Restaurant shuts after word of owner’s gift to ex-KKK leader

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – A Chinese restaurant open in Santa Cruz for almost four decades has closed its doors after a boycott and online backlash against the owner’s 2016 campaign donation to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2eGM5gy ) that O’mei Szechuan Chinese Restaurant closed, perhaps permanently, after a news site revealed that owner Roger Grigsby donated $500 to Duke’s unsuccessful 2016 U.S. Senate campaign in Louisiana.

Grigsby tells the newspaper Wednesday that he’s been dealing with “political terror” and an “attack” on his business as word of his donation has spread online.

He defended his support of Duke’s campaign, saying Duke is unfairly characterized by the news media as a “hate caricature.”

Duke was leader of the KKK from 1974 to 1978.

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Information from: Santa Cruz Sentinel, http://www.santacruzsentinel.com