Just weeks after assuming office as secretary of state in Missouri, Jason Kander approved a legal document allowing a Ku Klux Klan group to become a company.
The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a "white man’s organization" that advocated using "lethal force" against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, became a limited liability company with the signature of Kander, who is running for Senate against Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.
The articles of organization document, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, allowed the KKK group to incorporate for the purpose of "any lawful business." The document was signed on February 6, 2013. Kander was sworn in as secretary of state in January 2013.
"THIS IS A WHITE MAN'S ORGANIZATION, exalting the Caucasian Race and teaching the doctrine of White Supremacy," the KKK group, which is based in Park Hills, Missouri, says on its website. "This does not mean that we are enemies of the colored and mongrel races. But it does mean that we are organized to establish the solidarity and to realize the mission of the White Race."
"All of Christian Civilization depends upon the preservation and upbuilding of the White Race, and it is the mission of the Ku Klux Klan to proclaim this doctrine until the White Race shall come into its own," the group says.
The KKK group’s imperial wizard is Frank Ancona, who is pictured in front of a burning cross on the group’s website.
Shortly after its incorporation, the group was investigated by police for disturbing residents in small Missouri towns by throwing bags of recruitment fliers onto front lawns.
"You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake," stated the flyer, which KKK members placed in plastic bags filled with rocks and lollipops. The pamphlets were the center of a legal battle the Traditionalist Knights of the KKK ultimately lost in 2014.
Kander has the authority as Secretary of State to cancel or disapprove any articles of organization on grounds that they violate criminal laws in Missouri, any other state, or the federal government.
Three members of the group were charged with plotting to kill a black inmate in Florida in 2014. The men, who were current and former corrections officers, "regularly used a racial slur when referring to the inmate, had failed at their first attempt to kill him and still wanted him ‘terminated,’" according to the Kansas City Star.
The KKK group also advocated for violence against protesters in Ferguson following the shooting of Michael Brown. Ancona promoted using "lethal force" and called the protesters "rabid animals."
"I believe in the humane treatment of animals, but those animals in Ferguson have become rabid and they need to be put down before they infect others," he posted on his Facebook page.
The Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK’s "racial ideals" are to "KEEP THIS A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY." "The supremacy of the White Race must be maintained, or be overwhelmed by the rising tide of color," the group says on its website.
The website also says it is a "Gentile organization" that sings "no hymns of hate against the Jew."
"He is interested in his own things and we are exercising the same privilege of banding our own kind together in order that we may realize the highest and best possible for ourselves," the group says.
Before being incorporated by Kander, the KKK group was an "unincorporated association of individuals" dedicated to the "preservation of the white race."
"Plaintiff Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (‘TAK’), is an unincorporated association of individuals," according to the group’s lawsuit filed against the city of Desloge, Missouri, which sought to restrict the KKK’s recruitment efforts by passing ordinances that made it illegal to hand out pamphlets on roads and sidewalks.
"TAK describes itself as ‘a White Patriotic Christian organization that bases its roots back to the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th century,’" the lawsuit read. "According to TAK, it is ‘a non-violent organization that believes in the preservation of the White race and the United States Constitution as it was originally written and will stand to protect those rights against all foreign invaders.’"
When asked about Kander's role in the incorporation of the KKK in Missouri, a Kander spokeswoman told the Free Beacon Kander had no choice.
"While Secretary Kander finds this group and its mission to be abhorrent, state law requires the business services division of the Secretary of State’s office to accept the documents," said Anne Feldman. "According to Missouri state law, the Secretary of State 'shall' accept a filing if it is filled out correctly, there is no discretion by the department or the Secretary of State."