‘White Pride’ billboard seen in viral video faces calls for removal in Arkansas
A “white pride” billboard in Arkansas is under renewed calls for removal after a viral video.
Rob Bliss, a white man from Los Angeles, released a video in late July of residents in Harrison, a city in the Ozark Mountains, shouting racist slurs as he stood with a Black Lives Matter sign. As of Thursday, the video had more than 1.8 million views on YouTube.
The first image viewers see is Bliss holding the sign in front of a billboard advertising “White Pride Radio” and “Alt Right TV.” Thomas Robb — the leader of the Knights Party, formerly the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — is listed as a host on one of the websites. The KKK organization is headquartered about 15 miles from Harrison, CNN reported.
“For the family,” the billboard reads, with a photo of a white family smiling with an American flag alongside a cross.
The billboard is not new. Similar signs went up around town several years ago, and Robb told the Harrison Daily Times that his organization was behind the messages. Another sign stated “It’s NOT Racist to (love) Your People” and “Love Lives Here,” according to the newspaper.
But this is the last of the racist billboards, according to the Harrison Community Task Force on Race Relations. The task force started a petition on Change.org to remove it after Bliss’ video gained nationwide attention. The petition had 8,900 signatures as of Thursday.
“The billboards have drawn a great deal of media and online attention and amplified a message of hate,” the task force wrote in the petition. “The billboards have done tremendous damage to our community by giving the impression that our citizens support their messages and don’t object to their presence.”
The billboard is owned by Harrison Sign, which conveyed the land it’s built upon to Robb Law Firm this week, KY3 reported. The owner of the sign company said “he was just doing business, and it’s his customer’s First Amendment right,” according to the news outlet.
Robb Law Firm is owned by Jason Robb, who’s listed as another host of “White Pride Radio” and “Alt-Right TV” stations. A sign for his law firm is displayed above the controversial billboard.
Harrison Mayor Jerry Jackson, Boone County Judge Robert Hathaway and the regional chamber of commerce released a statement to KARK saying the community has taken “efforts to denounce racism on all fronts and we are committed to doing more.”
“Our race relations task force has worked to successfully remove four of the five privately owned billboards,” the statement said, according to KARK. “They continue trying to remove the last one.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 5:53 PM with the headline "‘White Pride’ billboard seen in viral video faces calls for removal in Arkansas."