CHAPTER XXXV

THE KU KLUX KLAN
The original Ku Klux Klan was formed at Nashville, Tennessee, by a group of Confederate army officers in the year 1867. The South had been beaten in the Civil War, the slaves had been freed, and in many of the southern States social and economic chaos had ensued.
The whites were in a very difficult position. Not only had the slaves been freed, but they had been granted com¬ plete suffrage; the consequence was that in many of the States a portion of the population that but a few years before had no rights of any kind now formed a majority of the electorate, was in a position to assert its power, and not unnaturally disposed to make that power be felt by those who had hitherto been the ruling caste. Some means of self-defence against this state of things had to be found, and since the law of the land would grant none, the southern whites had to grasp at extra-constitutional means. Hence arose the secret society of the Ku Klux Klan, whose avowed object was, by intimidation and violence, if necessary, to restrain the negroes from those excesses against the white population that were only to be expected, nor had been long in becoming manifested.
The first activities of the Klan aimed merely at intimi¬ dating the negroes by fantastic costumes, night assemblies, flaming crosses, and high-sounding proclamations, mixed with a little conjuring hocus-pocus to impress the super¬ stitious blacks. But, unfortunately, the campaign did not continue to be so harmless. Southern gentlemen in the uniform of the Klan patrolled the roads, and inflicted lashes upon any negro found on them after an arbitrarily fixed
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288 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
hour; and even more brutal repressions took place, in¬ cluding lynching.
The name Ku Klux Klan is said to be an attempt to repro¬ duce the noise made by the cocking of an old-fashioned rifle.
This secret society having spread all over the southern States, its continued existence became a menance to Federal Government, which in the year 1871 passed an Act of Congress to suppress it.
It is doubtful if legislation in such a case would have effected much; but conditions were gradually changing. The spirit of revenge and repression had ceased to animate the north, and the federal troops were being withdrawn from the south. The southern States by various electoral devices managed once more to disenfranchise the negro. The whites again became dominant economically, elector- ally and socially. With the passing of the former state of things went the need for such an instrument of coercion as the Ku Klux Klan, and it was finally declared dissolved by its head, General Forrest.
From the report of the committee appointed by Congress in 1871 to take evidence concerning the Ku Klux Klan or “Invisible Empire of the South” we learn that the organization was secret. The lodges were known as “Dens” whose presiding officer was a “Cyclops.” The following oath was taken by every initiate:
“I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, and in the presence of Almighty God, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will never reveal to anyone not a member of the
- 1 by any intimation, sign, symbol, word or act, or in
any other manner whatever, any of the secrets, signs, grips,
pass-words, mysteries or purposes of the - , or that I am
a member of the same, or that I know of anyone who is a member, and that I will abide by the prescript and edicts of the - . So help me God.”
A different form of oath was given by one of the witnesses examined by the Congress Committee in 1871 :2
1 The name Ku Klux Klan was left blank in the constitutions, and never written.
2 Report, Washington, 1872, from which this and other information is taken.
THE KU KLUX KLAN 289
“I, A. B., before the Immaculate Judge of heaven and earth, and upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, do of my own free will and accord subscribe to the following sacredly binding obligation: We are on the side of justice, humanity, and constitutional liberty, as bequeathed to us in its purity by our forefathers. We oppose and reject the principles of the Radical Party. We pledge mutual aid to each other in sickness, distress, and pecuniary embarrass¬ ment. Female friends, widows and their households, shall ever be special objects of our regard and protection. Any member divulging or causing to be divulged any of the foregoing obligations, shall meet the fearful penalty and traitor’s doom, which is Death! Death! Death!”
It would seem from these widely differing oaths that no such thing as uniformity of ritual existed in the first Klan. It is even possible that as much divergence may have existed in the secret methods of recognition ; these last were never to be written, but always communicated orally.
Other noteworthy rules of the order were:
“Any member may be expelled from the - by the
majority vote of the officers and Ghouls of the den to which he belongs; and if after expulsion such member shall
assume any of the duties, regalia, or insignia of the - , or
in any way claim to be a member of the same, he shall be severely punished. His obligation of secrecy shall be as binding upon him after expulsion as before, and for any revelation made by him thereafter he shall be held account¬ able in the same manner as if he were then a member.
“Any member who shall reveal or betray the secrets or
purposes of this - shall suffer the extreme penalty of the
law.
“It shall be the duty of the Grand Ensign to take charge of
the grand banner of the - , to preserve it sacredly, and
protect it carefully, and to bear it on all occasions of parade or ceremony, and on such other occasions as the Grand Cyclops may direct it to be flung to the night breeze .”
This last sentence is obviously in allusion to the usual custom of the Klan, which made its punitive expeditions by night in white, ghost-like costumes, on horseback, and by torch-light.
290
FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Thus the “Invisible Empire of the South,” founded in 1867, had apparently served its purpose, been dissolved, and could envisage no future existence outside the covers of a historical novel or the mechanical posturing of a Hollywood super-film. Had, indeed, its history come to an end at that point, the condemnation with which all good citizens remembered it would have been tempered by that unreasoning admiration paid by the ordinary man to wild justice, executed in defiance of the law, when the law has not taken into proper account his natural feelings as a man. But the Ku Klux Klan was not to be allowed to rest in its grave.
In the year 1916 the corpse was disinterred. One night a band of thirty-four men set up a fiery cross on a mountain overlooking Atlanta, Georgia, and garbed in white robes and peaked hoods proceeded to enter into solemn obligations to restore the Ku Klux Klan to the glories of its former state. The leader of these crusaders was a former Methodist minister, William J. Simmons, who bore the courtesy title of colonel, and who was then and there elected as head of the newly resurrected Order under the high-sounding designation of Grand Wizard.
A legal charter for the Klan was at once sought and acquired from the supreme court of Fulton County, Georgia. In this application the purposes of the society were stated to be unexceptionable — “to inculcate the sacred principles of chivalry, the development of character, the protection of the home, the chastity of womanhood, and patriotism.” Then, as a supplemental and innocent adjunct: “to main¬ tain white supremacy.”
With this programme the society began to attract members in Georgia, and spread rapidly into other southern States.
Its most phenomenal increase in strength did not begin, however, till after the termination of the Great War, when it enlarged its programme to include aims which made a greater appeal to men’s passions and prejudices than the sacred principles of chivalry or the chastity of womanhood.
The disbandment of the southern negro soldier after 1918 is said to have given the first impetus to the new spirit of
THE KU KLUX KLAN 2gi
the Ku Klux Klan. That coloured soldier had done his work in France as well and as bravely as his white country¬ men and allies; and he had learnt overseas of other things besides war undreamt of in Dixie land, which sent him home the possessor of an increased self-respect and self- confidence, quite unsuited to a milieu where they were condemned and distrusted as outrageous self-assurance. The resulting unfortunate situation is capably summed up in the words of a well-informed eye-witness:1
“Many of the negroes were sent to France, and their experience in that country was such as to make them dis¬ contented with their social inferiority in their American homes. The French, having a point of view towards black soldiers and the black races generally which is totally different from the American point of view, treated the negro soldiers on the same basis as everyone else, and gave them a feeling about their status in the world which, when they returned to their homes in the southern States, manifested itself in a disturbing way. There are places in the southern States where the negroes outnumber the whites sometimes by as many as three or four to one. It can be realized readily that negro soldiers, coming back from an experience in France where they were treated as equals, brought with them a spirit which disturbed the whites in those commun¬ ities where the negro population is most dense.”
In such districts the newly-revived Ku Klux Klan was a ready and natural means of reinforcing white supremacy; and as such it was used. But the Klan had spread to other States, where by reason of his insignificant numbers the negro constitutes no problem ; and in these the society proved itself easily adaptable to the ends of other racial and religious prejudices.
In the United States there exists, perhaps not unnaturally, a strong feeling against allowing any outside power to interfere in American concerns. This feeling it was that led to the agitation against the League of Nations in the electoral compaign of 1920, which is said to have encouraged
1 The Observer , gth July, 1922.
292 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
the revival of the Ku Klux Klan; and the same feeling is displayed in periodical, hysterical outbursts against the Roman-Catholic Church, the Jews and alien immigrants generally.
The Ku Klux Klan set itself to acquire merit by further¬ ing suspicion of and agitation against all these dangers, so-called. In so acting it was pandering to popular preju¬ dices and was sure of a large and sympathetic audience; anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic propaganda were rife; and the way was also being prepared for the law passed by Congress in 1921 which restricted the immigration of certain aliens; thus in coming forward as the champion of such policies the Klan was certain of finding a good recruit¬ ing-ground.
Nor did it fail in its object. Its numbers began to increase by hundreds daily. At one semi-public conclave of the Klan held at night, in January, 1921, within the State Fair grounds at Alabama, no fewer than 500 novices were admitted simultaneously. The grounds were filled with the white- robed and hooded figures of the Klansmen, illuminated by two huge searchlights for the edification of crowds of the uninitiated and newspaper correspondents, who thronged the neighbouring roofs at a distance that was out of earshot, but close enough to reveal the ceremony in all its solemn make-believe.
The attention which this piece of theatrical pageantry received in the world’s Press was but the beginning of a wider and less desirable publicity for the “Supreme Knight¬ hood of the Invisible Empire.” Within a few months reports of wild doings from Texas displayed the Klan busied there in enforcing a code of morals of its own devising by such methods of persuasion as tarring and feathering, branding with acid, flogging, mutilation, and enforced banishment. In November, 1922, it was stated in the United states Senate that the number of such outrages perpetrated in the name of the Klan had, in Texas alone, during the past twelve months, amounted to over five hundred. Nor were other States left immune by this plague. In Maryland the Klan not only appointed itself the guardian
THE KU KLUX KLAN
293
of morals by compelling unwed couples living together to submit to marriage or a whipping, but also declared open war against Jews and Roman Catholics. The city of New York itself was invaded. The Mayor ordered the Police Commissioner to expel all members of the Klan, which was obviously impossible of execution but indicates public dis¬ approbation, yet within a few weeks of the issuing of this ukase of proscription a Klansman in full regalia appeared in one of the churches of a Sunday, and interrupted the service in order to read a declaration in the following terms :
“This Order was called into existence to meet one of the greatest needs of the times. Among its purposes is to see that the trade of the country is not controlled by Jews, and the educational institutions in the country not controlled by Catholicism. It is also the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan to revive the chivalry of the people, and to combat those who would tear down our institutions. We are opposed to the bootlegger, and we are organised to maintain supremacy of the white race, and to keep Protestantism in the ascendancy.”
By December, 1922, the membership of the Klan was stated by those high in its councils to be approaching one million.
That very month it received some further publicity from two separate directions. The first came from the “Imperial Giant,” Edward Young Clarke, who announced that he was about to invade Great Britain in order to establish the Klan there, after which he would proceed to France and Italy with a like purpose; he was careful to explain that, in order to facilitate this good work, the Klan had with¬ drawn its ban against Roman Catholics, and hoped that all the white races would unite together under its banner to combat the numerically superior coloured races. The touching naivete with which this crusade was announced to an Empire whose coloured subjects considerably outnum¬ ber its white was happily not further emphasized by attempted action. The invasion never took place. That it would have been barren of results satisfactory to the Klan is certain, for just then attention was directed to its activities by an event now to be recorded.
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294 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
This was a particularly gruesome murder that took place at Mer Rouge, Louisiana, when the two victims, a cotton- planter and a mechanic who had in some way made themselves obnoxious, were horribly tortured before being killed by a force of masked men clad in the regalia of the Klan. Though the governor of the State did all he could to bring the murderers to justice, his efforts were fruitless against the local feeling that supported the Klan. A federal inquiry was held, and proved equally ineffective. This ghastly crime that went unpunished gave added force and weight to that section of the American Press which already for months had been exposing the outrages committed by the “Invisible Empire” in the name of patriotism or morality.
The intensified attacks of the anti-Klan Press were accompanied by rumours that the society would defend its honour in the courts by an action for damages, and that the Imperial Wizard would claim one million dollars against a New York newspaper. Generally speaking, the Klan professed to be rejoicing at the free publicity that had become its portion.
It was soon to receive still more. Within the Klan itself dissensions had broken out, for the “sacred principles of chivalry” did not seem to apply when possession of the funds of the Order was at stake. Law proceedings had been threatened at the beginning of 1922 and went on rumbling for some time, after which a coup d'etat or bloodless revolution in the Order deposed the Imperial Wizard Simmons, retired him, on pension, with the honorary and empty title of Emperor, and placed a new Imperial Wizard, one Evans, in control of the Klan and — its war-chest.
The new potentate’s first act of Wizardry was to announce that he would rekindle Imperial Giant Clarke’s fizzled-out torch, and carry the fiery cross of the Klan through Europe; but if this plan was ever intended seriously, it was interrupted by his having to fight a crusade nearer home in the Georgia Superior Court against his predecessor, Simmons, who wished to reassume the Wizardship with its attendant dignities, etc. The ensuing law proceedings
THE KU KLUX KLAN
295
made a smiling public acquainted with the existence of hitherto unheard-of functionaries, such as the Grand Goblin. He, together with the Imperial Giant, the Em¬ peror, and the Imperial Wizard, had a crow to pluck with the Klan, and each with one another, while a jeering audience of the uninitiated listened to unending allegations and revelations, which comprised such an odoriferous buck- basket as seldom can have been brought out for washing in public — embezzlements amounting to a million dollars, warrants issued for defaulting officials, comfortable salaries drawn by those who were for the time being chiefs supreme in the Invisible Empire, such were the manifest fruits of the Klan’s efforts towards “development of character.”
The subsequent history of the Klan is of little but local importance. Its invasion of Europe has not yet taken place, but it is said to have found a foothold in Canada as a political body.
It would not be unfitting to close this account ofit with the fervent hope that, in the best interests of America herself, an association which attacks its fellow-citizens merely on account of their colour or religion should as speedily as possible be compelled by public opinion to live up to its title and become invisible.