[1889] “The so-called Ku Klux organizations were formed in this state (Alabama) very soon after the return of our soldiers to their homes, following the surrender. To the best of my recollection, it was during the winter of 1866 that I first heard of the Klan in Alabama.”—Ryland Randolph. The quotations from Randolph are taken from his letters, unless his paper, the Independent Monitor, is referred to.
[1890] “This fellow Jones up at Pulaski got up a piece of Greek and originated it, and then General Forrest took hold of it.”—Nicholas Davis, in Ala. Test., p. 783.
[1891] Lester and Wilson, “Ku Klux Klan,” p. 17; Ala. Test., pp. 660, 661, 1282; accounts of members.
[1892] Ala. Test., p. 660.
[1893] “It [the Klan] originated with the returned soldiers for the purpose of punishing those negroes who had become notoriously and offensively insolent to white people, and, in some cases, to chastise those white-skinned men who, at that particular time, showed a disposition to affiliate socially with negroes. The impression sought to be made was that these white-robed night prowlers were the ghosts of the Confederate dead, who had arisen from their graves in order to wreak vengeance upon an undesirable class of white and black men.”—Randolph.
[1894] Lester and Wilson, Ch. I; Ala. Test., p. 1283 (Blackford); Somers, p. 152; oral accounts.
[1895] General Forrest was the first and only Grand Wizard.
[1896] There could not be more than two Dominions in a single congressional district.
[1897] There might be two Grand Giants in a province.
[1898] The office of Grand Ensign was abolished by the Revised and Amended Prescript, adopted in 1868. The banner was in the shape of an isosceles triangle, five feet by three, of yellow cloth with a three-inch red border. Painted on it in black was a Draco volans, or Flying Dragon, and this motto, “Quod semper, quod umbique, quod ab omnibus.” This, in a note to the Prescript, was translated, “What always, what everywhere, what by all is held to be true.”