: The Modern Ku Klux Klan by Fry Henry P Henry Peck - Ku Klux Klan (1915- )

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PREFACE iii

THE MODERN KU KLUX KLAN

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.

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.

I went into this one partly because I was a joiner and was curious to see what it was all about, but principally because I thought it was a fraternal order which was actually a revival of the original Ku Klux Klan which played so important a part in the history of the South during the days of the Reconstruction. That old organization has always had a certain glamour for me as it has for every Southerner, and I could see no reason why a fraternal order commemorating the deeds of the original Klansmen should not fill a need in the country today. I knew absolutely nothing about the structure of the new Ku Klux Klan, took it on faith, and assumed that in its government and administration, it would function like any other of the standard fraternal orders. I thought, from the meager information with which I was furnished, that I was thoroughly in accord with its principles, and that it would be more or less a pleasure to belong to it.

In the case of the Ku Klux Klan I took an immediate interest in the work of the organizer, brought him into touch with prominent friends of mine whom I induced to join, and did all I could to make his work a success. Shortly afterward I was made one of the organizers, and in this capacity devoted nearly all my time for three months to the work, conferring degrees, talking to people who were in favor of the Klan and to some who were opposed, and carefully studying the entire system of organization.

The fraternal order man who can really visualize an organization is the man who absorbs its work by observation and study, and there is no better method of doing this than performing the duties of an organizer. In my work as an organizer for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, I was first impressed with the fact, that, on account of its radical nature, it was dangerous. The first thing to which a candidate is enjoined is absolute secrecy. This is carried to the utmost extremity. A newly made "citizen" must not tell his wife or his family that he belongs to the organization, and must give no hint of it to his most intimate friends and business associates. I at once saw that any movement built along such a line was dangerous, regardless of its intentions, because secrecy of this sort places upon the organization the vital necessity of receiving as members only men of the highest character whose positions and reputations in the community would be an absolute safeguard against mischief. A secret organization composed of men of a low standard of civic responsibility would be the worst thing that could get into any community.

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