KKK Faces Off With New Black Panther Group in Heated, Competing Rallies at South Carolina Statehouse

The Ku Klux Klan faced off with a group affiliated with the New Black Panthers Saturday at the South Carolina Statehouse, as opposing rallies attracting about 2,000 at one point led to a rock-throwing scuffle.

KKK members arrive at the South Carolina Statehouse waving Confederate flags on Saturday, July 18, 2015. (Image source: TheBlaze)

The KKK was there to protest the July 10 removal of the Confederate flag at the Statehouse, which occurred in the wake of a massacre at a black church in Charleston that claimed the lives of nine people in June.

More from NBC News:

About 50 members descended on the Capitol steps waving the rebel banners — at least one of which included a Nazi symbol — and immediately began shouting racial slurs at attendees of an earlier "Countering the Attack on Black Unity Rally." Those protesters were moved behind barricades, a distance away from the Statehouse steps, where they yelled back at the pro-Confederate flag group.

The network added that the earlier rally included members of Black Lawyers for Justice and Black Educators for Justice, a Florida organization with links to the New Black Panther Party. About 200 had gathered as speakers at a podium shouted, "Black power!"

Members of a New Black Panther-affiliated group rally at the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday, July 18, 2015. (Image source: TheBlaze)

TheBlaze TV's Dana Loesch was in Columbia to get a first-hand look at the rallies:

Skirmish at the rally. Rocks thrown. One in custody. Black Panthers on one side, KKK on the other side of the capitol bldg. Insane.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch)

July 18, 2015

Post-chaos. #blazetv pic.twitter.com/s2xGkA59nq

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 18, 2015

NBC News said there were five arrests after the KKK arrived; charges included disorderly conduct, simple assault and breach of peace.

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