The Modern Ku Klux Klan

by Henry P. Fry

In an address before the Bar Association of Texas in 1906, Hon. Thomas W. Gregory, later Attorney-General of the United States, gave a history of the old Klan, and in speaking of its work said:

“It is safe to say that ninety per cent of the work of the Klan involved no act of personal violence. In most instances mere knowledge of the fact that the Ku Klux were organized in the community and patrolled it by night accomplished most that was desired. In the case of nocturnal meetings of the negroes, organized by scalawags and carpetbaggers, which proved disorderly and offensive, sheeted horsemen would be found drawn up across every road leading from the meeting place; and although not a word was spoken and no violence whatever offered, that meeting was usually adjourned sine die.... But masked riders and mystery were not the only Ku Klux devices. Carpetbaggers and scalawags and their families were ostracized in all walks of life—in the church, in the school, in business, wherever men and women or even children gathered together, no matter what the purpose or the place, the alien and the renegade, and all that belonged or pertained to them were refused recognition and consigned to outer darkness and the companionship of negroes.

“In addition to these methods, there were some of a much more drastic nature. The sheeted horseman did not merely warn and intimidate, especially when the warnings were not heeded. In many instances negroes and carpetbaggers were whipped and in rare instances shot or hanged. Notice to leave the country was frequently extended and rarely declined, and if declined the results were likely to be serious. Hanging was promptly administered to the house burner and sometimes to the murderer; the defamer of women of good character was usually whipped and sometimes executed if the offense was repeated; threats of violence and oppression of the weak and defenseless if persisted in after due warning met with drastic and sometimes cruel remedies; mere corruption in public office was too universal for punishment or even comment, but he who prostituted official power to oppress the individual, a crime prevalent from one end of the country to the other, especially in cases where it affected the widow and orphan, was likely to be dealt with in no gentle way, in case a warning was not promptly observed; those who advocated and practiced social equality of the races and incited hostility of the blacks against the whites were given a single notice to depart in haste, and they rarely took time to reply.”

Whether one looks upon the methods of the Ku Klux Klan as wise and humane or as rough and cruel, the fact remains that its work was accomplished, and state governments under carpetbag control, negro militia, acts of Congress and proclamations of the President though backed by the army of the United States, made but little headway against the silent force of white men which was making a last desperate stand for all they held sacred.

Lester and Wilson in commenting on the work of the Klan, even before it was transformed into a movement of regulators say:

“The order contained within itself, by reason of the methods practiced, sources of weakness. The devices and disguises by which the Klan deceived outsiders enabled all who were so disposed, to practice deception on the Klan itself. It placed in the hands of its own members the facility to do deeds of violence for the gratification of personal feeling, and have them credited to the Klan. To evilly disposed men membership in the Klan was an inducement to wrongdoing. It presented to all men a dangerous temptation, which, in certain contingencies at any time likely to arise, it required a considerable amount of moral robustness to resist. Many did not withstand it. Up to this time, the majority had shown a fair appreciation of the responsibilities of their self-imposed task of preserving social order. But under any circumstances the natural tendency of an organization such as this is to violence and crime—much more under such circumstances as those then prevailing.”

In September, 1868, Governor Brownlow of Tennessee called the legislature into session, and caused a drastic act to be passed comparable only to the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. Under its terms association or connection with the Ku Klux Klan was punishable by a fine of $500 and imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years. Any inhabitant of the State was constituted an officer possessing power to arrest without process any one known to be or suspected of being a member of the organization; and to feed, lodge or conceal a member was made a criminal offense punishable by fine and imprisonment, and informers were allowed one-half the fine. In spite of this drastic law, the Klan continued to actively operate in Tennessee for over six months.

Partly because of this law, and partly because of the fact that in many cases some of the “Dens” had gone beyond their instructions in coping with the situation, and were showing a tendency to get beyond the control of the men who were trying to conduct the movement honestly, but principally because the purpose of its regulation work had been accomplished and there remained no reason for its existence, General Forrest, in the latter part of February, 1869, issued a proclamation as Grand Wizard declaring the Ku Klux Klan dissolved and disbanded.

The substance of his order is included in his summary which reads:

“The Invisible Empire has accomplished the purpose for which it was organized. Civil law now affords ample protection to life, liberty and property; robbery and lawlessness are no longer unrebuked; the better elements of society are no longer in dread for the safety of their property, their persons, and their families. The Grand Wizard, being invested with power to determine questions of paramount importance, in the exercise of the power so conferred, now declares the Invisible Empire and all the subdivisions thereof dissolved and disbanded forever.”