Black preacher owns Klan temple of hate!

Heard the one about the Ku Klux Klan store owned by a BLACK preacher?

It sounds like the start of a bad joke ... but it's true.

The Redneck Shop sells crude memorabilia of white racism in the Deep South.

It's now an embarrassing landmark in the sleepy town of Laurens, South Carolina.

At the back of the shop stands a gallery billed as "The World's First Klan Museum". It shows how rabid whites once lynched their black neighbours.

But thanks to a bizarre tale of hate and love, both the shop and museum are now the property of the Reverend David Kennedy...

A firebrand Baptist preacher who models himself on the late Martin Luther King.

The amazing saga began when right-wing white businessmen Mike Burden and John Howard conned unsuspecting local councillors into allowing them a licence to sell T-shirts at their shop in Laurens.

By the time angry protesters realised the unsavoury nature of the souvenirs, it was too late to close the store.

But love found a way to make Burden see the error of his ways.

Mike - who held the Klan title of Exalted Cyclops - fell for divorced mother of two Judy Harbeson. But she said she wouldn't marry him unless he turned his back on the KKK.

He did. But Howard was furious. He owned the flat where the newlyweds lived, so he threw them out.

That's when preacher Kennedy came to the rescue. He paid for the pair to stay in a motel.

And Burden was so grateful that he made a massive public confession. He stood up in the local Baptist church and revealed that he had once made plans to kill Kennedy and burn down the building.

Then he handed over his share of the Klan's temple of hate to the preacher for just 10 dollars!

All would then have been well if the minister had been able to remove the grisly exhibits and hateful merchandise.

Sadly, Howard's part of the original shop deal with Burden gave him "life estate" rights.

That means he can't be removed from the premises, and his racist trade is still going on.

Senior Klansman Howard boasts: " I don't sell anything illegal and I don't know why people are tormenting me this way."

Meanwhile, Burden's act of repentance has brought him nothing but burdens of a different kind.

He can't find work because prospective bosses either hate what he once was - or accuse him of betraying whites.

As for the Rev Kennedy, he's now so fed up explaining how he acquired the Klan shop that he's changed his phone number.

And he's keeping a low profile, staying away from strangers.

Laurens folk aren't amused at the spotlight that has been put on their town.

One sighed: "We are just so tired of the attention this situation has brought."

Campaigners have marched along the main street of Laurens protesting over the store of hate.

But the Ku Klux Klan T-shirts and lynching displays will stay...

Unless love also touches the cold, racist heart of Klan man John Howard.