The Modern Ku Klux Klan

by Henry P. Fry

The real oath or pledge of the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus reads:

“I swear to support the Constitution of the United States. I pledge myself as a Catholic citizen and Knight of Columbus, to enlighten myself fully upon my duties as a citizen and to conscientiously perform such duties entirely in the interest of my country and regardless of all personal consequences. I pledge myself to do all in my power to preserve the integrity and purity of the ballot, and to promote reverence and respect for law and order. I promise to practice my religion openly and consistently but without ostentation, and to so conduct myself in public affairs, and in the exercise of public virtue as to reflect nothing but credit upon our Holy Church, to the end that she may flourish and our country prosper to the greater honor and Glory of God.”

When one pauses to examine into the history of the old Ku Klux Klan, and the objects for which it was organized, it seems almost incredible that any organization claiming to be the “genuine original Klan” would stoop to belittle the memory of the old Klan by making capital of religious prejudice. As will be shown further along in my narrative, there were absolutely no restrictions in the old Klan as to religious belief, the Precept clearly setting forth the qualifications for membership. Nothing whatever was said about a Jew, a Catholic or a person who happened to be born in a foreign country. While I was working in Johnson City, I took into the organization an old gentleman who had been a member of the original Klan at Morristown. There is a rule that “original Klansmen” are not required to make any “donations” or pay any dues. When this old ex-Confederate soldier was taken in, it was at the end of my career as Kleagle, and as I swore him to the un-American obligation, I could not help feeling ashamed and disgusted. I had several conversations with him afterwards, and asked him specifically as to the regulations of the old Klan in reference to members. He stated positively that there were no rules whatever prohibiting Catholics and Jews from becoming Klansmen, and that one of the best men in his Den was a German who had been born in Germany. On account of the fact that he had associated intimately with Jewish and Catholic Confederate soldiers, the old gentleman expressed himself as being amazed that, in an attempt to revive the Klan, any such discrimination should be practiced.

I received a number of copies of the Protestant, for which the King Kleagle McArthur, advised me to subscribe because, he wrote, “It brings home in concrete form to them the things we have to guard against.” This paper is published in Washington, D. C., and is of the usual type of rabidly anti-Catholic publication. An examination of some of its headlines shows the character of its attacks. This paper was eagerly read by Ku Kluxes wherever it circulated and was indeed a valuable agency in securing recruits.

I also heard other Kleagles attack Catholicism, most of the attacks appealing to me as being ridiculous, one especially which stated that the Catholic Church was financially backing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It was gravely stated that the Catholics were arming the negroes of the South and that at the “right time” would join in an armed uprising to seize the country.

Considerable anti-Catholic propaganda has been and is being published in the columns of the Searchlight the official organ of the Ku Klux Klan. Among the statements I have seen was an intimation that the Catholic Church was responsible for the murder of President Abraham Lincoln. Copies of the Searchlight are sent to each Kleagle for distribution among his Klans, and I received a number of copies in my connection with the organization. In every town there is a Klansman, either paid for his services or who renders same gratuitously, who makes a speciality of getting subscribers for the Searchlight and of placing the publication on the news stands.

In the issue of August 6, 1921, the Searchlight printed on its first page an article by Rev. Caleb A. Ridley, a Baptist preacher of Atlanta, part of which stated:

“Some people seem to think that the Ku Klux Klan is a body of men who have banded together simply to oppose certain things they do not like—that they are anti-Jew, anti-Catholic, anti-negro, anti-foreign, anti-everything. But real Klansmen have no fight to make on any of these. I can’t help being what I am racially. I am not a Jew, nor a negro, nor a foreigner. I am an Anglo-Saxon white man, so ordained by the hand and will of God, and so constituted and trained that I cannot conscientiously take either my politics or religion from some secluded ass on the other side of the world.

“Now, if somebody else is a Jew, I can’t help it any more than he can. Or, if he happens to be black, I can’t help that either. If he were born under some foreign flag, I couldn’t help it, and if he wants to go clear back to Italy for his religion and his politics, I cannot hinder him; but there is one thing I can do. I can object to his un-American propaganda being preached in my home or practiced in the solemn assembly of real Americans.”

The propaganda against the Jew is being carried on as viciously as against the Catholic. In the Searchlight of July 30, 1921, there appeared on the front page a typical anti-Semitic article in the nature of a letter written from New York, and signed “American,” of which the following is an extract: