HOUSTON – Donald Burns is using the corrugated steel surrounding his southeast Houston property to espouse a message of persecution that some feel is racist. Burns readily admits he is the one who painted the words "white power" and KKK on his fence.
"This is called freedom of speech and it's supposed to be offensive," said Burns, who is white and lives in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. "This is here because this is the reaction that I want."
Burns said he has been unfairly targeted by the area's civic club, which has peppered his property with deed restriction violations. Burns said he believes City Council and police are in cahoots with the organization. Burns said the deed restriction violations are part of "criminal acts."
Burns said he says he painted the signs only to draw attention to his plight, but insist it's not racism.
"Has nothing to do with race, it has a problem with black property owners and what they've got away with. It does have something to do with race," said Burns.
That bit of tortured logic is hard for many in the neighborhood to follow.
"It's very offensive," said Joseph Boxie, who is a property owner and member of the civic club. "He's totally out of control."
Boxie said the type of deed restriction violations involve minor infractions like not mowing the grass.
"If you feel a certain way you don't have to write all this on your fence, because you have kids come by here from school looking at this stuff," said Sam Pratt.
Others in the neighborhood have asked Quanell X for help in talking with Burns about the signs.
"What he's doing is dangerous. Many of the young people in this community have a problem with that signage and he's creating a very volatile situation," said Quannel X.
Some African-American residents in the neighborhood do support Burns.
"He's not actually speaking about KKK and white folks and black folks. He's speaking about a lot of illegal doing going on in this neighborhood," said James, who declined to give his last name.
After speaking with KPRC 2 Burns painted over the KKK sign and said that was only meant to show the type of tactics he felt were being used against him.
"The Ku Klux Klan behavior has just changed colors," said Burns.
To further prove he is not racist, Burns introduced us to an African-American woman he said is his girlfriend and took off his shirt to show he received no white supremacist tattoos during his time in prison for auto theft.
"Since 1977 I've been in and out of your prisons, you don't see no marks of that (expletive) hate on me," said Burns.
Burns said he painted the signs in the hope someone would listen to what he feels is a violation of his civil rights.
"I don't have an NAACP, I don't have a LULAC. There's no means for me to get something when I'm offended," said Burns.
Community leaders acknowledge Burns has the right to free speech but are still hoping to convince him to remove the signs.