I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. JOINING THE KU KLUX KLAN 12 III. MY WITHDRAWAL 17 IV. WHAT IS THE "INVISIBLE EMPIRE?" 31 V. PROPAGATION NEWS-LETTERS 52 VI. THE KU KLUX OATH 66 VII. THE KU KLUX RITUAL 82 VIII. ANTI-NEGRO PROPAGANDA 94 IX. RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA 107 X. THE ORIGINAL KU KLUX KLAN 121 XI. THE PRESCRIPT OF THE OLD KLAN 138 XII. COMPARISON OF OLD AND NEW KLANS 163 XIII. LAWLESSNESS AND CRIME 180 XIV. SIMMONS FORCED TO ACT 196 XV. SUGGESTED LEGAL REMEDIES 211 XVI. THE "WORLD'S" EXPOSURE 223 XVII. THE KLAN BEFORE CONGRESS 234 XVIII. CONCLUSION 251 THE MODERN KU KLUX KLAN CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION If the psychologist, looking over the diversified and conflicting interests and classes of the American people, attempted to find a common state of mind, he would probably discover one thing that applies to all American men, without regard to "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." He would learn that there is a common American trait possessed by the white man and the negro, the Jew and the Gentile, the Catholic and the Protestant, the native and the foreign-born--in fact by every conceivable group of the males of the United States. They are all "joiners"! One has to search far and wide for an American who does not "belong" to some sort of organization, and who would not, under proper circumstances, join another. I am a joiner-by-birth. My joining developed at the early age of ten, when I organized a secret society among the boys at school. We had an awful oath to which we swore, and in imitation of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, sealed it with our blood. We had no fees or dues, but each boy was required to contribute a copy of _Nick Carter_ or _Diamond Dick_ or _Old Cap Collier_. The organization survived a brief period and was then ruthlessly destroyed by an irate parent who disapproved of its intellectual standards. I had scarcely reached the age of twenty-one and started life in Chattanooga as a newspaper reporter, when I took up seriously the habit of joining fraternal orders. In five years I had taken degrees in practically every one to which I was eligible. I became a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, an Odd Fellow, a Red Man, a member of the Junior Order United American Mechanics, of the Royal Arcanum, of the Woodmen, an Elk, an Eagle, an Owl, and an associate member of the Theatrical Mechanics Association. The last "order" I joined was the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.