The Modern Ku Klux Klan

by Henry P. Fry

“Sincerely in earnest.”

When the letter was handed to Lochas, Captain Harper of the Police Department was standing inside the cafe, talking to the proprietor. Lochas opened the letter, looked at it and put it into his pocket, and thinking the matter a joke paid no attention to it. A few minutes later some negroes, who had seen the members of the Klan and recognized them for what they were, came into the cafe and their stories of the Klan caused Lochas to examine the letter more carefully and show it to the police. After delivering the message, the three members of the Klan walked out of the cafe, entered their automobiles and the three cars drove away into the night. The street was crowded at the time of the visit and hundreds of people saw the men in white robes halt their cars in front of the cafe and on the street corner, saw the messengers enter and leave the cafe and saw the cars drive away. In addition to the police captain who was on the inside of the cafe, a uniformed policeman was on duty immediately outside the door, yet neither the police nor any person present noted the license numbers of the cars or made any attempt to interfere with the visitors.

The Pensacola News in an editorial printed July 9, 1921, said:

“Good citizens expressed themselves freely today concerning the occurrence of last night and were unanimous in the opinion that in a community where the courts are open and where the law is enforced by officers chosen by the people, there is not the slightest justification or excuse for any oath-bound secret organization, setting itself up above the law and usurping the functions of the duly constituted officers of the Government, meeting in out-of-the-way places, acting in secret, and moving in disguise, setting up its own standards of right and wrong, acting as accuser, witness, judge and executioner, and that the activities of such an organization will not be tolerated in this community even if it should become necessary to appeal to Federal authorities and invoke the aid of the Government secret service men to arrest its activities.

“The opinion was freely expressed that if one body of men acting in secret can command a resident to leave the city under a veiled threat of personal injury, because the organization conceives the idea that the man is violating the prohibition law, another secret organization of men has an equal right to invite a young woman to leave town because perchance she might go in bathing in a bath costume not in accordance with the views of that organization; and another secret organization of men might call an employer to his door at midnight and give him a warning that he must raise the wages of his employees or grant them shorter working hours, or suffer personal violence.

“The activities of last night have been reported to United States, State, and county officials, who are considering what steps to take in the matter. It is made a criminal offense by city ordinance for any persons to appear in public in disguise, and police officers have been instructed to arrest any person appearing in public in disguise. It is made a crime against the United States for two or more persons to conspire against another to deprive him of his civil rights, and it is made a criminal offense by the laws of the State for two or more persons to conspire or confederate to commit a breach of peace, and the State laws prohibit a rout, which is defined to be the assembling of three or more persons for any unlawful purpose. It is believed that the laws of the United States, the State and the city are ample to arrest the activities of any secret organization of the character mentioned.”

As a result of indignation of the best citizens of Pensacola, Simmons suspended the charter of the Pensacola Klan, and offered to aid in discovering the perpetrators of the lawlessness, issuing a long statement which appeared on the front page of the Pensacola morning paper July 14, 1921, wherein he stated, with his usual sanctimonious whine that his organization stood for “the supremacy of pure Americanism without fear and without reproach,” and gave expression, in his usual bad English, to his usual platitudes.

The Pensacola News in an editorial the same day challenged the “Emperor” to aid the authorities in detecting the criminals by giving the names of the members of the local Klan so they could be called before the Grand Jury and be examined under oath, and the names of the guilty parties thereby ascertained. The News further said:

“‘Pure Americanism’ stands for equal opportunity, unabridged freedom within the law, orderly government, and the enforcement of the laws by the processes ordained by the Constitution. The anonymous communication, the ganging together of many to attack one, the affecting of a disguise, and the secret organization of men who took the law into their own hands in Pensacola on last Friday night, are the methods of the black hand, the mafia, and the nihilists. These organizations had their origin in Europe and cannot flourish upon American soil.

“There is no room beneath the Stars and Stripes for anarchy and bolshevism, for any organization that cannot afford to give the prosecuting attorneys of the Federal and State government the names of its members. The secrets of the organization will not be pried into, but the criminals will be handed over to the State for prosecution in the manner provided for by law.