn’t respond, so Freeman drove alone and after an unannounced visit, some negotiation and $ 500, he had decades of things marking Howard’s racist life.
There are negative cross-firing negatives. Adolf Hitler posters. A “Klan Rally Instructions” manual. A booklet called “A boat ticket to Africa” with stereotypes and horribly offensive black cartoons. A business card that Klan members would leave to intimidate black families who said this was a social visit and “don’t make the next visit a business call”.
“This is not 100 years ago. Part of that is perhaps from the past decade or two, ”said Freeman. “I think it is important to see this and see how deep this hatred goes so that you can see why we need to fight so hard to change.”
Freeman plans for historians at the University of South Carolina to help him examine the items in order to preserve and exhibit the ones that best tell a story in theater exhibitions.
A Klan member named Michael Burden, who was already thinking of killing Kennedy, sold the theater to the pastor in 1997 after Kennedy helped him when he and Howard had a fight. But Burden’s business allowed Howard to continue renting the theater to the Redneck Shop. Kennedy finally won a 15-year court dispute and closed the store. The story became the film “Burden”, released earlier this year.
Now Freeman is leading the project to turn the old theater into Kennedy’s dream of a community center where racial reconciliation and harmony come first.
“We hope that the Echo Project will become a place where all races can be respected – a place where diversity is not just commented on, but celebrated through action,” said Kennedy.
Freeman grew up in neighboring Clinton, and while at the University of South Carolina, he felt compelled to speak to Kennedy about his work. Kennedy asked him to lead the project and Freeman gave up a job at a law firm for his new calling.
“This is a chance to tell a great story,” said Freeman.
An architect and a construction company have been chosen, with work starting soon, and Freeman plans to relaunch the Echo Project website to expand its reach.
“Being part of a project that can use architecture and inflict change at the same time is very important to me,” said Michael Allen, founder of MOA Architecture.
The first job for companies? Scrape a sticker from the Confederate flag that has been in the marquee for decades and replace it with the project’s name and website.
“It needs to be the opposite of an old dilapidated building that is a sanctuary from hate,” said David Walker, project manager for Construction Services and Infrastructure at Sodexo.