Masaryk university in brno faculty of education

3.2 A Personality of a Klansman

As C. P. Ellis, former member of KKK avows in his interview, he joined Ku Klux Klan, because he was in a need of belonging somewhere. He had no education, worked hard every day but he did not earn enough money to afford his family a dignified life. They were very poor, never had enough money for living and he felt responsible for it. His situation seemed to be hopeless and as he said that he did not have a motivation to get up in the morning and go to work.

Later he started to ask himself, how is it possible, when someone works 50 hours a week and still does not have enough money for food? How can the government or even the country let something similar happened? Soon, he felt he needs to blame someone. He could not blame the country, because he could not see it as a living thing, so his anger and hatred turned against African- Americans. The Blacks, who took a possibility to work away from whites and who, according to him, did not have even the smallest right to live in the same country as whites. Ellis mentioned that he needed to be a part of something and he wanted to share his opinion and beliefs with someone. And joining the Ku Klux Klan was the easiest way how to express himself. In 50’s and 60’s, Ku Klux Klan was on its peak, for it fought very strongly against the Civil Rights Movement. C. P. Ellis soon became a very important person in the hierarchy of the Klan. His life had an order again, a sense and a reason. He put all his desperation and the feeling of uselessness into the fight against the integration of African- Americans. ²⁴

Ellis felt very important for the society, because the local government secretly supported the Klan, which was invited every time, when there was a demonstration or some kind of protest against the segregation. As he said, until he joined the Ku Klux Klan, he was no one. But since then, he had many friends among the executives of the city and he felt respected.

As he was older and has functioned in the Klan for very long time, his opinions changed slowly and he visited a few of the meetings of African- Americans, where the desegregation was discussed. At first, he laughed at them and joined a meeting primarily to expose them. But he slowly changed his mind and started to work with them and cooperate. He admitted that he hated Black people and it was very difficult for him to even talk to them. ²⁵

According to James Vander Zadnen, in “Klan Revival”, the most of members of KKK were workers with almost no or low education. But in the hierarchy of the Klan, it was not important, what a man makes in his real life. According to the handbook of the U.S. Klans, everyone was invited to join the Klan. The only important thing was what he believed in.

“We invite all men who can qualify to become citizens of the Invisible Empire, to approach the portal of our beneficent domain, join us in our noble work of extending its boundaries, and in disseminating the gospel of Klankraft, there-by encouraging, conserving, protecting and making vital the fraternal relationship in the practice of an honorable clannishness; to share with us the sacred duty of protecting womanhood; to maintain forever the God-given supremacy of the White Race; to commemorate the holy and chivalric achievement of our fathers; to safe guard the sacred rights, privileges and institutions of our civil government; to bless mankind and to keep eternally a blaze the sacred fire of a fervent devotion to a pure Americanism.”²⁶

As the membership list was not available, the members were safe, because no one could tell their names. A feeling of anonymity allowed members to act in very brutal way without the fear of punishment. It gave them a feeling of anonymity, so they could act in a very brutal way without the fear to be punished. But later, from some sources and research, names and the positions of members in the hierarchy of the Klan were published:
“They fall into four occupational groups: (1) skilled workers (e.g., garage mechanics, machinists, carpenters, and stonemasons); (2) marginal, small businessmen (e.g., small building-trade con-tractors and proprietors of food markets, grills, and gasoline stations); (3) marginal white-collar workers (e.g., grocery-store clerks, service-station attendants, police-men, and salesmen); and (4) transportation workers (primarily truck drivers) and unskilled and semiskilled workers in the textile, construction, automotive, aircraft, coal, and steel industries”²⁷
The members of the Klan found their identity in the group of people with same opinion and beliefs by pointing out the differences between whites and Black people and emphasizing the qualities and exceptionality of the white race. They also got their self- confidence by identifying themselves with something beyond, with some greater truth that overhangs them- The Invisible Empire. It gave them their status, so they could know who they are and they could take the new identity, as Vander Zanden describes in his article:

“The Ku Klux Klan is the only white Christian Protestant 100 per cent American organization in America today. . . . Klansmen are the cleanest and most perfect people on earth.”²⁸

They put themselves into the position of protectors of the real and true American identity and its real values and proclaimed that they have to protect themselves against the enemies, which were mainly African- Americans and their Civil Rights Movement in that time. They proclaimed that they followed Bible and Christianity but usually they took one or more sentences from the Bible and changed its meaning.

3.3 Ku Klux Klan of 50’s and 60’ in general

As said before, the Ku Klux Klan of this period fought mainly against the integration of African- Americans. The strongest and the most influential group was UKA- United Klans of America. It was based in Tuscaloosa in Alabama and headed by Robert Shelton, who was later in 60’s sentenced to prison for several crimes connected with activities of the Klan, e. g. he did not want to provide the list of members of UKA.²⁹ The UKA most numbered and active part was in North Carolina. It is said that in the year 1965, it had about 12 000 members.

Everyone could join UKA or any other fraction of KKK, they just had to pay 10$ as an initiation fee and 15$ for a robe was enough. After that, a man could join so called street walks, night walks and all other activities. A street walks took place in the daytime, when robed and helmeted members walked down the street of the town spreading fear and panic around and proclaimed themselves as the “security guard”. At night, they usually picked a house of some African- American; they took a big wooden cross and set it on fire in front of the victim’s house. The victims knew that they came for them. Klan members usually took their victims and drove them out of the city. Then, they tortured them, lynched them in a very cruel way. At the end, they let them slowly died or they hanged them or drowned them.³⁰

Very important factor of the expansion of the Klan in this time was that this organization was not illegal. Many of the representatives in the local government supported the activities of the Klan, although secretly, because they were afraid of losing their positions. C. P. Ellis also describes in his interview that he was often asked to come and express Klan’s opinions, when there was some meeting of African- Americans.³¹ It can be also seen in the case of bombing of the Sixteen Street Baptist Church, where four children were killed and many people were hurt. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, who committed that crime, was not found guilty for killing someone, only for keeping explosive. The reason, why the court was not looking for truth, is obvious. The jury consisted of white men, who had no interest in supporting the integration of African- Americans.

The same happened in the case of a murder of Emmet Till. Two white men were accused of killing 14 years old boy but they were found not guilty, because of lack of the evidence. In fact, it was quite clear that they killed him but the jury sympathized with them and because of that they set them free. ³²

The justice was not fair in the cases concerning Black citizens. This is one of the reasons, why process of the integration went so slowly. Later, some cases were reopened and the truth showed itself.