“The eye that never sleeps has been seeking out those in our city who have acted in a manner displeasing to the Invisible Empire. There is in Central City a nigger wench named Nancy Ware who has been saying evil things against our brother, George Parker. In the name of our sacred order, and in the furtherance of our supreme duty of preservation of white supremacy, she is being watched and will be treated so as to end her dangerous utterances.”
At this statement a robed figure that, even under the disguise, seemed to resemble him who had been “defamed” by Nancy Ware’s tongue nodded approvingly. The Kligrapp continued after a pause:
“Word has also come to us from Brothers Ed Stewart and Taylor that there’s a young nigger named Tom Tracy out this way who’s going around among the niggers saying that they have got to stop white people from robbing them on their crops. Tracy hasn’t done anything but talk thus far, but we will keep our eye on him and stop him if he talks too much.” Cowled heads nodded approvingly.
“And then there’s a nigger doctor who came in my office I mean, he went into the office of Health Commissioner Lane—and had the gall to repo’t the death of a nigger bootlegger and say that a white man had killed him for fooling around with the nigger’s wife. This nigger’s daddy was one of the best niggers that ever lived here in this town, and this boy’s keeping away from the other trouble-making niggers, but we’ve got to watch all these niggers that’s been spoiled by goin’ to school.” He added, as an afterthought: “… up Nawth.”
And so he droned on. Negroes, two Jews, three men suspected of Catholic leanings—all were condemned by the self-appointed arbiters of morals and manners. One or two men were singled out as violating the code of morals by consorting with Negro women. There was not much to report on this score, as those who were violating this rule in Central City had rushed, on formation of a Klan there, to join the order, that they might gain immunity from attack and yet continue their extra-legal activities without check or interference. With the conclusion of the Kligrapp’s report, the meeting dispersed, the members silently entered the woods and there disrobing, and scattering to their various homes. Some went towards “Factoryville,” some towards the country districts, others climbed into automobiles parked near the road and drove towards the residential section of Central City where lived the more affluent merchants and other upper-class whites of the town.
The place was soon deserted. The ceremony had been a strange mixture of the impressive and the absurd. There was underneath the ridiculously worded language, the amusing childlike observance of the empty ceremonies, the queer appearance of the robes all designed alike with little regard for fatness or thinness of the prospective wearers, a seriousness which betokened a belief in the urgent need of their organizing in such a manner. They had been duped so long by demagogues, deluded generation after generation into believing their sole hope of existence depended on oppression and suppression of the Negro, that the chains of the ignorance and suppression they sought to fasten on their Negro neighbours had subtly bound them in unbreakable fashion. They opposed every move for better educational facilities for their children, for improvement of their health or economic status or welfare in general, if such improvement meant better advantages for Negroes.
Creatures of the fear they sought to inspire in others, their lives are lived in constant dread of the things of evil and terror they preached. It is a system based on stark, abject fear—fear that he whom they termed inferior might, with opportunity, prove himself not inferior. This unenlightened viewpoint rules men throughout the South like those who formed the Central City Klan—dominates their every action or thought—keeps the whites back while the Negro—in spite of what he suffers—always keeps his face towards the sun of achievement. …
In spite of the secrecy surrounding the meeting, next morning all Central City talked of what had taken place on the previous evening. In such a town, where little diversion exists, the inhabitants seize with avidity upon every morsel of news that promises entertainment. Though they had taken fearful oaths of secrecy, it was asking too much of human frailty to expect three hundred men to refrain even from mysterious hints of their doings. With the love that simple minds have of the clandestine, the midnight secrecy, the elaborately arranged peregrinations to the place of meeting, the safeguards adopted by the leaders not so much to prevent interference as to impress their followers, the “inviolable oath,” the grips and passwords—all these added to the human desire to be considered important in the eyes of family and friends and neighbours. Thus many of the three hundred dropped hints to their wives of what had been said and done. Over back fences, at the stores on Lee Street, in the numerous places where women contrived to meet and gossip, the one topic discussed was the meeting of the night before. One told her bit of information to another, who in turn contributed her mite. Each in turn told a third and a fourth. With each telling, the ball of gossip grew, and each repetition bore artistic additions of fact or fancy designed to add to the drama of the story. By noon the compounded result assumed the proportions of a feat bordering on the heroic.
At the noonday meal, known as dinner, the men found themselves viewed in a new and admiring light by their spouses and offspring. They basked in the temporary glamour and sought to add to the fame of their midnight prowling by elaborate hints of deeds of dark and magnificent proportions.
In turn, to the Negro section of Central City were borne the tales by cooks and laundresses and maids, servants, with acutely developed ears, in the houses of the whites. Everywhere in the Negro section, in homes, on street corners, over back fences, the news was discussed by the dusky inhabitants of the town. In the eyes of a few, fear could be discerned. Most of the Negroes, however, discussed the news as they would have talked about the coming of the circus to town. Some talked loudly and in braggart fashion of what they would do if the “Kluxers” bothered them. Others examined for the hundredth time well-oiled revolvers. Most generally the feeling was a hope the Klan would not bother any coloured person—but if it did—! …