Ku Klux Klan

[John Dolva]

from 'Some More Coincidences' topic, post 14

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5058entry41463

Occuring just three weeks before the Cuban missle crisis, the Battle of Oxford quickly vanished from the public consciousness.

Portions of Willian Doyle's essay "The making of an American insurrection" -1996

- "...My partner Carol Fleisher was preparing to videotape Kennedy aide Burke Marshall about JFK's tapes of the so-called James Meredith crisis in 1962, when Meredith attempted to become the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. As the cameras were about to roll, Marshall said almost off-handedly, "that was the night we had a little war." "

http://www.randomhou...oyle/essay.html

"In Jackson I sat down with William Simmons, the 85-year-old former chief of the Citizens Councils of America, a charming, sophisticated intellectual who in 1962 was the most powerful segregationist in America and the shadow ruler of Mississippi on racial matters, the man who Governor Ross Barnett actually reported to. Simmons explained that from the segregationists point of view, the Battle of Oxford was the decisive turning point in the entire struggle against integration.

I tracked down Robert Shelton, former Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America and the most powerful Klan leader of the late 20th Century. As the Battle of Oxford drew near, Shelton placed his 20,000 Klansmen on alert and prepared them to move on Oxford with rifles and shotguns. Shelton disclosed what went through his mind on the eve of the battle.

"This," he thought, "could be another War Between the States." "

"William Fauklner's nephew, who in 1962 was Captain of Mississippi Army National Guard Troop E. Falkner explained, "No one knows what went on here then." Then he took his thirty-five year old typewritten after-action report out of his files, and handed it to me, saying "read this."

The document described in extraordinary detail how Falkner and his band of local white men, most of whom were personally opposed to the immediate integration of the University of Mississippi, were ordered into the battle to try to rescue the marshals and Meredith from being massacred by the mob. As I read the report I was dumbfounded by the ferocity of the violence inflicted upon the Guardsmen by their fellow white Southerners. I could only mumble, "this is like combat."

Falkner quickly corrected me: "It WAS combat." "

"The Army memo dated April 19, 1963 reads: "It is considered that the focus of additional attention on this incident would not be in the best interest of the nation . . . Decorations should not be awarded for actions involving conflict between U.S. Army units and other Americans."

Together with James Meredith and many unsung heroes of the Battle of Oxford, this country fought and won the last battle of the American Civil War on October 1, 1962."

______________________________________________

An excerpt from his book

"... ack on the front lines, the marshals had just about run out of tear gas, the only means they had to keep the rioters at bay.

"We've got to have more gas," one marshal demanded of Nicholas Katzenbach.

"We don't have any more right now, but we're working on it" was the reply.

"We've got to have it now," the marshal shouted. "My men are getting slaughtered out there!"

The marshals were pumping out tear gas faster than they could get reserves ready. McShane and the Justice Department officials were pleading for more tear gas to be flown down from Memphis, but the supplies were running so low there that marshals were commandeering crates of gas bombs from the 503d Military Police Battalion's supply. Two hours into the chaos, the riot was abruptly shifting into full-scale combat.

The marshals could hear a shotgun blasting away in the distance, and it was soon joined by the rhythmic "pow-pow-pow" of a .22 automatic. Before long, gunfire seemed to be coming from everywhere. "We were now alone," recalled newsman Ed Turner, "the crowd roaring louder with each barrage, the campus filling up with reinforcements from three states and no guard at the gates to stop them."

Across the region, cars and trucks full of armed and unarmed fighters were surging toward Oxford from all directions, especially from segregationist strongholds in adjacent Alabama and Louisiana. A few scattered Mississippi Highway Patrolmen were blocking potential rioters from the campus, but one patrolman was observed telling a carload of outsiders, "We can't let you in here but if you break into small groups you can sneak in across the railroad tracks."

______________

"Deputy U.S. Marshal James K. Kemp was a thirty-six-year-old father of three from Nashville, Tennessee. "I was a gunners mate in the Navy" Kemp recalled soon after the riot, "and after my ship went down, I was in the Atlantic Ocean for about an hour." But the riot at Ole Miss, Kemp shuddered, "was the worst thing I've ever been in."

Nicholas Katzenbach grabbed the line to the White House, and finally pleaded for a military rescue.

"For God's sake," he said, "we need those troops!"

[Paul Trejo]

...Portions of Willian Doyle's essay "The making of an American insurrection" -1996

- "...My partner Carol Fleisher was preparing to videotape Kennedy aide Burke Marshall about JFK's tapes of the so-called James Meredith crisis in 1962, when Meredith attempted to become the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. As the cameras were about to roll, Marshall said almost off-handedly, "that was the night we had a little war." "

http://www.randomhou...oyle/essay.html

"In Jackson I sat down with William Simmons, the 85-year-old former chief of the Citizens Councils of America, a charming, sophisticated intellectual who in 1962 was the most powerful segregationist in America and the shadow ruler of Mississippi on racial matters, the man who Governor Ross Barnett actually reported to. Simmons explained that from the segregationists point of view, the Battle of Oxford was the decisive turning point in the entire struggle against integration.

I tracked down Robert Shelton, former Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America and the most powerful Klan leader of the late 20th Century. As the Battle of Oxford drew near, Shelton placed his 20,000 Klansmen on alert and prepared them to move on Oxford with rifles and shotguns. Shelton disclosed what went through his mind on the eve of the battle.

"This," he thought, "could be another War Between the States." "

"William Fauklner's nephew, who in 1962 was Captain of Mississippi Army National Guard Troop E. Falkner explained, "No one knows what went on here then." Then he took his thirty-five year old typewritten after-action report out of his files, and handed it to me, saying "read this."

The document described in extraordinary detail how Falkner and his band of local white men, most of whom were personally opposed to the immediate integration of the University of Mississippi, were ordered into the battle to try to rescue the marshals and Meredith from being massacred by the mob. As I read the report I was dumbfounded by the ferocity of the violence inflicted upon the Guardsmen by their fellow white Southerners. I could only mumble, "this is like combat."

Falkner quickly corrected me: "It WAS combat." "

"The Army memo dated April 19, 1963 reads: "It is considered that the focus of additional attention on this incident would not be in the best interest of the nation . . . Decorations should not be awarded for actions involving conflict between U.S. Army units and other Americans."

Together with James Meredith and many unsung heroes of the Battle of Oxford, this country fought and won the last battle of the American Civil War on October 1, 1962."

...

John, many thanks for this citation. IMHO, the players responsible for the Ole Miss riots are the same players responsible for the JFK assassination. The names of ex-General Edwin Walker and ANP publisher, Robert Allen Surrey are only two, but they are also the two who lived in Dallas and who humiliated UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in Dallas one month before the JFK assassination.

I repeat -- I suspect a direct line between the Ole Miss riots of 1962 and the assassination of JFK in 1963.

I'll find William Doyle's essay and read it thoroughly. I would also like to get my hands on the manuscript by the Captain of Mississippi Army National Guard Troop E. Falkner.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 21, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[John Dolva]

''a direct line between the Ole Miss riots of 1962 and the assassination of JFK in 1963'' I would not be surprised if that is the case. Kennedy had shown without doubt where he stood.

Later when Medgar Evers was assassinated (a few hours after Kennedy's Civil Rights speech, a very important one where he stated his understanding and implicit support of the fight for Civil Rights as expressed by activists) RFK flew to the side of Evers brother Charles and they remained close right up to the time RFK was slain. He was right there in the Hotel.

So, the intransigence of JFK on this matter was clear. The implications to the status quo of the segragationsists societies were catastrophic. Doyle states the Ole Miss insurrection as the last battle of the civil war. Just like in the end of the civil war of the mid 1880's the last battle was fought, AFTER the surrender, in Texas ( the Confederates won that battle ). in that vein the next blow struck by Confedrate forces was in Dallas 63'.

edit typo

Edited January 21, 2013 by John Dolva

[Paul Trejo]

John, I'm looking forward to reading Doyle's American Insurrection (2001).

Regarding ex-General Edwin Walker, however, I face a puzzle. I cannot find any evidence that Walker was a racist all on his own!

Walker never mentions race as an issue in any of his copyrighted speeches (1961-1962). He never raised the race issue in the Army, and he served in Korea as a commander of mixed-race troops.

Walker's troops filed no complaints about any racism, and actually one soldier reported his impression that Walker had a reputation of being fair-minded.

Why then, would this ordinary U.S. General suddenly begin to consort with racists in the WCC? Why would he retain the known Nazi publisher, Robert Allen Surrey, as president of his company with offices at his personal address for many years?

Why would this ordinary U.S. General suddenly jump to organize "ten thousand" protesters from the South to meet JFK's 30,000 Federal Troops at Ole Miss in 1962? THat's enough troops for a war.

This was a true military action -- and it occurred there in Mississippi in 1962. The White Citizen Councils were in the front lines of this ban on James Meredith being the first black student to attend Ole Miss. The WCC were openly white-supremacist although they were purportedly non-violent. However, they could not keep the KKK from entering their ranks. No doubt the Minutemen were also on the scene.

I can imagine the extreme rightist General consorting with the Minutemen -- these were like-minded paramilitary types. The over-riding concern of the Minutemen (says eye-witness Harry Dean) was to take back Cuba from the Communists. If it meant killing JFK to do this (as they often discussed) then they were collectively ready to kill JFK. I can even see Walker in sympathy with this, given his hatred of the Kennedys.

Adding the KKK and the WCC into the mix did not seem necessary to me last year. Then I found evidence that Walker was a featured speaker for the WCC. In those counties where the WCC had been taken over by the "National States Rights" Party, or even the KKK, Walker was also invited -- and he would speak for them, apparently, according to billboards we have of that era.

How did Walker get involved with rank racism? When he demands segregation of Ole Miss and other US Public Schools, his argument is never that Blacks are inferior (as far as my research has led so far) -- but that States have Rights and the Federal Government is trampling over the Constitutional Rights of the State. Why mince words if he is speaking to the WCC?

The obvious starting point is his long-time friendship with segregationist preacher Reverend Billy James Hargis. Hargis, follower of the clergyman Carl MacIntire who founded the racist, American Council of Churches and spent his career denouncing the more conservative, National Council of Churches because they would not demand race segregation, was a major influence on Walker.

Hargis and Walker would take long road trips together. Hargis was later exposed as a bi-sexual. Walker never married and was almost certainly a homosexual. Yet these two posed as super-righteous men to their followers coast to coast.

It seems to me that Walker stepped in the racist mud during the two years he spent in Little Rock, Arkansas, as commander of the 101st airborn, stationed by Eisenhower to keep peace there at Little Rock High School. Two long years.

Walker's mother liked to listen to H.L. Hunt's Life Line right-wing radio program, as well as Billy James Hargis' Christian Crusade radio program. In my theory, both Hargis and Hunt begin a process of brainwashing General Edwin Walker, starting in 1957 when he arrived in Little Rock. By 1959, Walker was brainwashed -- he met Robert Welch and came to believe that Eisenhower was a Communist. Walker first resigned from the Army in 1959, but Eisenhower denied his request.

Eisenhower sent Walker to command the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany from 12/1959 until

Walker finally resigned in disgust in 11/1961. Walker was being influenced in Germany by Hargis, Hunt, Welch but also Kevin Courtney, whose Conservative Voting Index would be the ultimate reason that Walker was dismissed from that post and transferred to Hawaii.

My conclusion -- if Walker had not been prodded continually by Billy James Hargis, he might never have tried to enter politics on the side of the White Citizens' Councils. What Walker wanted more than anything was to command troops again -- perhaps he would even accept paramilitary troops.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 22, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[John Dolva]

'' I face a puzzle. I cannot find any evidence that Walker was a racist all on his own!''

Paul, what, to you, constitutes evidence?

[Paul Trejo]

'' I face a puzzle. I cannot find any evidence that Walker was a racist all on his own!''

Paul, what, to you, constitutes evidence?

John, evidence for Walker's racism should consist of "direct words" that he spoke on a video tape, or that he copyrighted.

I am aware of a few racist sentences attributed to him by a journalist some weeks after an event -- but that journalist had a slanted point to make, and was somewhat sloppy. The quote actually sounds like a Billy James Hargis quote, wrongly attributed to Walker.

Walker's copyrighted speeches never mention racism. He does not allude to it. It is not on Walker's radar.

However, when directly asked about public school integration, Walker said (I paraphrase), "It doesn't bother me if an American community wants to integrate the races in public institutions -- what bothers me is that the Federal government would use military troops to force unwilling American communities to do anything -- where is the freedom?"

This was Walker's attitude -- and one can easily see how racists would seek to exploit this attitude in their cause. Yes, I admit that virtually all of his friends and associates were thoroughly racist -- from Billy James Hargis to Robert Allen Surrey. Walker would speak at gatherings of the WCC -- an openly white-supremacist organization (although purportedly non-violent, and included many US Congressmen and Southern Governors).

But my criterion would demand to hear words from Walker himself to the effect that Blacks were inferior. It is difficult to imagine a career military man saying this, because a military man measures superiority and inferiority according to physical abilities and personal courage on the battlefield -- and American Blacks measured up well according to those standards.

For Walker, the issue seemed to circle around States' Rights. Finally, although Walker would speak at WCC functions, he himself never joined the WCC, never joined the KKK, never joined any other group than the John Birch Society, which was civilian. Here is Walker's own comment on the fact that he never joined these racist groups by which he surrounded himself:

http://www.pet880.co...ins_Nothing.JPG

If you know of some actual writings by Walker, or some video tape in which he expresses racist attitudes, it would change my mind.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 23, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[John Dolva]

" It is not on Walker's radar. "

There seems to be a number of indications that such material exists.

http://mdah.state.ms...5|4|1|1|16904|A

last paragraph of Walkers statement :

" ... I am happy to see that Mississippi stands as it does for what it desires individually and as a state. I ... appeal to you to stand indefinitely and courageously behind your courageous governor. ..."

What did Ross Barnett stand for and why?

http://encycl.opento...rm/Ross_Barnett

Ross Barnett - Who or What is Ross Barnett? Find out more:

"His belief that "the Negro is different because God made him different to punish him" helped earn him the endorsement of the state's notorious Citizen's Council."

Jim Root : "he (Walker) was a very slippery fellow"

________________

https://thislandpres.../?read=complete

"... "Hargis told his followers that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was a communist plot; he published a book called The Negro Question: Communist Civil War Policy, in which the author warned that “communists are deliberately maneuvering among the American Negroes to create a situation for the outbreak of racial violence”; he believed segregation was “one of God’s natural laws”; he called Martin Luther King, Jr. a communist-educated traitor and an “Uncle Tom for special interests.” DESPITE THE PATRONIZING ATTITUDES THAT HARGIS HELD AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICANS, HE PUBLICLY ASSERTED HE WAS NOT A RACIST. IT WASN’T UNTIL HARGIS JOINED FORCES WITH FORMER MAJOR GENERAL EDWIN WALKER, HOWEVER, THAT RACIAL BIGOTRY BECAME A COMMON CHARACTERISTIC OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT.

OPERATION MIDNIGHT RIDE: Too Important to be Left to the Generals

Shortly after his resignation from the military, Edwin Walker began forging a friendship with fellow John Birch Society member Billy James Hargis. They agreed to go on a speaking tour of the U.S. together; Hargis would sermonize on the perils of communism at the national level and Walker would expound on the international threat. Walker parlayed these early lectures into political gain. He soon decided to run for governor of Texas and enjoyed the support of Dallas oilman H.L. Hunt. Walker ran under the Southern Democratic (Dixiecrat) ticket, though, and ended up in last place in the Democratic primary of February 1962.

Later that year, in September, Walker caught wind that the federal government planned to force the integration of an African American man, James Meredith, into the University of Mississippi. This was Walker’s chance to retaliate against the government that had forced him to integrate Little Rock back in 1957. Walker took to the airwaves to instigate an insurrection against governmental control.

“I call for a national protest against the conspiracy from within,” Walker declared. “Rally to the cause of freedom in righteous indignation, violent vocal protest, and bitter silence under the flag of Mississippi at the use of Federal troops.”

The next day, September 30, 1962, riots broke out on the university campus, resulting in hundreds being injured and two dead. Six federal marshals had been shot. Walker was immediately arrested and charged with sedition and insurrection against the United States.

Behind the closed doors of the FBI, however, government officials worried about Walker’s mental health. Informants whispered that he appeared irrational during his public talks. The rumors were enough to compel U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to order Walker placed under a 90-day psychiatric evaluation at a forensic center in Springfield, Missouri. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and prominent psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested the hospitalization. Walker’s attorney in Oklahoma City, Clyde Watts, fought the order of detention and was able to get Walker freed after only five days.

THE DETENTION RADICALIZED WALKER EVEN FURTHER, BUT BY SIDING WITH THE RACISTS DURING THE OLE MISS RIOT, HE BEGAN TO CAUSE CONCERN AMONGST HIS ALLIES.

“Walker has also been listening to advice from another source and refusing to pay attention to those who have tried to caution him,” wrote Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, adding that Walker could cause “very serious embarrassment to conservatives and the conservative cause in general.”

In November of 1962, Walker stood before a grand jury regarding his role in the Ole Miss riot. His mental health was called into question and his role in the riot scrutinized, yet one of the most important black witnesses, Reverend Duncan Grey, Jr., was never called to testify. The all-white Mississippi grand jury chose not to indict Walker.

ENERGIZED BY THE PERCEIVED ESCAPE FROM GOVERNMENTAL INJUSTICE, WALKER TEAMED UP ONCE AGAIN WITH BILLY JAMES HARGIS. THIS TIME, THEY PLANNED A 12-WEEK 29-CITY SPEAKING TOUR STARTING IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, IN LATE FEBRUARY OF 1963. THEY CALLED THEIR SERIES “OPERATION MIDNIGHT RIDE,” and planned to use the talks to create a larger support base. At this point, Hargis’ Christian Crusade had grown to a monthly budget of $75,000—but that money wasn’t necessarily representative of a large audience. Hargis told the New York Times that most of his funding came from oil companies. [12]

While Hargis and Walker were trying to push the general population to the right, they were also galvanizing the extreme fringes of conservatism with their neo-confederate message. ACCORDING TO WALKER’S FBI FILES, THE KU KLUX KLAN SPONSORED OPERATION MIDNIGHT RIDE IN BOTH SOUTH CAROLINA AND ARKANSAS. [13] THROUGHOUT AMERICA, HARGIS AND WALKER PREACHED AGAINST THE EVILS OF COMMUNISM AND INVITED POPULAR RIGHT-WING SPEAKERS LIKE BENJAMIN GITLOW, FORMER ARMY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE GENERAL CHARLES WILLOUGHBY, AND CONGRESSMAN JOHN ROUSSELOT TO JOIN THEM. THE FBI REPORTED THAT IN WASHINGTON, D.C., THERE WERE ABOUT 100 ATTENDEES OF OPERATION MIDNIGHT RIDE AND ALL OF THEM WERE WHITE. [14] WHILE MANY INFLAMMATORY STATEMENTS WERE MADE AT THE MEETINGS, THE FBI SEEMED MOST ALARMED BY WALKER’S RHETORIC. In their files, the FBI deemed Walker a presidential threat probably due to Walker’s proclivity to charge presidents as communist leaders and deny them allegiance; there may have been more serious reasons. [15]

More than four thousand people attended the last stop of Operation Midnight Ride in Los Angeles in early April of 1963. [16] Members of the John Birch Society, which had taken over the Young Republicans organization, welcomed the speakers. They presented Walker with a plaque calling him the “greatest living American,” and they listened patiently while Hargis delivered an almost two-hour long talk. The entire operation was a smashing success, or in the recent words of conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly, “a Paul Revere-like barnstorming tour.” ... "

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, has copyrighted writings or videotapes that it sounds like a duck...hmmm.

[Paul Trejo]

...If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, has copyrighted writings or videotapes that it sounds like a duck...hmmm.

John, I promptly admit that Walker associated with almost nobody but radical rightists in 1962-1964 and in those days they were all racists. George Wallace was actually more liberal than his speeches -- but he couldn't get nominated for election unless he played ball with the KKK in Alabama and read their speeches.

My point is that Walker wanted political power -- that's why he left the Army. Even though he was gay, and he had no political experience, he naively believed he had a chance at power in 1962-1964. (Probably a very powerful person convinced him.) But in those days, the only way Walker could get a shot at political power on the right-wing was to play ball with those in power at the grass-roots, and that meant, at the very least, the White Citizens' Councils. He spoke at their events many times.

Now, George Wallace is famous for his racist slogans. However, I cannot find one example of resigned Major General Edwin Anderson Walker expressing in writing or in a speech anything resembling a direct racist remark.

I have a real puzzle with this. I readily admit that all of Walker's closest associates were rabid racists. For example, his closest associate from 1962-1967 was Robert Allen Surrey, his publisher, the president of his company, his right-hand man at Ole Miss, and incidentally also an American Nazi. Then there was Billy James Hargis who would quote the Bible to try to prove that racism is commanded by the Creator. These were hard-core racists.

But even though ex-General Edwin Walker hung out with these racists day after day, month after month, year after year, we cannot find Walker himself expressing racist views. My tentative conclusion is that he was playing games with these people, and he never believed their nonsense. (I would also like to explore rumors about a brain tumor he worried about in this period.)

What Walker wanted was power -- he had lost everything when JFK dismissed him from his command over the 24th Infantry Division in Germany in early 1961.

Walker wanted his power back. But he listened to the right. He truly believed the South could rise again. He truly believed that the future of American politics could be a return to the days before Brown v. The Board of Education. He truly believed that Chief Justice Earl Warren could be impeached. He truly believed that the UN could be kicked out of the USA, and that some version of Pro-Blue could be resurrected in the Army.

Walker probably wished he would get his command in Germany back. Or, failing that, that he could become Governor of Texas or perhaps even President of the USA. I'm not the only one to speculate this.

Now - I also admit that an opportunist who supports racists for personal power is just as wicked as that racist -- so I'm not trying to get Walker a pardon. I'm trying to understand the man -- his psychological makeup.

His own speeches just don't sound racist to me, although he spends all his time and energy giving support to racists.

I thank you for trying, John, but the material you posted is material I've already seen.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 24, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[John Dolva]

I'm pondering the question "what is racism?"

____________________

Meantime here's an interesting bit in the last paragraphs on Walker and the NRA in 1961.

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd09/072777.png&otherstuff=10|106|0|7|1|1|1|71845|#

[Paul Trejo]

I'm pondering the question "what is racism?"

____________________

Meantime here's an interesting bit in the last paragraphs on Walker and the NRA in 1961.

http://mdah.state.ms...7|1|1|1|71845|#

John, that article you cited is a review of Walker's second speech as a civilian. He quit the Army on 1 November 1961, and he immediately moved to 4011 Turtle Creek Blvd in Dallas. He immediately obtained free office space in a downtown building owned by an Oil company, and he began writing his seven copyrighted speeches.

On December 12, 1961, Edwin Walker appeared at the invitation of the NIC (National Indignation Convention) in Dallas to address 5,000 with his first speech at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium. The title of the speech was Crusade for Truth (which later appears as a pamphlet for sale, entitled, Who Muzzled the Military).

A few seconds of his first speech are viewable on YouTube in a clip entitled, "General Walker Comments on the Kennedy State Department."

On 29 December 29 1961, Edwin addressed another 5,000 at the Jackson City Municipal Auditorium in Mississippi with his second speech, namely, The American Eagle: Weapons for Freedom. This is the speech that is cited in your citation, John.

His second speech is almost identical to Crusade for Truth, except that this version was specifically tailored to suit a Mississippi audience. Walker brought a Texas flag to the Auditorium, to fly beside the Mississippi flag in a sign of brotherhood. Many statements praising the Anticommunism of Mississippi drip from his second speech. Yet in that speech there is not one word of racism.

One might promptly assume there is a 'hidden' racism in there somewhere, because after all, this was Mississippi, the deepest part of the Deep South, where the KKK was very active. But assumptions don't count in history -- direct proof is needed.

The citation that you cited, John, is indeed a great support for the NRA,but the NRA sells guns to Black Americans, too, so the NRA is not a racist organization. Walker emotionally defended the Second Amendment. That might be extremist, but it isn't racist on the face of it.

One can be an extremist without being a racist.

You wish to define racism -- so perhaps some history might help. A racist is somebody who truly believes that the genetic DNA of one color and shape of human being is inherently and infallibly superior to the genetic DNA or another color and shape of human being.

The most well-publicized racism in the 20th century is white racism, because of Hitler and the Nazi Party that openly preached that white people (and not all white people, but specifically Germanic white people) were genetically superior in all ways. The world lost upwards of 60 million people in World War II, along with countless more wounded and psychologically ruined, fighting to remain free from this oppressive racism.

The most well-publicized racism in the 19th century is probably white racism again, because of the USA legal system imposing slavery on Black Americans and granting ownership rights only to the white race. The Civil War led by Abraham Lincoln to end that horrific legal system cost the USA more lives than all its other wars combined.

Black slavery in America goes back nearly 500 years. So, again, white racism is probably synonymous with racism in the West, although there are other varieties around the world. The German version of racism in 1925-1945 emphasized the inferiority not of Blacks, but of Semites, and their obsession led them to the Holocaust of WW2, in which 6 million Jews, including women and children, were systematically exterminated -- to the enduring shame of Germany.

Racism is far older than the modern age, however. There are plenty examples of racism to be found in medieval and ancient literature. Our modern history only scratches the surface of this broad topic. In modern times, the KKK and the Nazi Party published the most famous statements of hatred and bigotry against allegedly inferior races. In ancient times, and in far-away lands, other groups led the way.

If ex-General Edwin Walker was truly a racist in his heart, we should see some clear and direct sign of it in his writings -- anywhere. But we don't.

For Walker, superiority was indicated by the possession of a gun or rifle, along with the ability and courage to use it when justice demanded its use. Cowards were inferior in Walker's world -- and cowards came in all colors, shapes and races.

My work would be so much easier if I could find one reliable quotation from Walker that proves his racism. So far -- nothing.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 25, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Anyway, John, getting back to the original topic of this thread, the KKK, I don't find ex-General Edwin Walker with an active membership card in the KKK. The KKK had lost its luster after the early 20th century. One no longer boasted of membership in the KKK in post-War America, even if one was a member. That means that KKK recruitment was way down, especially in the North.

The thread about the KKK and JFK started by John Simpkin on behalf of Terri Williams is useful because it illustrates the pervasiveness of the KKK mindset in the Deep South where the Black American population approached 50% (as in Terry Mississippi, where Terri comes from). But even in Terri's life, the contrast between the Deep South and the rest of the USA was seen in her childhood.

The KKK was all but defunct until the Supreme Court decision by Earl Warren in Brown v. The Board of Education, which mandated racial integration for US public schools. Then the topic of white racism took on a new life with the founding of the White Citizens' Councils (WCC) all over the USA, but especially in the Deep South.

The WCC soon renamed itself simply, the Citizens' Council, and their official magazine was called, The Citizen. They were organized by a group called, Citizens' Councils of America. Through their arm, the Citizens' Council Forum, they produced more than a hundred movie films, interviewing sympathetic Congressmen, Governors and other authorities, including ex-General Edwin Walker.

Although the WCC groups tried their best to remain non-violent and therefore to keep the KKK outside its doors, Neil McMillen (The Citizens' Council, 1972) gave illustrations of times when the KKK took over local chapters of the WCC in the Deep South.

Yet the White Citizens' Councils became more widespread than the KKK throughout the USA. They made headway in the North in response to the unpopularity of the Brown decision. Popular in the North, they took on an additional luster in the South.

As Neil McMillen explained, the KKK was always the strongest and most violent when the Black population of a county exceeded the 66% mark. In this sense, as Terri noted, the KKK behavior resembled South African apartheid. We see a similar situation for the WCC groups -- they were larger and more active in counties where their Black population approached 50%, and they lost control to the KKK in counties where the Black population was higher than 66%. (Incidentally, the WCC was founded in Indianola, Mississippi, where the Black population was 68%, and fewer than 1% of those Black citizens voted.)

My point is that to understand the South in which JFK was assassinated, one must understand the character of the right-wing there. Dallas was a leading city of right-wing extremism. The hot buttons of Dallas reflected in no small degree the hot buttons of the South generally, especially Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren's Brown decision with its new laws forcing racial integration in public schools.

For example, the John Birch Society had two rallying cries. The first was, "Impeach Earl Warren!" Those who followed the news even slightly in 1960-1963 knew that this slogan meant: "Repeal Brown!" The second rallying cry of the JBS was, "US out of the UN!" Ex-General Walker actually had a billboard on his front lawn, and he would alternate these two slogans regularly on his billboard.

Whether or not anybody proves that the KKK had a direct hand in the JFK assassination, we should never neglect to portray the politics of the extreme right-wing that perceived JFK as the strong-arm of the Brown decision, especially when he moved upwards of 30,000 Federal Troops into Oxford Mississippi in September 1962.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 25, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[John Dolva]

I ddon't think it is easy to define racism. Sure there are definitions but many of them are by members of the the groupings that tend to be the source of racism. Others who actually experience it are less clearcut and speak more of experience of living in conditions where the actions of others define their life.. Anyway I have no doubt that there are things Walker has said or done that legitimises calling him a racist.

afa the NRA goes, that was another matter in my mind. Here is Walker supporting them, in fact giving them highest praise. It leads me to wonder about a member of that organisation being involved.

How many black members of the NRA were there in '61?

___________

The KKK 'lost its lustre' in mid 1920's through the direct actions of its nominal leader to wit the rape and murder of a white woman.

That by no means meant they were a spent force. There are 'ages' ascribed to the KKK. During the period after its heydays (second or third era depending on how one lookas at it) and till pearl harbor they were very active and in alliance with the German Bund Fifth Collumnists. Then they and America Firsters went underground and emerged again in the fifties. Rather than thinking of them as ever disappearing it is more correct to see them as in a flux depending on conditions. The WCC claiming to eschew violence is mere political expediency as is the apparent difficulty of finding specific racist comments by Walker amongst the material that has been found by you.

---------------

The Brown v Brown decicion declared the laws of segregation unconstitutional as per the 14th amendment. Meredith acted as an ex-soldier seeking the rights of a Citizen aided primarily by Evers. General Walker acted on behalf of those that sought to deny him these rights, by any means necessary..Hence the insurrection and the expediency of States Rights as a reason.

I think things are far more subtle and complex than your portrayal but it is knowable and therefore need not appear so.

edit typos

Edited January 28, 2013 by John Dolva

[Paul Trejo]

...The Brown v Board decision declared the laws of segregation unconstitutional as per the 14th amendment. Meredith acted as an ex-soldier seeking the rights of a Citizen aided primarily by Evers. General Walker acted on behalf of those that sought to deny him these rights, by any means necessary..Hence the insurrection and the expediency of States Rights as a reason...

I agree with that snapshot, John, and I would add an observation. The best reason to suspect KKK complicity in the assassination of JFK, in my opinion, is the Ole Miss episode. The right-wing was galvanized at that moment. JFK had to send thousands of Federal Troops to stop the rioting at Ole Miss on 30 September 1962.

In terms of JFK's foreign policy, the Cuban Crisis will be his claim to fame. In terms of scientific policy, the moon-landing will be JFK's legacy. However, regarding domestic policy, I believe the Ole Miss riots will be JFK's enduring legacy.

If JFK was most visible to domestic US citizens during the Ole Miss episode, we should focus more upon this when considering his assassination. For one thing, the violence at Ole Miss proved that the White Citizens' Council aspirations to non-violence had failed. When the WCC goals of non-violence failed in the past (e.g. in Alabama) we always saw that the KKK were responsible.

There are plenty of FBI reports that exist for the Ole Miss riots. There is also film of the riots, but that film is locked up by NARA under exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as of today. (I was able to get some film from the period from NARA, but it only showed Federal Troop encampments and drills, and then the after-effects of the riots).

To what extent were the riots at Ole Miss fomented by the KKK? Do we have those statistics? I believe the Ole Miss riots are directly related to the JFK assassination.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 26, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

From: Newton, Michael & Judy Ann. The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1991

<snip>

...

Daniel, this is useful detail about the KKK. I wonder if you found any details about actions of the KKK regarding the Ole Miss riots of 30 September 1962.

In particular I'm interested in their comments about JFK's actions during the James Meredith episode. Also, I'm interested in their views and comments about the leader of the Ole Miss riots, namely, ex-General Edwin Walker.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 30, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

My research at that time was focused on the later 1960s activities of and connections among various Far Right groups and individuals, so I can offer no details pertaining to the James Meredith/University of Mississippi events. My distinct recollection, however, is that Far Right attitudes/comments on President Kennedy were extremely negative while their attitudes/comments on the super-patriot Edwin Walker were extremely positive. I expect there should be plenty of evidence to that effect.

I've heard rumors about Walker to the effect that he and a former Imperial Wizard of the KKK started up a group called the American Rangers in 1965. I've never found any confirmation or documentation for this, although Newton also briefly alludes to it.

The biggest problem historians have with the KKK, American Rangers and similar groups is that they are underground, that is, they are secret societies and by definition conspiratorial.

So I appreciate every little scrap of data I can find about these groups. Here is where the clues for the JFK assassination will be found, I'm convinced. Have you seen any hard data on the American Rangers?

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo