Town cuts $10K deal to head off KKK rally

The town arranged for a $10,000 contribution, pledged by an anonymous donor, to pay for printing and distribution of Klan literature. In exchange, the Klan called off the rally, which had been set for tomorrow.

"I guess it could be deemed extortion in one sense, but I don't see it that way," Cicero Police Superintendent David Niebur said yesterday. "I think this is really a sensible solution under the circumstances."

Cicero's racial tensions date back many decades. During the civil rights era, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was pelted with rocks and bottles at a rally in the 1960s, and he likened Cicero to Selma, Ala. In 1985, President Reagan canceled a visit after racial tensions flared.

AP PHOTO Cicero resident Bill Yekel said race issues in Cicero have always been a concern of his.

Cicero, with a population of 67,000, was once nearly all-white. While it is almost 50 percent Hispanic today, only a few blacks live here.

Town President Betty Loren-Maltese shared a podium with Klan Imperial Wizard Jeffery Berry on Wednesday to announce the deal. She moved well off to the side as he spoke.

But it wasn't far enough for some Cicero residents, who were stunned that the town would make such a deal.

Richard Hirschhaut, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, called it a "deal with the devil." But he said considering the potential for violence, it was for the best. "We have to applaud the good people of Cicero and its official leadership," Hirschhaut said.

The police superintendent said security fences alone would have cost about $20,000. The town would have also had to pay transportation and expenses for 150 state troopers.

The Klan literature must be delivered either by direct mail or by a private delivery service.

"There will be no Klansmen involved" in delivery, Niebur said. "They have agreed to notify the police department of when the literature will be sent."

Some saw the deal as yet another sad chapter in Cicero's history of racial problems, which include a 1951 incident in which rioters destroyed the apartment of a black bus driver.

Bill Yekel, a 36-year-old assistant manager of a hardware store, said, "I've always had concerns about race issues in this town. It's something that hasn't gone away."

03-13-98