In case you were wondering if the KKK was still alive, this should give you a pretty solid indication. Though the famed racist tribe has petered out in terms of mass acts of terrorism, they're keeping their presence known, most notably in the South, as expected, and for their latest act, they've struck controversy in the turf they regularly bloodied in Selma, Alabama by attempting to construct a more "glorious" monument to Grand Wizard Confederate General Nathan Forrest (leader of the Reconstruction-Era KKK) that, obviously, has pissed some people off.

Forrest, who was the first Grand Wizard of the Klan, is the topic at hand, and while the Selma City Council has given the go for the monument, petitioners have already begun striking against it.

Former community leader Malika Sanders-Fortier shared some words over the issue:

"I grew up in Selma. Now, as a community organizer, I think often about the sacrifices of the people who lived here before me. I was outraged and ashamed to learn that Selma's city council is sitting idly by as a local neo-Confederate group expands a public monument to a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Monuments celebrating violent racism and intolerance have no place in this country, let alone in a city like Selma, where the families of those attacked by the Klan still live."

Additionally, Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders, who represents Selma County, expressed his disdain over the monument:

"Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the richest slave dealers in the South. Under General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s leadership, Black soldiers who had surrendered were murdered in cold blood at Fort Pillow, Tennessee during the Civil War. After the Civil War, General Nathan Bedford Forrest took leadership of the Klan, becoming its first Grand Wizard, and built it into a national force that terrorized Black people across this country for decades.  There is already a monument to Forrest at Live Oak Cemetery.  We do not need a bigger monument of Forrest in Selma, the symbol for voting rights and freedom all over the world."

Trivia: if you don't recall, Forest Gump was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest because he was his grandfather.

If you want to halt the project, join the petition over at Change.org. [Baller Status]