The following post is a transcript of the Carbondale Free Press dated May 21, 1923. It is somewhat typical of the Klan’s approach to infiltrating its way into the good graces of local christian churches, as long as those churches weren’t Catholic, that is. This area during the early 1920’s, was wrought with bootleggers born out of prohibition, prostitution, gambling houses and gang warfare. Much of the system of authority and law enforcement were on the take and useless against these elements. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Ku Klux Klan
What is believed to be the first initiation of the Ku Klux Klan within the confines of Williamson County since the days of the Bloody Vendetta, took place in a meadow south of Mission or Rascal Ridge schoolhouse shortly after midnight Saturday morning. Some 1500 to 2000 clansmen from Carbondale, Johnston City and other points had gathered to initiate two hundred candidates from various points in Williamson and Franklin County into the mysteries of the order. It is said that many of the candidates who took the oath of the Knights of the Flaming Cross last night are Marion residents, and that the roster of Marion includes many of the city’s most prominent citizens. Continue reading
In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan, “a movement dedicated to organized intolerance,” was revived near Atlanta, Georgia, after a dormancy of forty-five years. The Klan appeared to be a small and harmless order, predicated on southern sentimentalism and mild patriotism, until 1920-21, when its organization and national officers were changed. From then on, its spread was rapid. Continue reading
The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six veterans of the Confederate Army. Ku Klux Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement during the Reconstruction era in the United States. As a secret vigilante group, the KKK targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. Continue reading