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Missouri woman who showed off Confederate flag to protesters and shouted 'KKK belief' apologizes after losing job

Kathy Jenkins was seen in a video telling BLM protesters 'I'll teach my grandkids to hate you all'

BRANSON, MISSOURI: A woman from Missouri, who was filmed on a cellphone camera yelling that she would teach her grandchildren to hate Black Lives Matter protesters, issued an apology on Tuesday, June 23. The apology came after the woman, identified as Kathy Jenkins, also extolled her beliefs in the infamous white supremacist group Ku Lux Klan.

The video featuring Jenkins, shortly after it was released on social media, became viral garnering over 12.8 million views. The clip shows Jenkins sitting in the back of a pickup truck holding a Confederate flag and shouting at BLM protesters, saying: "I will teach my grandkids to hate you all." She then stands up and drapes the Confederate flag over her shoulders, saying: "Suck on this." She then adds "KKK belief" and pumps her fist in the air. 

The incident reportedly occurred outside a Branson Dixie Outfitters store, which specializes in Confederate flags, clothing, and other merchandise, where Black Lives Matter protesters had gathered on Sunday, June 20. Counterprotesters were also present at the location and Jenkins joined their group, displaying Confederate flags.

Jenkins, after receiving a heavy backlash, had reportedly claimed that she did not know what the Confederate flag stood for. She has since been removed from her job. While talking to KOLR 10 Ozarks First radio station on June 23, she issued an apology stating ever since the video became viral, she has lost her job and has left Branson. "I’m so, so sorry," she said. "I mean, if it would help for me to stand with Black Lives Matter, I absolutely would do that. I hadn’t said anything until they came into my face," she claimed. "It’s like I blacked out. I don’t even remember saying half the stuff that I said."

The organizer of the BLP protest in Branson, Faith Pittser, on June 21, had released a statement to the outlet, saying Jenkins "knew exactly what she was doing. She was there from the start on the counter-protesters’ side shouting obscenities and hateful words at our protesters. I think her claims to not know what the Confederate flag is and what it represents are absurd and lies."

Meanwhile, the Branson Dixie Outfitters took to Facebook on Wednesday, June 24, to thank its supporters and blamed socialists and anarchists for coming to their stores in the guise of peaceful protesters. The store wrote: "These socialists & antarchists [sic], that hate America, hate Christian values, came to our town, While we were closed, trying to instigate violence! Claiming to be peaceful protestors, but the part you did not see in the 'media,' was anything but that!”

"You cannot believe the media folks! These 'peaceful' protestors have burned churches, taken over police departments, dragged people from their cars, looted, destroyed towns, torn down historical statues....yet the media & weak-minded politicians STILL call them 'peaceful protestors'!" the store added on its Facebook page. "They will not be happy, until they have taken all of the freedoms you enjoy! Until every bit of American pride and patriotism is gone!” the post continued. “Until every small town, bows down to there [sic] socialist/communist ideology! Until anything that could possibly offend them, is gone. This is not about our little T-shirt shop....this is about FREEDOM!”

The mayor of Branson, Edd Akers, also released a statement on June 23, issuing a proclamation “promoting unity and condemning hate speech," Akers said: “I don’t think there’s a Branson-area person that is happy with this situation and the way we’re being characterized across social media."

The Confederate flag, which was used by the seceded Southern states or the Confederacy during the Civil War, is controversial in the United States due to its longstanding association with racism, slavery, segregation, and white supremacy.