A billboard rising from a Clinton County cornfield near Breese that appears to be a recruiting tool for the Proud Boys — a far-right extremist group tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — has touched off outrage in the small southern Illinois community.

The sign is located at Old U.S. Route 50 and St. Rose Road, about 1,000 feet from the entrance to Central Community High School. It lists a local phone number for people to call. Repeated calls to a phone number on the recruiting billboard went to a voicemail that is full.

Federal prosecutors secured seditious-conspiracy convictions against top Proud Boys leaders for their roles in the Capitol breach, including former chairman Enrique Tarrio, who received a 22-year sentence; he was pardoned by President Donald Trump along with ot

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