Among the first reported cases of violence on the part of masked men
occurred in Atlanta, Ga., the headquarters of Ku Kluxism, the home of the
"Invisible Empire." J. C. Thomas, a white man, received an anonymous
letter advising him to "leave alone" a certain woman named Myers, upon
penalty of action, but paid no attention to the warning. One night Thomas
was enticed into entering a motor car in which were several strangers, the
false representation being made that the "Chief of Police wanted to see
him about some bad checks." The car was driven to Lakewood, an amusement
park, and Thomas was ordered to get out. He refused to obey the order,
drew his knife, and put up a fight, killing Fred Thompson, one of his
abductors and wounding another. The Grand Jury of Fulton County failed to
indict Thomas, but did indict two of his captors.
_Simmons admitted that Thompson was a member of the Ku Klux Klan._
Numerous cases have been reported in Atlanta where threatening letters
have been sent and received. A young Scotchman was threatened for making
improper remarks about social equality, while a physician was warned on
account of alleged neglect of his family. According to J. H. Leavitt, an
Atlanta lawyer, who was himself threatened, not only was he himself marked
for violence but included in the same category were Dr. C. B. Wilmer, the
Episcopal clergyman and Ex-Senator Hoke Smith.
In Durham, North Carolina, a Greek restaurant proprietor received an
anonymous warning signed "K. K. K." ordering him to leave town. It
appeared that he had permitted the intermingling of the races in his place
of business. The Greek refused to take the matter seriously, employed a
lawyer and laughed the incident out of town. Nothing came of it.
After a careful and searching investigation made by the _New York World_,
there have been disclosed a large number of cases of violence and
lawlessness in the South, and a study of the synopsis of these cases is
interesting. It will be noted that the majority of outrages have occurred
in the State of Texas, where the masked regulators have been extremely
active, and where the Ku Klux Klan is strongly organized. These outrages
have been so numerous in Texas as to attract the attention of the entire
country, and have caused an upheaval in the Lone Star State. Some of the
really law-abiding Texas people, who do not believe in "invisible
government" and irresponsible censorship of morals, have attempted to
secure some sort of action at the hands of the Texas legislature. Their
efforts in the summer of 1921 were not successful, one legislator even
going so far as publicly to defend the Ku Klux Klan. Other indignant
citizens announced that they would band themselves secretly together and
wage war on Ku Kluxism.
A chronological summary of the published cases of lawlessness in the
South, indicating the methods of Ku Kluxism, is as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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