Mecca, Indiana

I am white and my best friend is black. We like taking day road trips. In 2021 we decided to drive the path of the covered bridge festival. The festival was not taking place. I search the web beforehand to see if this area would be safe for her and did not find info to indicate it was not. Nothing significant happened. She got some hard looks when I was getting gas in Montezuma. I asked her if she wanted to change plans and she did not. No issues in other towns … until drove through Mecca, IN. Trump and Don’t tread on me flags every where. There was some sort of event at a local bar and there were a lot of people. We started to get a lot of looks. I knew we needed to leave immediately but I could not get turnaround to get out of town quickly until we were into the town a few blocks. When I went to turn the car around I saw a white man wearing a white t-shirt sitting on a four wheeler at an intersection we had passed before I could turn around. When I drove past him I had instant anxiety because on the front of his t-shirt was a picture of someone in KKK clothing and hood. He got right on my rear bumper and escorted us to the edge of town. When I turned onto the highway I floored for a few miles to get as far away as we could. We ended our trip and returned to our home state of Illinois. We will stick to day trips to Indy and take the interstate.