THE KUKLUX KLAN
AND
“THE BIRTH OF A NATION”
BY MRS. S. E. F ROSE, WEST POINT, MISS.
The wonderful photo play entitled “The Birth of a Nation,” which portrays so vividly
the KuKlux Klan, has done more in a few months’ time to arouse interest in that organization
than all the articles written on the subject during the last forty years. We have been told that
“the pen is mightier than the sword”; but it seems that the silent language of the photo
drama has proved more powerful than all else in bringing about a realization of “things as they
were” during Reconstruction in the South, the era immediately following the War between the States.
Those pictured scenes in “The Birth of a Nation” have, like a flame of fire, burned into the
hearts of men and women and left an impression stamped too deep ever to be eradicated. And so the
presentation of this great play has accomplished untold good, for people are now beginning to understand
the terrible conditions existing in the South during Reconstruction which made the KuKlux Klan a necessity.
People everywhere are now seeking the true history of the Klan, its origin, objects, and mission, and the
South should be prepared to furnish these facts while the information is being so eagerly sought.
The question has been asked: “Does not ‘The Birth of a Nation’ exaggerate? Does it
present conditions as they really were?” Only those who lived through Reconstruction days can
answer that question, and the answer has been given by a devoted woman of the Confederacy who, after
seeing the play, remarked: “It does not tell half enough of the horrors of those dark days.”
Reconstruction is a word that can hardly be spoken even yet without a thrill of terror by those who were
witnesses of those scenes and came under the dark cloud that enveloped the Southland
during “reconstruction,” or, rather, “destruction,” which has been suggested
by an eminent Southern writer as a more appropriate term. All seemed blackness and despair until the
Ku Klux Klan appeared upon the scene, bringing a ray of hope and affording relief from a situation
which threatened greater horrors than the war itself. Does not the Southland owe a debt of gratitude
to the brave men who composed that organization and who rode side by side with death during the darkest
hour in the South’s history to redeem the land from carpetbag and negro rule? The only way to pay
that debt is to vindicate completely those heroes before the world by producing the facts and placing
them before our boys and girls of today, who will be our citizens of tomorrow and at the head of State
and national affairs.
The KuKlux Klan was a creation born of necessitous times, and it was a most potent factor in bringing
help to the South in her hour of dire distress and furnishing relief that could have come in no other way.
And yet no organization has been so grossly maligned, misjudged, and misunderstood. The KuKlux Klan has
also been called “The Invisible Empire,” and so effectively did it carry out its purposes
that it might also have appropriately been called “The Invincible Empire.” In order to have a
proper appreciation of this great movement, there are some fundamental and vital principles upon which the
Klan was founded that should be carefully considered in order that the deep significance of the Klan may be
revealed.
FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES.
Patriotism, justice, humanity, protection, preservation of real law and good government, and the
establishment of white supremacy forever. While the charge has been made that the Klan was
unlawful—and, in one sense of the word, this is true—in a higher sense it was
lawful, for the laws of the land had been diverted from their original purposes and trampled
underfoot by ignorant and vicious negroes and adventurers who were unable properly to interpret
the laws and unfit to enforce them. The KuKlux Klan was organized to meet these conditions,
to resist lawlessness, to defend justice, to preserve the integrity of the white race, and to
enforce civil and racial law. No braver men were ever banded together, no grander brotherhood
ever existed, than the original KuKlux Klan. These men were true patriots animated by a noble
spirit and possessing ideals as high as ever entered into the mind of man to conceive.
BIRTHPLACE OF THE KLAN.
Pulaski, Giles County, Tenn., was the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, which came into being and was
perfected during the winter and spring of 1866. This town was noted for the culture and refinement
of its people, a town of schools and colleges and churches, of the most elevating social, religious,
and educational influences, and not a community that would likely produce cutthroats or desperadoes
or engender an organization with low, ignoble, or evil purposes. Amid these environments, all
elevating and refining, the KuKlux Klan originated and was started on its great mission to protect
the Southland, rescue it from its enemies, and place it on the highest plane of Caucasian civilization.
Pulaski always remained in a way headquarters for the Klan, as many of its prominent officers and
members and all of its originators lived there. Pulaski has always felt the greatest pride that fit
was the birthplace of the Klan, which was destined to play such a prominent and valuable part in
Southern history.
CHARTER MEMBERS.
There were six charter members of the KuKlux Klan, as follows: John C. Lester, Richard R. Reed,
John Booker Kennedy, Frank O. McCord, Calvin Jones, James R. Crowe. Their names should be written
in letters of light on Fame’s immortal scroll. They were all men of education, of culture,
refined taste, and good ancestry; men of moral and social standing, of intelligence and sterling
character, and all had served their country during the four years of war and had honorable records
as Confederate soldiers. They first organized as a social club to hold meetings for recreation and
social intercourse, to relieve the tedium and monotony following the stirring scenes and activities
of war. However, they soon directed their object into more useful channels. They were confronted with
the fact that the newly acquired freedom of the negro, this sudden elevation to power, and the bad
advice given him by carpetbaggers and scalawags were making of the negro a very undesirable and
dangerous citizen. These men knew perfectly the characteristics of the negro; they knew that
superstition entered largely into his makeup and that through that dominating element in his nature
they would be able to control him. They knew that the mere mention of “ghosts”
and “graveyards” would have a very salutary effect in keeping the negro in his
proper place.
So the KuKlux Klan made the negroes believe that they were the spirits of their dead masters and
had come direct from the spirit world to admonish them for their wrongdoings and to punish them
if they refused to obey. The effect was wonderful—indeed, almost miraculous—and the
anticipation of a visit from these “ghosts” would subdue even the most maliciously inclined.
All that was weird, mysterious, and aweinspiring in costumes, conversations, signs, and passwords was used
by these midnight riders to hold the negroes in abeyance and thus counteract the evil influences of the
carpetbagger and low politicians who were using the negro as a tool for their evil purposes and to get the
reins of government in their own hands.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
The significant name “KuKlux” was really coined by the charter members. It was suggested that the
Greek word “KuKlos,” meaning a circle, be given the organization. This finally was
called “KuKlux,” and later Klan was added, making the three K’s, or “KuKlux Klan,”
which became so historic and significant. “The Invisible Empire,” another name for the Klan, was
given because of the sudden manner in which the Klan appeared and disappeared, leaving the impression, as
expressed by the negroes, that “the KuKlux riz from the ground”; disappearing with equal suddenness,
it appeared as if the ground had opened and swallowed them. Many ruses were adopted by the KuKlux to scare the
negroes into submission, and they always had the desired effect. For instance, such as asking for a drink of
water and disposing quickly of several bucketfuls at a time, the Klansman remarking that it was the first
drink he had had “since the battle of Manassas” or Shiloh or some other famous battle, when in
reality the water went into a rubber bag concealed beneath the costume.
They would also remove their heads and hand them to the negroes to hold while they were drinking water.
This was done by having a skull on top of the head, which was covered by a sheet. Then oftentimes they
would offer to shake hands and ride off, leaving a skeleton hand with the negroes as a pleasing souvenir
of their visits. These and many other devices that only a KuKlux could conceive of aroused such terror among
the negroes that they would flee to the woods, only the whites of their eyes being visible.
The titles of the officers of the organization were all weird and uncanny, such as Grand Wizard, Grand Dragon,
Grand Giant, Grand Cyclops, and many others, and the private members were called “Ghouls.” The
banner of the KuKlux Klan, of triangular shape, yellow with red border, carrying a fierce black dragon with
fiery tongue and the inscription, “Quod semper, quod ubique, et quod ab ominibus,” was another
symbol of terror. The costumes were weird and fantastic. No uniform color was used, and so they varied in the
different States. All white was a favorite, as it carried out the “ghost” idea; but red, yellow,
and even black were used, according to the taste of the individual or the “Den,” as the meeting
place of each Klan was called. The costumes were made by the devoted women of the Southland—the wives,
mothers, and sweethearts—who were always in the confidence of the KuKlux Klan. They were made with their
own fingers and concealed in some specified place, and the KuKlux knew just where to find them after nightfall.
LEADERS OF THE KLAN.
Gen. George W. Gordon,
† of Confederate fame, was one of the
Klan’s early and wise leaders. He prepared the oath and ritual for the Klan and furnished a safe chart for
them to follow in their dangerous work. In the fall of 1866 the Klan had spread with amazing rapidity, covering
nearly all the Southern States; and Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the great Confederate cavalry leader, was
made “Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire.” The oath was administered to him by Capt. John W.
Morton, afterwards Secretary of State of Tennessee, in Room No. 10 of the Maxwell House, Nashville, Tenn.,
and the Klan moved forward in its great work of rescue and protection. In 1869 General Forrest gave the
order for disbandment, believing that the mission of the Klan had been accomplished, and the mighty Invisible
Empire, not by force, but voluntarily, disbanded.
†
The Klansmen folded their tents like the Arabs and silently passed from view. Their great mission of
protection for the homes and women of the Southland had been accomplished, and these uncrowned heroes of the
Southland desired no other reward.
WRONG IMPRESSIONS.
The KuKlux have been called cowards because they acted under disguise. Existing conditions must again be considered
to explain this. ExConfederates were denied the right of the ballot, of testifying in court, and of carrying firearms.
There were negro soldiers, legislators, and magistrates. Carpetbaggers held the reins of government, and to have acted
in the open would have been equivalent to offering their arms for handcuffs and being sent to some Northern prison,
there to languish and die, leaving loved vies at home at the mercy of despots and ruffians. The secrecy they were
compelled to use also made it possible for evil men to assume the disguise of the KuKlux and to perpetrate wicked
deeds that the real KuKlux did not permit. The real KuKlux were opposed to taking human life and never did so
except as a last resort. The KuKlux have also been compared to the “night riders.” This is entirely
wrong, for the latter destroyed lives and property’ and carried out private vengeance and hatreds; but the
KuKlux protected lives and property whenever it was possible to do so.
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE KLAN.
Several lessons were taught by the Klan which are so plain that “he that runs may read”:
1. The inevitability of AngloSaxon supremacy. This was firmly established for all time by these brave men
when every attempt was being made to trample white civilization underfoot.
2. The courage and patriotism of the Confederate soldier, tried on hundreds of battle fields. Returning home
to desolation and poverty, he rose to meet an emergency during Reconstruction that called for most heroic action.
3. That truth will at last prevail. The KuKlux Klan was founded on truth and honor; and now, after more than
half a century has passed, the complete vindication of the Klan is being witnessed, bringing to mind the words
of the poet:
“Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain
And dies among his worshipers.”
The KuKlux Klan was born in mystery, lived in mystery, and mystery will ever enshroud its grave.
As Minerva sprang from the brain of Jupiter clad in complete ,armor, so from the bosom of the Southland in a night,
as it were, sprang this vast invisible, invincible army composed of the brave men of the South, fully armed and
equipped, to redeem the land from oppression and destruction Let parents see to it that respect for the KuKlux
Klan is impressed upon the minds and hearts of their children, and thus will a monument be erected to those
Southern heroes more enduring than marble or bronze.
NOTE.—This article was written for the VETERAN by special request. Original letters of charter
members, documents, and affidavits now in the possession of the writer verify all the statements
made.—EDITOR.
Source: Confederate Veteran, Apr 1916, pp. 157-159
