Is it bad that this honestly doesn't surprise me? In 2005 my 15 year old self was passing through Northern Georgia to see grandparents, and we hit traffic at the only town stoplight because a Grand Wizard and lots of KKK members were rallying in the streets celebrating running the last minority out of the county. As a white middle class guy, that was quite the contemporarty class on race relations.
Racism is alive and well in the South, and it is slow to change because the communities are small and not super interested in the internet justice movements.
I am from NE Georgia, and while racism is undoubtedly alive, public racism like what you saw is something I have never heard of in my 30 year life-span.
OP could have mentioned visiting the grandparents without mentioning which state that was. Yes the South has a problem, but drawing lines like this is a way for the rest of us to pretend that we don't. I seem to recall that some issues have arisen in some Midwestern cities recently?
Sorry if my comment drew lines, that was not my intention. I just wanted to highlight a particularly vivid memory I had at a very impressionable age which has helped contribute to my desensitized reaction to this - the lack of which I am a little worried about.
Racism is alive and well in the South, and it is slow to change because the communities are small and not super interested in the internet justice movements.