Wednesday, July 31, 2013
XENIA, Ohio (AP) — A photo taken at a 1924 Ku Klux Klan rally was stripped of its winning blue ribbon at an Ohio county fair after a complaint that it was offensive.
The photo, which won first place in an antique photo category at the Greene County Fair in Xenia, depicts robed and unrobed KKK members kneeling in a circle at a Dayton rally in September 1924. Burning crosses are visible in the background.
The Dayton Daily News reports that the photo was stripped of its ribbon and removed from the fairgrounds Tuesday.
A fair official said he thought the person who complained felt the fair was endorsing the photo by awarding it a prize. The official said the fair wants to be inclusive and doesn’t want to offend anyone.