NIGHT-RIDING INVADERS
By
Roy Thompson
Printed and Distributed by
The Western North Carolina
Conference Board
of Social and Economic Relations of
The Methodist Church
Night-Riding Invaders
serially in the
first
appeared
Winston-Salem Journal,
in
Febuary, 1958.
The Conference Board
of
Social
and
Economic Relations expresses appreciation
to the
Journal
these articles.
for permission to reprint
—
Klansmen Come Bearing
Arms, Singing Hymns
Night-riding Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have invaded North
Carolina from the south.
Klansmen have organized little Klans called Klaverns across
the Piedmont and into Virginia.
Charlotte is the headquarters, and there are North Carolinians
in the Klaverns.
But most of the orders come from Marion, S. C, or from Atlanta, Ga.
North Carolina furnishes the infantry; South Carolina and
Georgia, the commanding generals.
North Carolina gets the international reputation for racial and
—
—
religious persecutions.
South Carolina and Georgia get the money.
The Klan is led by a handful of professional patriots, moneyhungry opportunists and onetime jailbirds only recently converted
into part-time preachers.
They have come into North Carolina
"peaceably to assemble."
demanding
their rights
But they have come bearing arms.
They have come into North Carolina singing "The Old Rugged
Cross."
But they have
come burning
crosses.
They Attack Jews
They have come making speeches and circulating printed lies
that attack North Carolina's Jewish citizens.
And they've done it with prayers on their lips entreating God's
blessing on their cause in the name of a Jew named Jesus.
They are few in number, but they have come to be regarded
as a mighty host.
The mystery that surrounds the Knights of the Invisible Empire
has whetted the public's curiosity. Curiosity as to who or what
lies shrouded in the anonymity of white robe and dark of night.
One robed and hooded ditch-digger can stroll down a lonely
street and produce more excitement than could a half-dozen brass
bands.
So the Klan has gotten a great deal of attention from newspapers,
radio stations and television stations during its current bid for
a new foothold in North Carolina.
Newsmen from metropolitan areas have come and have joined
Tar Heel reporters in their lonely vigils at poorly-attended
rallies in widely-scattered and wind-swept fields.
The result from Manteo and Murphy to Moscow is that North
Carolina's Klan has been seen through a magnifying glass.
—
—
KKK
—
—
1
For a clearer picture that puts the hooded hoodlums in their
proper perspective, just peek under the sheets of the Klan
It was born in the Reconstruction Days of 1867
a time of
tumult, a time of lawlessness, a time of rule by the recently-ruled.
—
Methods Were
.
.
.
Illegal
In four years, the Klan had 40,000 recruits in the state. All
were North Carolinians. South Carolinians and Georgians of that
day had troubles enough at home.
That Klan maintained order in a chaotic state. Its methods were
illegal and sometimes brutal.
Today's historians, however, generally agree that
it
did a job
that had to be done.
When home rule was re-established, Reconstruction Klansmen
returned their sheets to their beds and left government and law
enforcement in the hands of the officials they'd elected.
The Klan rose again after World War I.
Its purpose was never so clear as it had been in 1867.
Some Klansmen said they were fighting "foreigners." Others
were defending "white Protestantism" against such varied foes as
Negroes, Catholics, Jews and labor union organizers.
The movement attracted leading citizens throughout the state,
and, while it accomplished nothing useful, it generally shunned
the violence that gave Deep South Klanism a bad name throughout the world.
Internal scandals finished the Klan of the Twenties.
The onetime service organization had deteriorated into a moneymaking gimmick; William Joseph Simmons, a jackleg Methodist
preacher from Atlanta, was taking in $50,000 on good days; the
scent of money on the breeze attracted a new breed of man into
the Invisible Empire.
Sheets Back to Beds
National scandals revealed de-robed and de-hooded Klan leaders
as men more interested in making money than in making the
nation safe for white Protestants.
The sheets went back to the beds once more.
But the memory of a gold mine dies hard.
The last shots of World War II were still echoing in the distance
when Samuel Green, an Atlanta obstetrician, revived the Klan
and staked his claim on first-comer rights to the gravy.
In December 1949, Grand Dragon Thomas L. Hamilton of Leesville, S. C, set up a Klavern in Mecklenburg County as a nucleus
for the new North Carolina Klan.
Note that address Leesville, South Carolina.
:
Grand Dragon Hamilton and his hooded underlings made little
headway elsewhere in the state, but they soon built a lusty Klan
organization in and around Columbus County, and by 1952 its
night-riding against Negroes and Communists had attracted worldwide attention to North Carolina.
2
Klansmen in the Columbus area kidnaped, flogged and burned
for two long years.
Almost without exception, their victims were white Democrats
or white Republicans.
They bothered few Negroes they never uncovered a Communist.
The terror ended when federal agents convicted more than 100
;
persons on Klan-connected charges and Grand Dragon Hamilton
led a Klan march into prison.
Klanism was once more dead, but as Judge Don Gilliam said
during one of the trials in 1953
"It has a strange way of coming to life."
New
Life for Klan
The Supreme Court's segregation decision in May 1954 breathed
life into the Klan the gold rush was on again.
Today, two major Klan groups and two or three lesser organiza-
new
;
tions are squaring off to fight for the lion's share of the money
that can be made in the KKK.
Best-known, as a result of the Lumbee Indian uprising in Robeson County last month, are the North Carolina Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan.
This particular entourage of Knights is led into battle and out
again by James William (Catfish) Cole, a Marion, S. C, man
who calls himself "Grand Wizard" on weekdays and "Reverend"
—
—
on Sundays.
—
Almost unknown in the state and national press but probably
larger than the Cole group is the North Carolina branch of the
U. S. Klan, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
This group is led from afar by Imperial Wizard Eldon Edwards of Atlanta.
No one, including the Wizards themselves, knows just how
many Klansmen have been suckerized into investing hard-earned
dollars in the lost cause of Klanism.
Membership totals and treasury reports are closely-guarded
secrets of the Wizards.
If Klansmen knew how much money was dropping into those
South Carolina and Georgia tills, some of them might start asking
what it was being spent on.
And then, there's the Internal Revenue Department.
rallies, of course, the Wizards talk about their thousands
At
of members.
But such estimates of Klan strength can be misleading.
For example, on Nov. 16 of last year, Grand Wizard Cole told a
crowd in Guilford County he could "raise 50,000 men any day"
to fight the Klan's battle for segregation in North Carolina.
Since that night, three rallies in Alamance County have failed
to produce a single robed Klansman.
A recent study of the Klan by this newspaper indicates that the
feuding Klan groups in North Carolina have fewer than 2,000
members give or take a hundred robes or so.
—
—
—
KKK
—
3
The estimate is based on information received from active
Klansmen, informers planted in Klaverns by law enforcement
agencies and law enforcement officers who have studied the Klan
in their home towns or counties.
How many Klaverns are operating?
Again, the Wizards decline comment.
Walter F. Anderson, director of the State Bureau of Investigaestimated "16 to 20."
According to the study made by this newspaper, the Klan organization in North Carolina looks like this:
Klaverns are operating in Alamance, Cabarrus, Gaston, Guilford,
Iredell, Mecklenburg, Rockingham, Rowan and Union counties.
Attempts are being made to organize in Davidson, Davie, Randolph and Robeson counties.
Bladen, Lincoln and Richmond counties have dues-paying Klansmen but no Klaverns. Members attend meetings in other counties.
The Klaverns vary greatly in size.
Union County has the largest. It has nearly a thousand members.
That's about half of the dues-paying Klansmen in the state.
Alamance center of the Reconstruction Days Klan is the
smallest. It has three or five members, depending on the way
membership is reckoned. If men two months behind in their dues
are still considered Klansmen, Alamance has five Klansmen otherwise, it has three.
Mecklenburg has the most Klaverns. It has groups representing
the North Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan the U. S. Klan,
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Christian Knights
tion,
—
—
;
;
Ku Klux Klan.
Grand Wizard Cole said
of the
recently,
"We're growing by leaps and
bounds."
The average newspaper reader in the state may believe this.
For 16 months, he's been reading about cross-burnings and KKK
rallies.
But
there's a lot that he hasn't been told
hasn't been told that most of the Klan organizers in North
Carolina have been South Carolinians.
He hasn't been told that most of the speakers at North Carolina
Klan rallies have been South Carolinians.
rallies he's read about
He hasn't been told that some of the
were rallies of South Carolinians who drove into North Carolina
to lend an illusion of Klan activity in counties which have none.
Grand Wizard Cole is whistling in his hood when he talks about
rapid Klan growth in North Carolina.
We have Klaverns.
But if the Klansmen were honest, they'd put identification
stamps on each one:
"Made in South Carolina."
He
KKK
4
Wizard
of
Klan Keeps His
Hands From Alien Eyes
James William (Catfish) Cole doesn't believe in letting his left
hand know what his right hand is doing.
As Grand Wizard of the North Carolina Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan, Cole says he's sworn not to let "aliens" to his Invisible
Empire know what Either of his hands is doing.
He cites the Bible to support
When asked why the Klan is
his stand.
a secret organization, he answered
Jesus said not to let your left hand
"For Christian reasons.
right hand is doing."
In an interview at his home, 300 South Pine Street, Marion,
C, Cole refused to answer some questions. Klan oath.
Others drew incomplete answers. Further details were obtained
know w hat your
T
S.
elsewhere.
KKK
job, is a Southern Free Will Baptist
Cole, in addition to his
minister and part-owner of a junkyard in Loris, S. C.
He is 33, well-built, rather handsome.
He answers to "Grand Wizard" or to "Reverend" or to "James"
or "Jimmy."
He doesn't like to be called "Catfish" nowadays.
Has Boundless Energy
He is a man of seemingly boundless energy. In the course of a
long interview, he never sat still for more than 30 seconds.
Before the interview began, he sent his two young children into
the kitchen, where his wife was ironing.
It began at the beginning ... at Cole's birth in Lenoir County,
N. C. He resents being called an outsider when he comes into
North Carolina as Grand Wizard.
"North Carolina's my home," he said with a frown. "I'm a Tar
Heel born and bred, and when I die I'll be a Tar Heel dead. I feel
that I have as much right there as anybody else. One of my
churches is in North Carolina. I'm no outsider."
What about those churches? Cole says he's a Baptist minister,
but a lot of Baptists have denounced him. Some of the ministers
in his own county have joined them.
"I have a Free Will Baptist mission between Marion and Mullins
(S. C.)," Cole said, "and a Free Will Baptist Church in Fairmont,
N. C. I preach more sermons and conduct more funerals and
weddings than any other preacher in Marion County."
(He never said how he became a Baptist minister. In Marion,
people say he started preaching shortly after his conversion at a
5
—
Tarboro revival in the summer of 1951 without any formal training for the ministry).
What about education?
Finished Ninth Grade
Cole finished the ninth grade in North Carolina's school system,
but he had something to add to that answer:
"I am a Bachelor of Laws from Pioneer University in Bari,
Italy."
When did he
He didn't.
He explained
go to school there?
it this way: "I studied international law through
an extension course while I was an inspector for a credit company."
What about his past? Is it true, as some of his critics have said,
that he has a police record?
Cole said, "If you call a couple of nol prossed cases a police
record, I've got one, but 'nol pros' means 'not guilty.'
(The term 'nol pros,' as interpreted by most courts, means
simply that the state does not choose to prosecute. It has no bearing
on the defendant's guilt or innocence.
(Kinston police say an assault charge against Cole was, indeed,
nol prossed in 1940.
(A reckless driving charge was dismissed in 1941.
(A charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill
was dismissed in January, 1951.
(In 1942 Cole was convicted on charges of resisting arrest and
assaulting a police captain. Cole was given a six-month sentence,
which was suspended on the condition that he buy the captain
a new set of false teeth for $50.
Convicted Again
(In 1943, he was convicted on another assault charge and was
ordered to pay his victim's doctor bill.
(Again in 1943, he paid court costs on convictions on charges
of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
(He has also been convicted on charges of driving without a
license and making false statements in order to obtain one.
(Since his conversion he has apparently had just two brushes
with the law.
(Kinston police arrested him in 1952 for Virginia officers who
wanted him on a public drunkenness charge. The outcome of that
action is not on police records at Kinston.
(And, at the moment, Cole is awaiting trial on charges of inciting
a riot at the celebrated Klan rally broken up by Lumbee Indians
at Maxton last month.
(He has had no trouble with the law in Marion or in Marion
County.)
Cole started talking about his war record.
He said he won a Purple Heart and four service stars while
serving with the 559th Automatic Weapons Battalion during
World
War
II.
6
He said he once was an officer in the North Carolina VFW.
Has he had any dealings with John Kasper, the New Jersey
now serving time for his activities opposing integration in Tennessee?
"I don't know him," Cole said. "Never saw him."
(Charlotte police say he met Kasper in Charlotte last fall).
Now to the Klan
Cole refused to answer questions that involved names, places,
locations of Klaverns, membership totals and Klan organization.
He said he is sworn to secrecy in these matters.
is the Klan a secret organization if, as he constantly says,
segregationist
.
.
.
Why
it
is
a law-abiding organization?
'Tor Christian reasons," Cole said. "Jesus said not to let your
left hand know what your right hand is doing."
Then the Klan is a Christian organization, in the opinion of its
leaders?
"Oh, yes!" Cole said emphatically. "That's just what it is!
are prepared to die for the cause that God has put to us."
Does Cole expect to die for the cause of the Klan?
He smiled and replied, "You know, only one of the Disciples
died of natural causes, and that was John."
(At the Maxton rally in January, when the Lumbee Indians
started shooting, Cole went home).
As for its being a Christian organization ... If it is, how do
Klansmen explain the opposition of so many ministers of the state?
Cole paused a moment, thought and then answered
"Jesus said, 'Woe unto you and man shall speak well of you/
Jesus said the day would come when they'd kill you and think they
did God a favor. That day is at hand. Jesus is soon coming. We
are living at the last day."
What is the Klan's primary function in North Carolina?
We
Its
"We
Primary Function
are mostly interested in segregation," Cole said.
conducting a campaign against Jewish
is the
citizens of the state?
Cole said, "We're not. The Klan is not opposed to any particular
group. We have no axe to grind with the Jew or the Catholic at
all. We're not even opposed to the niggers as far as that goes."
(North Carolina Klansmen are circulating anti-Semitic literature
widely. A sample from a pamphlet recently distributed in Charlotte: "The Jew is the serpent sent by Satan to offer us the forbidden fruit.")
What about charges that the Klan advocates violence in its
fight against integration?
"The Klan is opposed to violence of any kind," Cole said.
(Throughout 1957, one of Cole's favorite applause-getting rerallies referred to the Pearsall Plan for maintaining
marks at
segregation in the schools: "If the Pearsall Plan doesn't work,
the Smith and Wesson plan will."
(The Smith and Wesson is a pistol).
Then why
KKK
KKK
7
how
If the Klan opposes violence,
tion?
does
it
intend to fight integra-
Those Nine Buzzards
Cole replied with a comment on the U. S. Supreme Court:
"Those nine buzzards in Washington! If all their legal abilitywas put together, it wouldn't be enough to carry out a waste basket
in a decent lawyer's office!"
But what does the Klan intend
to do about maintaining segre-
gation ?
"We have a long-range plan," Cole said. "By 1960, we plan to
unite enough Christian people to do it at the polls. We plan to
put people in office who will maintain the Southern way of life."
That ended the interview. Except for one final question at the
door
.
.
.
Cole had been wearing a beard for several weeks. He'd worn
it at Klan rallies. He'd been photographed in it.
It was a pointed beard. Some said it made him look "like the
Devil himself."
Cole had heard the remark several times. He'd always laughed
at
it.
Now
shave
the beard
it
was gone. What happened
to
it.
Why
did he
off?
"Beard?" Cole asked. "What beard?"
KKK Members Pledge Silence,
But Some Talk
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan swear dark oaths of secrecy before
being initiated into the inner mysteries of the Invisible Empire.
They pledge complete silence through all eternity.
Breaking that silence can bring a Klansman a lot of trouble.
Grand Wizard James W. (Catfish) Cole, a South Carolinian who
leads North Carolina's best-known Klan organization, put it this
way
"I'm the only authorized person in the Klan who can tell you
anything.
"We have a court in the Klan. Any man who releases information
about the Klan can be taken into our court and banished from the
Klan. If a man is banished, nobody in the Klan is allowed to speak
to him."
Nevertheless, there are men who have talked.
This is the story they told
Anyone outside the Klan is called an "alien." When an "alien"
joins the Klan, they refer to it as being "naturalized."
.
.
.
8
Terms
of the Application
Form
The first step toward "naturalization" is the application form,
which reads (exactly) as follows:
"The United States Constitution gives you the right of freedom
to organize and assemble? If you are native born, white gentile
and a believer in the tenets of Christian religion please fill in
below."
The Klan gives the
"alien" four choices
'7 would like to join the Knights of the Ku-Klux-Klan."
'7 am a former member and would like to be reinstated."
"I cannot join for personal reasons but will help financially."
"I have land that may be used for a Klan rally."
The applicant is then required to give the following information
Name, age, weight, height, sex, address, state of residence,
hometown, telephone number, occupation, name of employer.
On the night of his "naturalization" a new alien is required to
pay the Klan $10. Grand Wizard Cole likes to call this a "donation"
to the KKK's "propagating" fund.
"Propagating" fund?
Theoretically
it is
used for expansion of the Klan.
"Official Certificate of
Donation"
And
the "donation" is called a "Klectokon."
After paying his "Klectokon," the new Klansman gets an "Official Certificate of Donation" which states that he has been "duly
naturalized" and is entitled "to have and to hold all the rights,
titles, honors and protection as a citizen of the Invisible Empire."
What does he get for his "Klectokon?"
The
The
The
initiation fee is $3.
robe is $6.
left-over dollar is for his first month's dues.
members are told that the dues are split this way:
Fifty cents of the monthly dollar is supposed to go into a "welfare
fund." Money is kept in this fund until needed to pay bondsmen
and lawyers in case of trouble. At least that's the theory.
The other 50 cents goes to state headquarters, which, in the case
KKK
New
of all North Carolina Klansmen's donations, means South Carolina
or Georgia.
Once the money's in, the Klansman gets his long white robe.
And he's sensitive about having his $6 robe called a "sheet."
Some of the robes cost more, of course. Grand Wizard Cole
has robes that would stir envy in any professional wrestler. Some
of them are real creations.
Leaders Have Colored Robes
Other Klan leaders have pretty robes, too. They wear colored
rank and file.
robes to distinguish themselves from the
They don't have to buy theirs robes for Klan officers are bought
with state headquarters funds.
KKK
;
9
And Klan
officers
have
almost as fancy as their colored
titles
robes.
They
Then
And
And
start with the Grand Wizard.
there's the Titan, a district governor.
the Kleagle, a Klavern organizer.
the Exalted Cyclops, Klavern president Kligrapp, secretary,
and Klakard, lecturer.
Oh, yes, and the Kludd. That's the chaplain.
Once the new members have met their Kleagle, Cyclops, Kligrapp,
Klakard and Kludd, they're ready for those inner mysteries.
These they learn through "klonversation" (conversation) with
Klan officers.
They learn that the Klan sings "klodes" instead of hymns, and
the favorite klode is 'The Old Rugged Cross."
He gets a "Kloran," or Klan Bible.
Next comes the password, which varies from time to time and
from Klavern to Klavern.
;
Old
KKK
Password Favorite
Most North Carolina Klansmen are still using an old KKK password favorite:
"Awake, America."
But suppose a Klansman wants to know if a stranger met on
the street
is
a bedsheet fellow?
He can ask, "Do you have any Ayak?"
And if the stranger answers, "No, but I have some
Klansman knows he has found a new friend.
Sometimes the question and answer run
"Ayak?"
this
Akia," the
way:
"Akia."
For "Ayak" means "Are you a Klansman?"
And "Akia" means "A Klansman
But suppose they should meet
test each other
I
in a
am."
crowded room and want
without klonversation?
to
KKK
Then one Klansman gives the other Klansman the secret
handclasp, which is, of course, called a "klasp."
The questioning Klansman twists the second Klansman's wrist
to the left as they clasp hands.
A quick twist back to the right means that he, too, is a Knight
of the Invisible Empire.
Once an "alien" has mastered all that, he's ready for his sheet.
10
North Carolina
Are
Ku Klux Klans
Splitting
There's no such thing as The Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.
Klan groups multiply like rabbits.
The Klan history of James William (Catfish) Cole illustrates
the point.
Cole came to North Carolina as an organizer of the U. S. Klan,
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Cole soon founded the North Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, elected himself Grand Wizard and started passing his own
plate.
Recently, Lester Francis Caldwell, one-time Knight of the Cole
group, pulled out, founded the National Christian Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan and started passing His own plate.
And just three days ago, Thurman Miller announced in Rowan
County that he is organizing a group to be known as the Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., of North Carolina.
And so it goes
Today, if you want to write to the KKK, you have a choice of
three Charlotte addresses:
Cole's group gets its mail at Box 261, Chadwick Station, Charlotte. The box is listed in the name of E. E. Snider.
Caldwell's Klan gets its mail at Box 5261, Charlotte. It's in
Caldwell's own name.
Eldon Edwards' U. S. Klan isn't circulating its address.
Members of the Cole and Edwards groups will tell you that they
both have The
in North Carolina.
Caldwell, whose group was charged in the recent attempt to
bomb a Negro elementary school in Charlotte, admits that his
outfit hasn't done well.
(Weeks after opening his Box 5261 for
business, Caldwell
hadn't gotten any mail.)
.
.
.
KKK
KKK
Silent
About Size
Klan leaders like Cole and Edwards refuse to discuss such details
as the size of their organizations.
They say they are sworn to secrecy.
This secrecy helps in making the Klans look bigger than they are.
They have other ways of doing it:
They've beefed up membership attendance at Klan rallies by
importing hooded Klansmen from South Carolina. They remove or
disguise their S. C. license plates before parking for the rally.
They sometimes collect applicants for membership from several
counties before putting on an initiation. This can make it appear
that a county has far more members than it has.
11
But the biggest confusion among Klansmen these days is the
confusion about what they're fighting for. And how they're fighting for it.
All the feuding Klan groups say they're fighting for segregation.
It started out that way.
First, they fought integration, which led rather naturally to
fighting the Negro.
The NAACP came next. Then "the Communists" and the
Supreme Court and the Jews and the Catholics and "Yankee
agitators" and "subsidized preachers" and "sexual perverts" and
"pink newspapermen" and law enforcement officers who enforce
the law.
Now the fight against integration has led Klansmen into boycotts
against products of certain companies that have contributed funds
to organizations which Klansmen lump together under the classification of "anti-white groups."
And into campaigns against certain television shows, jazz musicians and Rock 'n' Roll music.
Lester Caldwell, Grand Wizard of the National Christian Knights
of the KKK, may have summed it up for most of the Klan leaders
when he discussed the motivation of his rival Grand Wizard,
"Catfish" Cole, last week.
Caldwell said, "Cole is just in it for the money."
Squabbles Continue
Squabbles inside the Klan never seem to end.
Just as there is confusion over the KKK's goal, so is there confusion and disagreement as to the best way of reaching it.
Grand Wizard Caldwell's way seems to be clear enough.
Charlotte police say he and some of his underlings tried to
dynamite a Negro elementary school last Sunday. They say he
admitted it. He is being held for Mecklenburg County Superior
Court under bonds totalling $5,000.
Grand Wizard Cole says he spurns such violence.
But Cole's Klansmen have recently circulated this advice in
Mecklenburg County:
"Fight fire with fire! Use every means at your command to
Integrastem the tide of mongrelization. Save the tvhite race
tion of every kind must be halted in its tracks; and all who have
nurtured this hellish plot against the white race must be severely
punished for their wickedness."
And Grand Dragon Thurman Miller of the KKK group founded
Thursday, says he "banished" Cole from the Miller offshoot of the
Klan because, in Miller's opinion, Cole's methods were too violent.
Another form of KKK attack on minority groups is publicly
denied but privately practiced.
Klansmen deny any group action against Jews, Catholics and
Negroes.
.
12
.
.
Literature Circulated
Behind the sheets, however, they circulate great quantities of
literature attacking them.
This literature is being obtained
by the Klan from the Christian
Educational Association, 530 Chestnut Street, Union, N. J.; from
the Christian Patriots Crusade, Box 147, Hinsdale, 111., and from
the American Nationalist, Box 301, Inglewood, Calif.
Klan leaders say they have no axe to grind with North Carolina
Jews.
But sometimes obscene anti-Semitic literature has, nevertheless,
been given wide circulation.
A sample from one of the pamphlets:
"The evil countenance of the Jew daily reminds us of the pres."
ence of Satan on earth
This confusion of leadership, purpose and method is taking its
toll in the Klan.
James Garland Martin, a Reidsville tobacco worker, illustrates
.
.
the point.
Martin was one of the Klansmen who attended the KKK rally
broken up by the Indians at Maxton last month.
Martin wound up in court.
The judge asked him what the goal of the Klan was.
"I used to think it was segregation," Martin said, "but here
lately I'm beginning to wonder. I'm through with it."
And with that, he turned in his sheet and quit the Klan.
Tar Heel Public Opposing
KKK On Broad Front
Some of North Carolina's Ku Klux Klansmen, faced with determined and widespread public opposition, have said they're
moving "underground."
As they dug in, Governor Luther H. Hodges' words were still
ringing in their ears:
"We will maintain law and order in North Carolina."
Some of the hooded Knights of the Invisible Empire are already
shaking in their sheets.
If they knew how many of their comrades are informers planted
by law enforcement agencies, they'd have their bedclothes back
on their beds in less time than it takes to sing the first verse of
"K-K-K-Katie."
13
There are few Klaverns in the state that don't have a member
hurries to a telephone after meetings to report to the sheriff,
chief of police or an SBI agent.
In county after county, law enforcement officers have made lists
of license plates at KKK rallies for identification next day.
Top Klan leaders usually have unlisted telephone numbers, but
more than one law enforcement officer has a list of those unlisted
numbers.
who
Federal Agents Take Interest
The U.
S.
Attorney General already has three Klan groups on
his list of subversive organizations, and federal agents are beginning to take an interest in the ones operating in North Carolina.
Before 1958 is over, internal revenue men may be demanding a
full audit of the books now hidden under the KKK's sheets.
The Klan of the Reconstruction Days had the public's backing
in North Carolina.
Even in the
revival of the Twenties, it attracted some of
the state's most influential political and business leaders.
Today, the Klan sees enemies on every hand.
And no matter how loyally a Klansman continues to damn them
as "Communists" and "Negro-lovers" and the like, he must occasionally surrender to a doubt that the Klan is right and the
rest of North Carolina wrong.
There is, perhaps, no better indicator of the direction in which
KKK
—
KKK
wind is blowing than that found among the Negroes of
the
the state.
In 1867, they trembled in awe when the Klan rode.
In those days, most North Carolina Negroes believed the Klansmen to be night-riding ghosts of Confederate dead.
Today, Negroes frequently turn out for Klan rallies and offer
to wash the Klansmen's sheets.
Klansmen in the 1860s and the 1920s had the backing of most
ministers, newspapers, public officials and law enforcement officers.
Opposition to Klan Abounds
Today, Tar Heel ministers have generally condemned the KKK
both individually from their pulpits and collectively through the
N. C. Council of Churches.
North Carolina newspapers, while dividing on the issue of integration, are united in their opposition to the Klan's methods of
fighting
it.
A
great many city councils have enacted local anti-Klan ordinances.
Several mayors have joined Gov. Hodges in condemning the
Knights.
(Mayor Ed S. Lanier of Chapel Hill said a few years ago, "I
think about as much of the Ku Klux Klan as I do of infantile
paralysis.")
North Carolina's Jaycees have tagged the
can."
14
Klan as "un-Ameri-
And then there are the Lumbee Indians. They shot at the
Klansmen.
The public's opposition to the Klan is reflected in the so-called
anti-Klan legislation passed by the General Assembly five years ago.
Klansmen are now forced by law to show their faces under their
hoods.
It is against the law to burn crosses without getting the propertyowner's permission.
The Klan has run into trouble finding land on which to meet and
burn crosses.
—
School auditoriums and churches once a haven for rallying
Klansmen are now closed to them, and there is space on the
Klan's membership application form blank for a land-owner to
—
give his permission for use of his property.
Try
to Steer Legal
Course
In the face of this concerted opposition,
to steer a course inside the law.
Klan leaders have tried
There is evidence, for example, that James William "Catfish"
Cole's N. C. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have good legal advice
before taking any new action.
With so many lawmen eager to crack down on the Klan, its
leaders are trying to keep it as legally pure as a
chapter.
Trouble with the law frightens away new recruits and thus cuts
into the profit of Klan operation.
In a group with a membership such as the
has, however,
WCTU
KKK
steering such a course can be difficult, if not impossible.
Cole himself has been indicted on charges of inciting a riot in
Robeson County.
His chief competitor, Imperial Wizard Eldon Edwards, was
charged but acquitted last year in connection with the Klan beating
of a news photographer in Cabarrus County.
Lester Francis Caldwell of Charlotte, Grand Wizard of the
newly-formed National Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,
was arrested with four other Klansmen Feb. 16 on charges of
plotting to dynamite a Negro elementary school in Charlotte.
They will face trial in Mecklenburg Superior Court on the bomb
plotting charge.
Despite this evidence of Klan activity, however, there are rankwho are hotheadedly demanding more and more action.
Some are leaving the Klan in disgust.
Some are leaving the relatively conservative Cole Klan group
and-filers
to
found
little
Klans of their own.
In view of the preparations being made by law enforcement
officers
and of Gov. Hodges' firm statement that law and order
will be maintained here
it would appear that Judge Clawson L.
Williams is still right in what he said back in 1952.
—
—
Trouble
Then, as now,
Made
in
South Carolina
Ku Klux Klansmen had come
to start trouble in
North Carolina.
15
out of South Carolina
Columbus County was boiling with fear, hatred and violence.
Judge Williams looked into the situation and then said from his
bench
"Somebody has been preying on Columbus County. Somebody
down the line has been caught reaching out with a greedy hand.
"Someday
"Someday
he's going to be caught.
he's going to be punished.
not going to be at the great Judgment Day.
"It's going to be at the bar of justice in North Carolina."
Substitute "North Carolina" for "Columbus County" in that
first line, and the rest of it is as true today as it was six years ago.
"It's
16