A Virginia mother let her 7-year-old son wear a Ku Klux Klan costume this Halloween because, she insisted, it's a family tradition.

Jessica Black of Craigsville, Va., let her son, Jackson, dress as a Klansman with a floor-length white robe and full-faced white hood, according to local ABC affiliate WHSV. The outfit garnered media attention after a photo of the boy dressed in the KKK regalia was posted to the WHSV Facebook page. When Black was confronted by the news network, she defended her decision.

"My brother has [worn it] when he was in Kindergarten and when he was 13," Black said. She went on to claim there is nothing wrong with the costume or with the White Supremacist group, which she says still exists in their Virginia town. "It's supposed to be white with white, black with black, man with woman and all of that. That's what the KKK stands for."