In a disturbing new development, one of Evan Bayh’s hometown papers revealed yesterday that he approved the incorporation of the Ku Klux Klan as Indiana’s secretary of state in 1987. The Washington Free Beacon reported that then-Secretary of State Bayh’s decision to grant the Klan group its corporate charter was "the first time a KKK-associated group had been approved in Indiana since the 1920s," and enabled it to more easily spread a message of hate.
Six years later, Bayh doubled down as governor when another Klan leader sought permission to stage a rally at the Indiana Statehouse.
As the Associated Press reported at the time, Bayh announced that the KKK was "free, if not welcome, to use the Statehouse for its purposes." Bayh’s reasoning? He didn’t want to tell them no:
A brief, handwritten letter sent last summer to the governor’s office by a Texas Klansman has tied Gov. Evan Bayh in a knot. The letter asked permission to stage a Klan rally at the Statehouse in mid-October…What the Klan wanted, Bayh says, was a flat refusal, a loud, grandstanding "No!"…So Bayh found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to announce that the Klan was free, if not welcome, to use the Statehouse for its purposes. That inevitable decision brought some flak from civil rights activists who accused the governor of caving in.
At the rally Bayh permitted, "fights broke out and several people were hurt":
Hundreds of Ku Klux Klan supporters and opponents clashed at a KKK rally on the steps of the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday as scattered fights broke out and several people were hurt…Mayor Stephen Goldsmith accused hate groups from Detroit, New York and elsewhere of stirring up trouble. "They converged to bring a hateful message to Indy," the mayor said.
Perhaps when they finally show up to work at their empty campaign office, Team Bayh will finally attempt to explain to the people of Indiana why their boss made such reckless decisions in favor of the hate group.