King Celebration Attracts Aryan Nations Protest

Fri., Jan. 13, 1995

From Staff Reports

As 1,200 Kootenai County school children watched a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Thursday, white supremacists handed out tracts defaming the slain civil rights leader.

Aryan Nations staff leader Tim Bishop and two assistants passed out tracts to adults who accompanied youngsters at North Idaho College. The students - most of them fifth-graders from area schools - either participated in or watched a program promoting racial, cultural and ethnic diversity.

The program was sponsored by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. It was the 10th annual Martin Luther King Jr. program held at NIC for school children.

Aryan Nations members stood outside Boswell Hall, where the program was held, handing out a tract titled “Abolish the King Holiday.”

Tony Stewart, president of the human rights task force, watched solemnly as the tracts were distributed. One man took a tract, looked at it, then ripped it in half.

“The whole point of this (program) is to teach children respect to all human beings, not to hate,” Stewart said.

Inside Boswell Hall, the program was a success. A keynote address was given by Marilyn Shuler, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission. And several classes from Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Hayden sang and performed dance routines.

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