Omaha daily bee., 1921-09-15
About the Ku Klur Klan
Amazing Mixture OF Mumbo
Jumbo and Something Else.
(By Albert de Silver in The Nation.)


the past twenty years. Its imperial wizard, Mr.,
William Joseph Simmons (who has copyrighted
the folder), FOR fourteen years thought. studied
and worked TO prepare himself Tor its launching
Defeating his life to the cause, "he kept his own
counsel during these years, and in the silent &c.
cesses OF his soul he thought out the great plan
In the tall OF 1915 he was ready and on Thanks
giving night OF that year he took thirty-iour in
trepid spirits to the top OF a mountain near At
lanta, Ga, and there ION the mountain top that
night at the midnight hour while men brayed the
surging blasts of wild wintry mountain winds
and endured temperature lar below freezing,
bathed in the sacred glow OF the fiery cross, the
invisible empire was called from its slumber OF
half century"
One might have expected that such por-
tentous event would have been attended by some
extraordinary disturbance OF the celestial spheres
or at least by some strange and mysterious cur
rents in the affairs OF men And indeed. on July
next, there did appear from the aulic OF his
majesty, the imperial wizard (Mr. William Jo-
scph Simmons) an Imperial proclamation" di-
rected TO the whole world" in which the aims
OF the invisible empire, knights OF the Ku Klux
Klan, Inc, were set forth. This impressive docu-
ment, done in literary style which should per-
haps be described as neo-Afrcan, stated simply
that the order, inter ALA, was dedicated to the
sublime and pleasant duty OF providing generous
aid, tender sympathy, and fraternal assistance in
sable shadows OF DEATH" All men who could
qualify were invited ito approach the portal OF
our benchcent domain and join the
sacred duty OF protecting womanhood :.
to maintain forever white supremacy in all
things to bless mankind and to keep
eternally ablaze the sacred fire OF fervent de-
votion to a pure Americanism." In conclusion
the order was stated to be "the soul OF chivalry
and virtues impenetrable shield"
The imperial wizard made his verbal mag
nihcence somewhat more specific in an interview
later vouchsafed Chicago representative OF the
Universal Service. The reporter, after passing
the "ghoul," "the goblin" and the "cyclops" who
guarded approach to the grand wizard, was told:
We exclude Jews because they do not be-
Catholics because they owe allegiance to an
institution that is foreign to the government Of
the United States. Any native-born American
who is member OF the English church or any
other foreign church is barred. To assure the
supremacy of the white race we believe in the
exclusion OF the yellow race and in the dis
franchisement of the negro. 1t was gods act
to make the white race superior to all others.
By some scheme OF Providence the negro was
created as serf. We harbor no race
prejudces. The negro never had and has not
today better friend than the Ku Klux Klan.
The law-abiding negro who knows his place
has nothing to fear from US. We do
not DIT uHtll CdHcu upOi!, Dut IL Hceueu we Have
great invisible and mysterious force that will
strike terror into the hearts of lawbreakers.
Which, after all, gave more hint of the sober
reality OF the Klan than did the imperial proc
lamation of 1915
For some years after the proclamation indeed
little was heard of the Klan The fiery cross ap-
pears to have remained hidden under bushel
In the fall of 1920, however, the name began to
appear in the newspapers i'll disquieting man
ner. On October II the New York Tribune re-
ports that certain Peter Mcmahon of Yonkers,
while travelling south to assist lady in dispute
about her share in the estate of deceased rela-
tive, was taken from train at Trenton S. c.,
by gang of men dressed as Ku Kux Klansmen,
who had attempted to lynch him and then had
beaten him." The men, it seems, had tried to
force him to sign declaration adverse to the
claims OF his client. And ten evenings later, and
just before election day. five hundred members
of the Ku Klux klan marched in costume
through the streets Of Jacksonville, Fla, follow
ing the fiery cross, supposedly" according to
the New York Times, "as warning to negroes
to attempt no lawlessness at the polls on Tues
day. It is Of record that few colored people
voted in Jacksonville on Tuesday. white SUI
premacy" was maintained.
With the spring of 1921 there came, prnci-
pally in the state OF Texas, remarkable crop of
mob outrages, all perpetrated by masked bands of
men and so similar in technique as to suggest
+"
were both blacks and whites, men and women,
and there was such variety of apparent causes
as to defy analysis. Responsibility for two, at
least, of the mobbings was publicly avowed by
the Beaumont Tex, branch Of the Klan and it
was widely assumed, in the absence of local dis
svowal, that such responsibility was general.
Southern as well as northern newspapers became
loud in their denunciation of the violence of the
Ku Kluxers. The imperial wizard apparently
became alarmed and issued statements Gnserted
in many papers as full-page paid advertisements
denying that the lawlessness was due to the
Klan. He even revoked the charter of the Beau
mont branch, which had indiscreet1y written to
the papers, with the Klan's official seal, glorying
in its crimes. He also suspended the charters
of the Mobile, Ala, and Pensacola, Fla, chapters,
which also were caught in rather too fragrant and
public violence. But the cases of threats, tar
and general rowdiness by mys-
terious masked and white-capped men calling
themselves Klansmen continued The Galsevton,
Tex, Daily News for July 10 lists nineteen such
incidents in Texas alone, beginning on April l,
when band of masked men took negro bell
boy from a Dallas hotel carried him into the
country near by, whipped him, and branded the
letters X. K K. with acid on his forehead The
last was on July 16, at Tenaha, when young
white woman was seized on hotel porch by
masked men wearing white uniforms, taken sew
eral miles into the country, undressed, tarred
and feathered, and returned to town. THE sacred
duty of protecting womanhood," no doubt. Proc
lamations and warnings signed "Ku Klux Klan"
and directed against grafters idlers, bootleggers
and agitators appeared in number Of places, in
cluding the state capitol. In as far separated
places as Houston Beaumont, Dallas, Waco,
Bolton, Goose Creek, Fort Worth, Gldden,
Deweyville, and Timson men were seized by
masked bands and roughly handled. In some
cases they were merely beaten In others they
were tarred and feathered in addition. Their
abductors on some occasions acted anonymously.
On others they acted in the name OF the Ku
Klux Klan and now and then they placarded
their exploit upon the person Of their victim.
Ito Be Continued Tomorrow.)
Where Washington Draws the Line.