San Diego podcast reveals Ku Klux Klan operated at Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton in 1970s

[DonViejo]

By Luis Gomez

In a new serial podcast that shines a light on an intense but forgotten, four-decade-old San Diego story, a local reporter is sharing fresh details about how Ku Klux Klan membership and activity was an open secret at Camp Pendleton, the U.S. Marine Corps base in Oceanside.

The story springs from an assault on the base the night of Nov. 13, 1976. The details of that assault and its aftermath, which affected a number of lives, unfold slowly in the podcast series titled “Free the Pendleton 14.”

The story explains that a group of black Marines incensed about the KKK activity aimed to do something about it, but wound up in the wrong room, where white Marines were drinking beers.

Part historical documentary, part true-crime podcast, the project is the work of San Diego journalist Steve Walsh, who dug up court records and old newspaper clippings and set out to interview people who were there that night in 1976. He found and spoke to one of the accused black Marines — Ricky McGilvery, who is now a Dallas-area preacher.

Walsh works as a military reporter for San Diego’s public radio station, KPBS, but he emphasized that the station is not associated with the project.

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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-pod-ku-klux-klan-active-members-at-marine-corps-base-camp-pendleton-20190111-htmlstory.html

[BlueWI]

1. Interesting story - thanks.