OATH OF KU KLUX KLAN[ToC]

Those who join the order must pledge blind allegiance to Constitution. They do not see.

Blind and unconditional obedience to the "constitution, laws, regulations usages and requirements" of the Ku Klux Klan, even to the extent of indorsing the principle of secret mob violence, is accepted by every person who takes the oath of Grand Wizard Simmons' Invisible Empire.

That every Klansman, under penalty of death, also agrees to carry out the mandates, degrees, edicts, rulings and "instructions" of Emperor Simmons also is shown in a reproduction of the oath as supplied by Klan organizers and officials.

The first section of this oath that carries veiled hints of violence to back it binds the members to unconditional obedience to a constitution he has never seen. Not only that but it binds him to obey any laws that may be enacted in the future, whether or not he approves of them. When he takes this obligation he gives a lease on his life to Simmons.

SWEARS TO ABSOLUTE SECRECY

Absolute secrecy even in the face of death is his second obligation and he promises that he "will pay promptly all just and legal demands made upon me to defray the expenses of my Klan when same are due or called for."

Then, with his left hand over his heart and his right hand raised to heaven and with the promise that "this oath I will seal with my blood," the candidate takes oath that he "will most zealously and valiantly shield and preserve by any and all JUSTIFIABLE means and methods (not legal means and methods) the sacred constitutional rights and privileges of free public schools, free speech, free press, separation of church and state, liberty, white supremacy, just laws and the pursuit of happiness, against any encroachment of any nature by any person or persons, political party or parties, religious sect or people, native, naturalized or foreign, of any race, color, creed, lineage or tongue whatsoever."

MYSTERY IN AUTHORITY

Who defines the permissible limits of zeal and valor is not stated. Neither is it stated who decides when schools are free, speech and press free, nor when church and state are sufficiently separated. It is not stated whether it is the individual Klansman, the local Klan, the supreme council or the Imperial Wizard.