The Modern Ku Klux Klan

by Henry P. Fry

Anti-Negro Propaganda

I am a white man.

I believe that the United States is a white man’s country.

By all the instincts and traditions of my race, I believe that the United States having been created by white men will be ruled by white men. I do not believe that this doctrine applies merely to Tennessee and the rest of the Southern States, but to the entire country. In spite of innumerable criticisms hurled against the South in its handling of the negro, the entire country is gradually beginning to see that the South is right, because the South has demonstrated that the white race and the black race can live side by side and work side by side without friction. In cases where there is friction, the cause does not come from the best leadership of the South, as will be shown later on.

Experience has shown that the two races get along better when they are segregated. I expect to live to see the day when the people of the North provide separate schools for white and negro children, when negroes will not be elected to public office by white votes, and when politicians who cater to negro votes are sent to political oblivion. That such a condition will exist, I feel sure, but it will not be brought about by such organizations as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. It will come through an enlightenment of public opinion.

The activities of the Ku Klux Klan along the lines of race prejudice are the activities of the “professional Southerner,” the political demagogue, and the sentiment of the “poor white” of the South. They are typical of the political spirit that has kept the South in bondage for thirty years, a spirit that has sent mediocre politicians to Congress and to other high offices, while abler men were shoved into the background.

The professional negro-baiter of the South has been greatly assisted by white people and negroes in the North, and I believe that the most valuable propaganda work for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan which has been done along racial lines has been that of Senator Boies Penrose, of Pennsylvania. If Senator Penrose had been on the pay-roll of the Ku Klux Klan, and had been completely wrapped up in the success of the movement, he could not have secured more members than he did by issuing a statement to his negro constituents that the time had come to accord complete equality to the negro race. Of course Senator Penrose did not mean any such thing, but a public statement that he favored an equal rights’ bill then pending at Harrisburg was a pleasant sop to the negro voters of Philadelphia who immediately saw visions of the dining room of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and the Adelphia. The fact that the members of the Pennsylvania legislature quickly and very quietly choked the bill to death showed the real sentiment of the white people of the State. The result in the South, however, was highly inflammatory. Carried by the Associated Press to every paper, its effect upon the minds of the people, especially the ignorant and uneducated, was like pouring gasoline on a hot stove. I am told that the enrollments of the Klan in the States comprising the “Black Belt” jumped by leaps and bounds, indicating that the ambitious Kleagles, looking for their four dollars a head, worked overtime in the use of the Penrose article.

Another piece of political clap-trap that aided the Ku Klux organizers was the action of the Speaker of the House, in the New Jersey legislature, in permitting a negro to occupy the speaker’s chair during part of the last session. This was duly featured in the newspapers, and the Ku Klux Klan’s workers very promptly asked the question: “Do you want this sort of thing to happen again in the South?” The answer came back most emphatically, “We do not.” “Then give me your ten dollars and sign here,” the organizer would reply. If there is a negro in the legislature of New Jersey, he was elected by white voters.

The periodical attempt of fanatical members of Congress to reduce the South’s representation in that body on the ground that the negro is not permitted to vote have generally been featured in the newspapers, and much capital made of them by demagogic politicians. These things have aided the campaign of the Klan.

Another powerful recruiting force for the Ku Klux organization is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, not “colored people” but “peoples,” meaning no doubt people of all races except the white race. This organization through its press agency has issued statement after statement that has been eagerly taken up by the few papers that openly advocate Ku Kluxism, and used as effective propaganda in securing more members.