The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-08-12
XII KLUX KHAN
GETS HIT HARD
Grand Dragon of the Mess In
North Carolina Spills
The Beans

"The new organization of the
Ku Klux Klan, as at present con-
Quoted in North Carolina, is an
organization engaged exclusively
in collecting initiation fees under
false pretenses, without any leg
al standing in the state, and in
my opinion is a failure and a
fraud"
In these words Major Bruce Craven,
lawyer, finahcier and writer, of Trinity
College, and until last Friday the Grand
Dragon of the Realm and Supreme Head
of the Ku Klux KIan of North Caro-
lima, denounces the Ku Klux Klan. In
a two column interview given the
Greensboro Daily News last Friday Ma
jor Craven declared the order in North
Carolina disbanded.
After stating that he had been in
viegled into the Ku Klux Klan by mis-
representations as to its membership,
aims and purposes, and that since had
gotten into it his name and influence
had been openly used to further the
spread of the organization in the state,
Major Craven said:
Has Right to Quit
"Every person before admission is
guaranteed the right to sever the con-
nection at any time. Accordingly l have
made my resignation direct to the i'm
perial wizard to whom only / am answer
able, both as grand dragon and as a
klansman, this to be effective at noon
of August 5. At the time, of this inter-
view am the supreme head of the or
der in North Carolina. subject only to
the imperial wizard; and I now declare
the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina
disbanded and abandoned, every organ
lied khan ended, and every klansman re-
leased from his connection, his respons-
ibility and his obligations. I shall not
violate the obligations, and I shall give
out no secrets of any kind and neither
shall I use the knowledge I possess of
the membership and all other operations
up to date, but because of these things
all persons implicated in it in the state
should realize that when l say the thing
is ended, it is ended. To make this re-
suit certain every incorporated city and
town in the state should pass an ordi-
nance prohibiting any persons from ap-
pearing on the streets or in any public
place wearing any mask or other thing
to conceal his identity.
No Way to Keep Out LawIessness
''There is no possibility of keeping
the organization from unlawful outrag-
es, nor out of politics. I was in the
presence of the imperial wizard, when
that he wanted everything urged toward
the consummation of a national organ
ization which could elect President of
its own, and there was general agree
ment with the sentiment expressed. I
have revolted from the first at these
tendencies, at the anonymous letter
writing, and at the Dess or lies about
the greatness of the thing and it's pow
er, etc. 1 had been led to believe I could
control the affairs in North Carolina,
but this has not been true. The news
paper organ in Atlanta, ''The Search
light" is an insult to any intelligent
man, and about on the same plane with
the infammatory negro papers and the
bolshevist propaganda This paper pub
fishes in big headlines that 10000 peoSv
boro, and the statement is published in
letters that there are 10000
in North Carolina, 5000 in
and that they are organized u
in every state of the union. There are
at the present time perhaps 5000 In
the state who have paid their initiation
fees, one fourth of them within 80 miles
of Greensboro, and most of whopx as
soon as they got in, and saw who was
there, kissed their money goodbye and
quit. Some of the best citizeRS in
have Joined, and AWaing
there was no restriction wh9teVaE ~
admitting members except the, noono
they left never TO retu8n
and were labeled traitors to the sacred
cause. One of them. a prominent busir
ness man, together with several other
intelligent men, protested against the
wholesale admission of thieves and
,ootleggers and he was sum1narilY ban
shed, without trial, and supposedly
n disgrace, by the organizer, and with
,ut consulting me-"
Khan Repudiates Craven
The Imperial Wizard from his palace
n Atlanta has sent. out statement in
FA1CA uc uCCIdEeS LudL N1dJOE OEdV0A
lever was the head of the Klan in this
tate and other Klansmen have come
ut from under cover to protest that
1ajor Craven has no right to dishand
he organization. Whether the Klan
as' disbanded God only knows; but one
hing is certain: the best citizenship in
he state is done with it. Governor
Cameron Morrison and Josephus Dan
elsg among others, have reiterated their
objections to the order within the past
ew days.
THE INDEPENDENT was one of
he first newspapers in the state to take
stand against the Ku Klux KIan and
enewed it's fire when the Ku Klux' sent
L. Maxwell, an ex-barkeeper into Eliz-
beth City to organize the Klansmen
ere, few weeks ago. In an editorial
written before the exposure made by
Iajor Craven, THE INDEPENDENT
pined that the Ku KIux Elan would
egister failure for. the very fact that
he identity of it's members could not
orever be kept secret. Major Craven's
xpose bears out exactly what this
ewspaper had ventured to product.