‘ There’s no place for this’
Officials investigate ‘ KKK’ markings on Danbury billboard
DANBURY — While city officials said that a billboard on North Street with “KKK” spray painted on it will be removed quickly, the local branch of the NAACP wants the city to step up immediately and cover the vandalism.
On Saturday, a Hearst Connecticut Media reader submitted a photo of the billboard on North Street — an advertisement for WDBY and WRKI radio stations — that showed “KKK” written out in red spray paint on the right side of the billboard.
On the left side of the advertisement, black spray paint can also be seen, although it’s difficult to make out exactly what it says.
It’s unclear if both messages were created at the same time or by the same person or persons.
Mayor Mark Boughton said the city’s police force “will conduct a thorough investigation.”
“If the perpetrators are found they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Boughton said Saturday. “There’s no place for this kind of hate in Danbury.”
Glenda Armstrong, president of the Danbury branch of the NAACP, said she hadn’t heard about or seen the spray- painted message, but agreed with Boughton.
“It’s something we can’t tolerate in Danbury,” Armstrong said in a phone interview Saturday night. “I’m glad that the police are investigating.”
Boughton said officials will reach out to the owners of the billboard and “have it removed as soon as possible.”
But Armstrong said the city should intervene now rather than wait for the billboard owners to remove it.
“It’s a public eyesore,” she said, “I would think that there’s something we can do to cover it up ... I’m sure it doesn’t represent the greater community and I’m imploring the city to do something as soon as possible.”
Danbury has a history of the Ku Klux Klan dating back decades.
In the 1970s, there were race riots at Danbury High School, and the KKK orchestrated a cross- burning and handed out racist material at Western Connecticut State University, according to prior reporting by the News- Times.
Many people said in 2012 that fights between black and white students at Danbury High School continued to almost the entire decade.
During the ’ 70s, the majority of African- Americans lived in the Eden Drive and Laurel Gardens housing projects while many of the city’s white residents lived in the Clapboard Ridge section.
Residents who lived in the city at the time told Hearst Connecticut Media back in 2012 that it “wasn’t the friendliest place for minorities.”
In 1979, when KKK pamphlets were distributed at WestConn, about 400 people — black and white — retaliated with a silent march on Main Street. The NAACP was instrumental in organizing the protest march and was vocal about problems in the 1970s and 1980s.
Members of the KKK told the News- Times in 1982 that they dedicated their crossburning ceremony on private property on Spruce Mountain Road to Dimples Armstrong, black Danbury science teacher who headed a committee that wrote a teacher’s guide on the KKK.