Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama

by Walter L. Fleming

The order continued to spread after the reorganization in 1867. There were scattered Dens over north Alabama and as far south as Tuscaloosa, Selma, and Montgomery. It came first to the towns and then spread into the country. It was less and less an obscure organization, and more and more a band of regulators, using mystery, disguise, and secrecy to terrify the blacks into good behavior. It was in many ways a military organization, the shadowy ghost of the Confederate armies.[1909] The whites were all well-trained military men; they looked to their military chieftains to lead them. The best men were members,[1910] though the prominent politicians as a rule did not belong to the order. They fought the fight against the Radicals on the other side of the field.[1911]

After the elections in February, 1868, the Ku Klux came into greater prominence in Alabama, especially in the northern and western portions, while south Alabama was still quiet.[1912]

The counties of north Alabama infested were Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison, Jackson, Morgan, Lawrence, Franklin, Madison, Winston, Walker, Fayette, and Blount. In central Alabama, Montgomery, Greene, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Calhoun, Talladega, Randolph, Chambers, Coosa, and Tallapoosa.[1913] There were bands in most of the other counties, and in the counties of the Black Belt. The order seldom extended to the lower edge of the Black Belt. In the Black Belt it met the Knights of the White Camelia, the White Brotherhood, and later the White League, and in a way absorbed them all.[1914]

The actual number of the men in regular organized Dens cannot be ascertained. It was estimated that there were 800 in Madison County, and 10,000 in the state.[1915] Others said that it included all Confederate soldiers.[1916] The actual number regularly enrolled was much less than the number who acted as Ku Klux when they considered it necessary. In one sense practically all able-bodied native white men belonged to the order, and if social and business ostracism be considered as a manifestation of the Ku Klux spirit, then the women and children also were Ku Klux.

It is the nature and vice of secret societies of regulators to degenerate, and the Ku Klux Klan was no exception to the rule. By 1869 the order had fallen largely under control of a low class of men who used it to further their own personal aims, to wreak revenge on their enemies and gratify personal animosities. Outrages became frequent, and the order was dangerous even to those who founded it.[1917] It had done its work. The negroes had been in a measure controlled, and society had been held together during the revolution of 1865-1869. The people were still harassed by many irritations and persecutions, but while almost unbearable, they were mostly of a nature to disappear in time as the carpet-bag governments collapsed. The most material evil at present was the misgovernment of the Radicals, and this could not last always. But though the organized Ku Klux Klan was disbanded, the spirit of resistance was higher than ever; and as each community had problems to deal with they were met in the old manner—a sporadic uprising of a local Klan. As long as a carpet-bagger was in power, the principles of the Klan were asserted.

The Knights of the White Camelia

The order known as the Knights of the White Camelia originated in Louisiana in 1867,[1918] and spread from thence through the Gulf states. In Alabama it was well organized in the southwestern counties, and to some extent throughout the lower Black Belt. It probably did not exist in the southeastern white counties.[1919] The former local vigilance committees, neighborhood patrol parties, and disbanded militia were absorbed into the order, which gave them a uniform organization and a certain loose union, and left them pretty much as independent as before. There was a closer sympathy between southwest Alabama and Louisiana than between the two sections of Alabama, which perhaps will account for the failure of Ku Klux Klan to organize in the southern counties. The White Camelia came to Alabama from New Orleans via Mobile, and also through southern Mississippi to southwestern Alabama. Later the White League came the same way.

In June 1868 a convention of the Knights of the White Camelia was held in New Orleans, and a constitution was adopted for the order.[1920] The preamble stated that Radical legislation was subversive of the principles of government adopted by the fathers, and in order to secure safety and prosperity the order was founded for the preservation of those principles. The order consisted of a Supreme Council of the United States, and of Grand, Central, and Subordinate councils. The Supreme Council with headquarters in New Orleans consisted of five delegates from each Grand Council. It was the general legislative body of the order, and maintained communication within the order by means of passwords and cipher correspondence. Communication between and with the lowest organizations was verbal only. All officers were designated by initials.[1921]

In each state the Grand Council[1922] was the highest body, and held its sessions at the state capital. The membership consisted of delegates from the Central Councils—one delegate for one thousand members. The Grand Council had the power of legislation for the state, subject to the constitution of the order and the laws of the Supreme Council. In each county or parish there was a Central Council of delegates from Subordinate Councils.[1923] It was charged with the duty of collecting the revenue and extending the order within its limits. The lowest organization was the Council (or Subordinate Council) in a community. This body had sole authority to initiate members. In each county the Subordinate Councils were designated by numbers. Each was composed of several Circles (each under a Grand Chief); each Circle of five Groups (each under a Chief); and each Group of ten Brothers. Officials of the order were elected by indirect methods. An ex-member states that “during the three years of its existence here [Perry County] I believe its organization and discipline were as perfect as human ingenuity could have made it.”[1924]

The constitution prohibited the order as a body from nominating or supporting any candidate or set of candidates for public office. Each subordinate rank had the right of local legislation. Quarterly reports were made by each division. The officers of the higher councils were known only to their immediate subordinates. When a question came up that could not be settled it was referred to the next higher council.