Rubin: How a ghost brought white supremacists to Howell -- to the city's dismay

(Detroit Free Press) The white supremacist rally that interrupted the mayor's lunch in Howell on Saturday wasn't overly impressive, really — just a dozen or so nitwits, and one ghost.

The nitwits were chased off by a woman from the local library board. The ghost has had more staying power, but the city is trying to get rid of him, too.

Robert Miles, at one point the grand dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan, felt at home in and around Howell for decades before he died in 1992. Even after he claimed to have resigned from the organization, he'd sometimes burn a cross on his farm, just for the practice and the glow.



He and his brethren helped make Howell synonymous with racism and militia-level lunacy, and it's not a great leap to think that's why a dozen anonymous bigots chose the largest city in Livingston County as the place to pass out their little pamphlets and get heckled on a sunny afternoon. ...............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/neal-rubin/2024/07/25/howell-kkk-robert-miles-white-supremacist-racism/74505063007/