Virginia Smith - Running up on the KKK in the Woods in 1969[?]

Virginia Smith - Running up on the KKK in the Woods in 1969[?]

Sami Mastrario, Turner County Project

September 4, 2021

Virginia: It was a suspicious time. Everyone had an ulterior motive for something in my mind at least. We had went on a little hike in the woods. I ain’t got no business down in the woods but we went. We ran across the Knight Riders in the woods. It was Halloween and it was something like maybe 1969 or something like that, and they were down in the woods and they had a man hanging up, but it wasn’t like a person, it was a dummy

Turner County Project: Like an effigy.

Virginia: It was what we thought was a real person but it wasn’t no real person, it was a dummy. We stepped up there to peep around the corner- you know, peeping through the woods at them and Mr. Robby [Reeves], the man’s farm we lived on, came up behind and said, “What the hell are ya’ll doing out here? Get your little - get out from here.” Then he started spanking our behinds and told us, “I’ll be by to talk to your momma in the morning. Now y’all be quiet and get on out of here.”

1 minute, 26 seconds