Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment — John Shaqi
Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and DisbandmentLester, John C.
History
Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment
Lester, John C.
Ku Klux Klan (19th century)
The members of Ku Klux Klan are nowadays inclined to consider that
their order comprehended all that took shape in resistance to the
Africanization of society and government during the Reconstruction
period. As one ex-member said: "Nearly all prominent
men--ex-Confederates--in all the Southern states were connected in
some way with the Klan." This is true only indirectly. Nearly all
white men, it may be said, took part in the movement now called the
"Ku Klux Movement." But more of them belonged to other organizations
than were members of the Klan. The Klan had the most striking name and
it was later applied to the whole movement. The more prominent
politicians, it is said, had no direct connection with any such
orders. Such connection would have embarrassed and hampered them in
their work, but most of them were in full sympathy with the objects of
the Ku Klux movement, and profited by its successes. Many of the
genuine Unionists later joined in the movement, and there were some
few negro members, I have been told. Some prominent men were honorary
members, so to speak, of the order. They sympathized with its objects,
and gave advice and encouragement, but were not initiated and did not
take active part. General John B. Gordon, of Georgia, and General W.J.
Hardee, of Alabama, were such members. The active members were, as a
rule, young men. In this respect the Klan differed from the order of
White Camelia, which discouraged the initiation of very young men.
Some well-known members of the Klan were General John C. Brown, of
Pulaski, Tennessee; Captain John W. Morton, now Secretary of State of
Tennessee; Ryland Randolph, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, editor of the
_Independent Monitor_, the official organ of the Klan in Alabama;
General N.B. Forrest and General George W. Gordon, of Memphis,
Tennessee; Generals John B. Gordon, A.H. Colquitt, G.T. Anderson and
A.R. Lawton, of Georgia; General W.J. Hardee, of Alabama; Colonel
Joseph Fussell, of Columbia, Tennessee. General Albert Pike, who stood
high in the Masonic order, was the chief judicial officer of the Klan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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