Grant County residents turned out in force at a town hall meeting this morning to object to efforts by a white supremacist group calling itself the Aryan Nations to establish a new headquarters in John Day.

“Never have I been to a community who reacted so quickly as you have to say no,” civil rights activist Tony Stewart, 68, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, told the standing-room-only crowd of about 375 people at the Canyon City Community Hall, just south of John Day. At least 100 others were turned away because of fire regulations.

An additional 300 watched a live Internet stream, said Scotta Callister, editor of John Day’s Blue Mountain Eagle weekly newspaper, which sponsored the meeting. A second meeting is planned for tonight.

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