CHAPTER IV
What is the “Invisible Empire?”
A study of the physical structure of the “Invisible Empire” necessarily starts with its corporate organization, its officers, its general method of functioning, and its ramifications throughout the United States. Although organized under the pretense that it is a “fraternal order,” a close investigation of the system reveals the fact that its activities extend in several directions. Its three principal promoters, William J. Simmons, Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler, are engaged in several lines of business all of which are closely related. The show under the main tent is the “Invisible Empire,” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., allied to which either directly or indirectly is the “Gate City Manufacturing Company,” a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Georgia for the manufacture of lodge regalia, etc., the Searchlight Publishing Company, which prints a weekly paper which is recognized by the public as the official organ of Ku Kluxism, and Lanier University, which was acquired in August, 1921, and of which William J. Simmons is the president. There is also the Clarke Realty Company in which E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler are mentioned as incorporators, the operations of which corporation are not known.
The charter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan granted by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, reads as follows:
“Georgia, Fulton County.
To the Superior Court of Said County:
The petition of W. J. Simmons, H. D. Shackleford, E. R. Clarkson, J. B. Frost, W. L. Smith, R. C. W. Ramspeck, G. D. Couch, L. M. Johnson, A. G. Dallas, W. E. Floding, W. C. Bennett, J. F. V. Saul, all of said State and County, respectfully shows:
1. That they desire for themselves, their associates and successors to be incorporated in the State of Georgia for the period of twenty years, with the right of renewal; when and as provided by law, as a patriotic, secret, social, benevolent order under the name and style of
‘Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’
2. The purpose and object of said corporation is to be purely benevolent and eleesmosynary, and there shall be no capital stock or profit or gain to the members thereof.