HALLOWELL -- More than 150 people gathered Wednesday under a bridge on the Kennebec River Rail Trail to speak out against what they believe to be a blatant sign of racism in Maine's smallest city.

More than 20 red and black "KKK" signs -- an acronym for the Ku Klux Klan, a domestic militant group that advocates white supremacy through intimidation -- were found under a Hallowell bridge and along the Kennebec River Rail Trail.

The protest against the signs was organized after the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence was inundated with phone calls.

Steve Wessler, director of the Portland-based center, led the rally, joined by members of the clergy from Hallowell and the Greater Augusta area, Hallowell Mayor Anthony Masciadri, Rep. Sharon Anglin Treat, D-Hallowell, and Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe.

"These are not just three letters," Wessler told the crowd. "These are messages of hate and terror."

Rabbi Susan Bulba Carvutto, in attendance with her young grandson, said the rally was a chance for people to stand unified against racism, but also to celebrate diversity.

"This is a very scary thing and people have to continue to speak up against this," Carvutto said of the "KKK" graffiti. "I think it's wonderful that so many people are here to say, as a community, this is unacceptable."

Eddie Johnson, a black man from Vassalboro, said seeing the crowd standing up for equality and justice in a public way was a positive experience.

"It's gratifying to me to see so many Mainers standing here and not putting up with this," Johnson said. "It's gratifying to know that you are people who share my community and my neighborhood, and are my friends."

Not everyone in town felt a rally was the best way to handle the graffiti.

Leroy Ellis, a black business owner whose store, Just Like Home Furniture, sits on the rail trail less than a mile from the graffiti, said drawing attention to it only gives more gratification to the perpetrators.

"People can protest and do whatever they want, but in my opinion, this was blown up and overrated," Ellis said. "This is a sign of ignorance and stupidity, and it should just be ignored."

Ellis said he grew up in Georgia in the 1960s, when racism was an institution in the South.

Though great strides have been made toward racial equality through legislation and societal pressures since Ellis's childhood, racism, he said, "is something that will never go away."

Ellis said he didn't fell threatened.

"People knew things like this were going to happen when Obama was elected president," Ellis said. "Come on, I mean he's the first black president of the United States. People are either going to accept it or they aren't."

Though Rowe, the attorney general, called the Hallowell graffiti "an isolated act, to be sure," there have been reports of other racism in the state, including a sign at a Standish convenience store inviting bets on when Obama would be assassinated.

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811 Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com