Evening star., 1937-09-17
UNDERWOOD HIT
! AT KLAN SESSION
Black Reported Present as
Wizard Tells Story of Po-
, a
IiticaI ManeuVers.

Hugo L. Black, who had just won
the Democratic nomination for the
Senate seat of Oscar w. Underwood,
sat in the Ku Klux Klan meeting
hall in Birmingham, Ala, on the
night of September 2, 1926, and
heard Imperial Wizard Hiram w.
Evans tell how Underwood might
have been President of the United
States had he not denounced the
Klan, according to the fifth of a
series of copyrighted stories by the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the
North American Newspaper Alliance.
According to the articles, written
by Ray Sprigle, Post-Gazette re-
porter, Black, now an associate JUS
tice of the Supreme Court, had just
received gold life-membership card
in the Klan and had thanked his
fellow Klansmen for their political
support, which, he said, was the de-
cisive factor in his victory.
Imperial Wizard Evans, one-tirne
country dentist from Texas, boasted
OF the Klan accomplishments in vari-
Gus States.
AS if on magic carpet, he jumped
from Texas to Ohio, to Illinois, to
Indiana, back to Kentucky, then to
Washington, D. c., with stop-overs
at the 1924 Democratic National Con-
vention and points West.
Underwood Spurns Support.
Most interesting of his revelations
was the fact that the imperial wizard
had determined to make Senator Un-
derwood President of the United
States in 1924. The day before Wiz
ard Evans was to launch the Under
wood boom before 175,000 Klansmen
in Texas Underwood denounced the
Khan. And the Klan turned on him
and fought him. That revelation was
OF particular interest to the Klans-
men present.
+ Underwood, then Senator. came
back to Alabama in 1928, found Black
already engaged In campaign among
the Alabama Klans, assured of VIC
tory at the primaries a year before
they were to be held.
Underwood finished his term in the
Senate and came back to the South
land he had served in public office
at the Nations Capital for 80 years.
In brief season Underwood was to
die-of . broken heart, his friends
said.
Let me tell you little bit about
this Underwood thing" the imperial
wizard told the Klorero.
II was born, as you know, in Clay
County, Ala, and l have always been
an Alabamian at heart. Back in
the days when we were laying the
political campaign of 1924, when
knew the fight We had was with
liquor and Romanism and was going
to be led by Al Smith, looked over
the ground, and I believe I knew
the ground as no other man in the
whole United States knew it, be-
cause I knew the dominant party in
each State throughout the Nation.
Saw Fight Coming.
"As looked over the groundwork
said to myself: Well, that's going
to be an awful fight in the conven-
ton And I knew some man from
somewhere was going to come riding
out of the brush that would finally
be the nominee. And you know.
because I was born in Alabama
hadn't been in Alabama the Lord
knows when-just because of that
fact, because you had elected Under
wood your Senator. down deep in
my heart, I aimed when the day
that McAdoo and Smith had fought
themselves to exhaustion to be in a
position to nominate Oscar w. Un-
derwood as President of the United
States. That was before he had ever
denounced the Klan and when 1
understood he was working in har-
mony with you. That was a secret
plan that I never said anything to
anybody about"
AThe imperial wizard told of efforts
that were made to have him serve
on the reception committee that was
to greet Senator Underwood when
he spoke in Dallas, Tex, and how
he. imperial wizard in return invited
Underwood to be present when the
imperial wizard was to speak before
175,O0o people, mostly Klansmen, at
the Texas State Fair. He recalled
how Underwood went to Houston the
day before he was to have come to
Dallas, and there he made his famous
speech denouncing the Khan.
Think it over" thundered the i'm