JFK and the Ku Klux Klan

[Terri Williams]

Terri,

Is there any way, without putting yourself in physical danger, that you can find hard evidence about this person and his involvement in the assassination. I know that some, myself included, felt that Gerry Hemming had a part in it, but he never indicated that he was. You are the first that has come on the forum and said that you "know" who the shooter was. I am asking, while making every effort not to be pointedly ignorant, can you find anything to help in bringing the killer(s) to justice, albeit posthumously?

Geesh, I kinda doubt it. The most I would be able to come up with, is another person who was there that day, November 22, 1963, in my school, who saw what happened right after the president was shot. The principal of our school came around within 30 minutes of the incident to report that the president had been shot. He sure knew pretty fast.

Then, the principal and most of the teachers and students surrounded the man's son and congratulated him, saying his father was a fine shot, which everyone already knew. There is NO DOUBT in my mind about who exactly shot JFK, NONE whatsoever.

I can appreciate that you may find my account all a little too hard to swallow, there has been so much spin put on the event. There are at least two other people I know of, who were present at Terry Consolidated School, on the high school side, the day Kennedy was killed, who might be able to confirm that activities I described happened on November 22, 1963, did in fact happen, that a certain students' father was praised for having shot the president. There were some other teachers who were as upset as I was the day JFK was killed, but they kept quiet and have already passed away. I tell you, the whole south either feared or joined the Klan back then. There was no "outside forces" at work in my home town to quell the tide of hatred. If there were the FBI agents you claim there was "infiltrating" the Klan back then, they sure did miss a lot.

There was no "diminished presence" of the Klan in the South in the 60's. They ruled, not just Mississippi, but the whole South! From Georgia to Texas, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mason Dixon, the Klan RULED. It was when Blacks started fighting back that the Klan began to lose power. Maybe the Blacks who fought back were FBI, who knows? But that DID have an effect on the White power of Mississippi.

White power was just white people from families of whites who had lived in the area for as much as four centuries. They have carefully crafted out a way of life, where anyone with darker skin was to serve like a slave, anyone whose skin was white. This is not something I saw in a movie, but lived through. That's the way it was in the South (and I know, because I lived in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas during the 60's) and Whites didn't want it changed.

I spent a year in New York, from June of 1962 - July 1963, so I saw the differences between the North and South. I was amazed at the differences. Truly, when I first came North, I got an education. In New York, you could sit on the back of the bus without fear, if you were white and in the front if you were black. You could have friends of ANY race. There were no segregated drinking fountains, businesses and schools. CHURCHES were MIXED! That's the way I always thought it should be. By the time I went home a year later, I felt somewhat emboldened, because I had lived somewhere where racism was frowned upon, not a daily practice. I was Kennedy supporter and not popular in Mississippi; I did not fit in there. There were others like me, of both races. It is hard to say who might also come forward to back my claim. Certainly it should be the FBI (among others) investigating the claim, not me.

Edited January 13, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

...I was Kennedy supporter and not popular in Mississippi; I did not fit in there. There were others like me, of both races. It is hard to say who might also come forward to back my claim. Certainly it should be the FBI (among others) investigating the claim, not me.

This is an interesting angle. Since Michael pointed out the research done by John Drabble about COINTELPRO-White Hate (an FBI domestic spying program against the KKK from 1964 to 1971) wouldn't it be interesting to review those FBI records with a focus upon Terry, Texas?

Were there any reports from any informers from Terry, Texas back in 1964? That would be a worthwhile quest, IMHO.

Thanks, Terri, for sharing your first-hand experience of the South in the time that JFK was assassinated. We Yankees tend to relegate these facts to our "blind spot".

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

I don't know where you got Texas from. Terry is in Mississippi. Of curse there might also be a Terry in Texas, but my hometown is Terry, Mississippi, just south of Jackson.

Having lived in New York a portion of my childhood, I am aware of how Northerners hold stereo-typical images of KKK. Like, Northerners seem to think the KKK were all but extinguished in the 20's. In truth however, it was strong as ever in the South till the 80's and it has NOT gone away, but branched out.

In the North, people tend to separate police from Klan. In the south, police ARE Klan.

Most Northerners think that the KKK are backwoods, uneducated people. I truth however, many KKK are highly educated, wealthy and hold positions of power.

Most Northerners are unaware of how important segregation was, and sill is, to the the KKK or what a 'threat' education for Blacks, was.

Most Northerners think lynchings ended in hangings. To the Klan, a pile of rubber tires gets hot enough to burn anything.

Most Northerners think ALL Southerners are KKK. It is simply not true.

Most Northerners never hear about all the thousands of people the Klan are responsible for murdering, only the Northerners who are murdered.

It was Apartheid, completely.

You do have the other side of the coin, you Northerners, for which I am grateful. The South was a scary place for me to grow up.

[Paul Trejo]

I don't know where you got Texas from. Terry is in Mississippi. Of curse there might also be a Terry in Texas, but my hometown is Terry, Mississippi, just south of Jackson.

Terri, thanks for the correction. The JFK research community should delve into FBI records of CounterPro-White Hate in 1964 in Terry, Mississippi. (There is a Terry County in Texas, so I mistook it.)

Having lived in New York a portion of my childhood, I am aware of how Northerners hold stereo-typical images of KKK. Like, [many] Northerners seem to think the KKK were all but extinguished in the 20's. In truth however, it was strong as ever in the South till the 80's and it has NOT gone away, but branched out.

In the North, people tend to separate police from Klan. In the south, police ARE Klan.

Most Northerners think that the KKK are backwoods, uneducated people. In truth however, many KKK are highly educated, wealthy and hold positions of power.

Most Northerners are unaware of how important segregation was, and sill is, to the the KKK or what a 'threat' education for Blacks, was.

Most Northerners think lynchings ended in hangings. To the Klan, a pile of rubber tires gets hot enough to burn anything.

[Many] Northerners think ALL Southerners are KKK. It is simply not true.

Most Northerners never hear about all the thousands of people the Klan are responsible for murdering, only the Northerners who are murdered.

It was Apartheid, completely.

You do have the other side of the coin, you Northerners, for which I am grateful. The South was a scary place for me to grow up.

Terri, I believe your descriptions of the South in your lifetime are sociologically valuable. You have a perspective that is rare in American literature, because it is an insider's experience.

As an avid follower of history books, I'm aware of the torrent of books about the Civil Rights movement, but I'm also aware of the very few books about the Segregation backlash in the USA. It is so difficult finding books -- or even historical records -- about the White Citizens' Council gatherings of 1962 and 1963 in Mississippi and Texas (or anywhere for that matter).

It is one thing to talk about the CIvil Rights heroes, but without the opposite side, without a firm knowledge of the White backlash in the South, we cannot appreciate the context of the Civil Rights heroes, so we are missing so much -- perhaps most of the story.

Your writings, Terri, fill a vast void. For those JFK buffs who want to understand the context of the JFK assassination, I think we need to understand the history of the White Citizens' Councils in the South far more than we ever have before.

Here's my current theory: the JFK assassination plot got into first gear with the Ole Miss riots of 30 September 1962. It moved into second gear in October, 1962 when ex-General Edwin Walker was tossed into an insane asylum, and then revved into third gear when Walker was released only five days later, with all but an apology from Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach. The plot moved into fourth gear in January, 1963, when a Mississippi Grand Jury acquitted Walker of any blame for the Ole Miss riots.

But the plot finally lifted off when Lee Harvey Oswald (and one other shooter) tried to assassinate ex-General Walker at his home on 10 April 1963 (at the blatant urging of the liberals George De Mohrenschildt, Volkmar Schmidt and many others who were at their party in early February).

The plot was set in stone on Easter Sunday 14 April 1963, when ex-General Edwin Walker learned that Lee Harvey Oswald was a suspect in his April shooting (which Walker learned from a government agent, as he always claimed, which is viable since George De Mohrenschildt told his friends Mr. and Mrs. Igor Voshinin on Easter Sunday, and she immediately told the FBI, says Dick Russell).

On Easter Sunday 14 April 1963, the patsy was finally discovered. All the Southern hate-talk about JFK was now set in motion in a real plot, with all the pieces totally planned.

My point is that the social context of Walker's plot to assassinate JFK (which has always been the cornerstone of my theory) must always involve the race riots at Ole Miss on 30 September 1962.

That's why I am trying my best to trace Walker's involvement with the racist South in 1962-1963. It seems to me that somebody has tried their best to destroy all those White Citizens' Council magazines from 1962-1963, because they are so far impossible to find.

That's also why I sincerely appreciate your ability to shed light on the White backlash of the South during 1962-1963.

Remember, too, that the mentor of James Meredith, Medgar Evers, was shot and killed on 12 June 1963 (and Meredith was shot on 6/6/1966). They were both key black figures in the Ole Miss episode. Remember, too, that ex-General Edwin Walker visited Evers' convicted killer, Byron de la Beckwith, in a Mississippi courthouse in February 1964, during his first mistrial, to offer Beckwith comfort.

The Ole Miss riots and the White Southern backlash against the Brown decision play major roles in the JFK assassination, in my opinion. I hope you'll keep sharing your experiences with this thread, Terri.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 24, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

Yeah, Terry Is in Hinds county, Mississippi.

As I have said, I was not and never will be a member of the KKK. It was the KKK that started the White Citizens' Council. It was Plan B. Plan A would have been for whites to control the White House and segregation to continue as it always had. White Citizens' Councils were set up to keep schools segregated for one thing. Pools, for another. White Citizens' Councils were just another tool Whites came up with, like the tool (literacy test) they had come up with to keep Blacks from voting. White Citizens' Councils were a way the KKK could operate legally to make any federal laws whites didn't like, ineffective. It was just another tool up the KKK sleeve.

To my knowledge, Evers and Meredith did spark a lot of controversy with KKK members. but what tilted the hand, was when Kennedy confiscated weapons my cousins were training with in Louisiana, to invade Cuba. It was the weapons that really got things heated up and plots boiling. Of course, Kennedy "shoving Meredith down southerners throats" made things all that much harder to swallow.

"How dare that niggah lovah force us to accept blacks in our schools and public places while taking our only means of protection away from us!" was more the attitude.

Hell, the NRA could have sponsored White Citizens' Councils for all I know. I am sure Mississippi was prime gun territory back then and probably still is. You don't mess with a Mississippian's guns. I would not be at all surprised if someone in the NRA is also KKK or some such group.

Fear factor. Gotta have the 'fear factor' to have it all makes sense to the people. Whites talked about what Blacks would do if they had an education, jobs, the vote, elected officials. Fear was whipped up thicker than a milkshake. People practically foamed at the mouth at the thought of guns being taken away. That hit their 'fear factor'. Not only was it having to accept Blacks in schools and public places, WITHOUT GUNS, but also the fear that the Cubans would invade them and they would not have weapons to defend themselves. If Kennedy had not taken away the weapons, he might still be alive, maybe not.

But then, I thought that was common knowledge anyway.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

...It was the KKK that started the White Citizens' Council. It was Plan B.

Plan A would have been for whites to control the White House and segregation to continue as it always had. White Citizens' Councils were set up to keep schools segregated for one thing. Pools, for another. White Citizens' Councils were just another tool Whites came up with...a way the KKK could operate legally to make any federal laws whites didn't like, ineffective. It was just another tool up the KKK sleeve.

Terri, that's a very interesting theory. I would like to research this in depth to find solid evidence for your theory. It makes sense, of course, since the White Citizens' Council (WCC) was a white supremacist organization, like the KKK. Yet a direct link is needed for historians.

For example, the WCC was founded in 1954 by a gentleman from Indianola, Mississippi, named Robert B. Patterson. If somebody has material evidence (like a photo at an exclusive KKK rally) to prove that Patterson was a member of the KKK, then we really have something solid.

I mean, your theory makes sense, Terri, but researchers need proof.

...What tilted the hand, was when Kennedy confiscated weapons my cousins were training with in Louisiana, to invade Cuba. It was the weapons that really got things heated up and plots boiling.

Of course, Kennedy "shoving Meredith down southerners throats" made things all that much harder to swallow. "How dare that niggah lovah force us to accept blacks in our schools and public places while taking our only means of protection away from us!" was more the attitude.

...You don't mess with a Mississippian's guns...

People practically foamed at the mouth at the thought of guns being taken away. That hit their 'fear factor'. Not only was it having to accept Blacks in schools and public places, WITHOUT GUNS, but also the fear that the Cubans would invade them and they would not have weapons to defend themselves.

Your words have a resounding ring of truth, Terri. (In 1984 a movie was released about that 1962 fear of Cuba, namely, Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze. It's a classic. Incidentally it has been remade just this year, with North Koreans instead of Cubans as the invaders.)

Back to your point -- it was the twin fear of gun control along with school integration that shocked the South. You would emphasize the gun control, and I think you're right -- because most schools in the USA are now racially integrated, but gun control is still a major fear-factor in USA politics.

If Kennedy had not taken away the weapons, he might still be alive, maybe not. But then, I thought that was common knowledge anyway.

No, Terri, I don't think your point is appreciated by everybody. I happen to sympathize with your point, but it seems to me that most JFK researchers don't place enough emphasis on the scandal of gun control politics that JFK caused.

Perhaps most JFK researchers think of JFK's ban on right-wing paramilitary training grounds as a simple demand for common sense, while the more right-wing citizens among us would classify it as a breach of our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Insofar as the South was quite rightist in 1962, we should finally recognize that JFK made *millions* of enemies in the South by banning paramilitary training camps during the Cuban Crisis.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 18, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Michael Hogan]

I came across this book on EBay, allegedly signed by Hoover http://www.ebay.com/...r-/380401140740

ATTACK ON TERROR: THE FBI AGAINST

THE KU KLUX KLAN IN MISSISSIPPI

by

Don Whitehead

New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970. First edition.

Hardcover book size is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Hardcover book with dustjacket, book is in near fine condition

with price clipped dustjacket which shows some edge wear.

321 pages.

Inscribed by J. Edgar Hoover.

The FBI's attack on the Ku Klux Klan. This book

has been inscribed by J. Edgar Hoover, the only copy of this KKK

title that I've come across that is signed by Hoover.

Of course the book was written from a pro-FBI point of view.

[Terri Williams]

I came across this book on EBay, allegedly signed by Hoover http://www.ebay.com/...r-/380401140740

ATTACK ON TERROR: THE FBI AGAINST

THE KU KLUX KLAN IN MISSISSIPPI

by

Don Whitehead

New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970. First edition.

Hardcover book size is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Hardcover book with dustjacket, book is in near fine condition

with price clipped dustjacket which shows some edge wear.

321 pages.

Inscribed by J. Edgar Hoover.

The FBI's attack on the Ku Klux Klan. This book

has been inscribed by J. Edgar Hoover, the only copy of this KKK

title that I've come across that is signed by Hoover.

Of course the book was written from a pro-FBI point of view.

Okay, so you want proof. I don't have it. But the funny thing is, that the FBI with all their "infiltrating" 'don't have it' either. If what I say is true, which it is, and the KKK had a hand in the assassination of Kennedy, then the FBI should damn well know. To me, the only answer is, that they didn't infiltrate; they joined.

So Hoover wrote a book about it. Does that mean everything Hoover says is fact? He also claimed the Mafia didn't exist. Maybe he infiltrated the Mafia, too.

And it's really strange that the FBI with all their infiltrating didn't know the KKK started the White Citizens' Council. In fact, it seems awfully odd that, in 50 years the FBI don't really have much to show for all their "work" on the case. It almost comes across as a serious omission of evidence. Either they are corrupt or I am just crazy. I believe there is enough proof that I am crazy, if you like. It's up to you to see the truth when it presents itself and if Hoover is your guiding light, then hey, the Mafia doesn't exist.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Michael Hogan]

And it's really strange that the FBI with all their infiltrating didn't know the KKK started the White Citizens' Council......

It is a mistake to portray the Ku Kux Klan as a monolithic organization. It is a historical mistake to ignore the role of the White Knights of the KKK in the 1960s.

It is a mistake to claim that the KKK started the Citizens' Council.

According to an American Radio Works documentary by Kate Ellis and Stephen Smith (bold added):

When the Supreme Court handed down its landmark 1954 desegregation ruling, segregationists in Mississippi moved fast. A prominent planter and World War II veteran in the Delta, Robert “Tut” Patterson, had already begun organizing whites just prior to the ruling. A racist tract written by Mississippi Judge Tom Brady shortly after the decision outlined a platform opposing racial integration. With Brady for inspiration, Patterson got busy. On July 11, 1954 Patterson convened a group of prominent leaders in Indianola. Later that month they held a town meeting. Roughly 100 people came. They created the first Citizens’ Council, an organization that would grow to be the most powerful opponent of civil rights activism in Mississippi.

By 1956, the Citizens’ Council had chapters in a majority of Mississippi counties and had attracted some 80,000 members. The movement also spread quickly across the South. Membership tended to be highest in counties where the population was more than 50 percent black. Headed by the most prominent local businessmen, professionals and governing officials, the goal of the Citizens’ Council was to use every possible means to lawfully resist desegregation.

......For all its economic and social force, the Citizens’ Council denied having any hand in violence against African Americans. Indeed, the Council explicitly rejected any association with the Ku Klux Klan. The Council dismissed Klan members as low-class troublemakers who would tarnish Mississippi’s reputation. According to Neil McMillen, Judge Tom Brady warned, “Unless we keep and pitch our battle on a high plane, and unless we keep our ranks free from the demagogue, the renegade, the lawless and the violent, we will be branded, as we should be branded, a fearful, underground, lawless organization.”

Nevertheless, historian John Dittmer observes, “Through its unrelenting attack on human rights in Mississippi, the Citizens’ Council fostered and legitimized violent actions by individuals not overly concerned with questions of legality and image.” McMillen says this was one reason, at least, that the KKK did not organize extensively in Mississippi until the early 1960s. The Klan wasn’t needed -- yet. The Citizens’ Council provided adequate cover for white vigilantes.

Since the end of the 1920s, the Klan had been largely inactive in Mississippi. Historians say the Klan simply wasn’t needed to maintain white supremacy. But as the civil rights movement gained momentum in the state, a man named Edward L. McDaniel was recruited to revive the Klan. McDaniel was born and raised in Natchez, Mississippi, near the border of Louisiana. He grew up in Depression-era poverty and dropped out of high school to help earn money for his family. He was mobilized to fight civil rights activists by the Ole’ Miss crisis. McDaniel was especially embittered toward the federal government. “We had witnessed what happened in Little Rock under the Eisenhower administration,” McDaniel said in an oral history interview. “And then this happen[ed] here at home. It really upset me and it upset a lot of other people. But it seemed like every way you'd go your hands were tied.”

In 1963 McDaniel was working as a truck driver and made frequent deliveries in Louisiana. One day when he was discussing the Ole’ Miss crisis with a friend in Louisiana the man invited him to a meeting. “We sat there and talked a while, and then about that time a guy come out and he was robed out [wearing a Klan robe],” McDaniel said.

“He went through the process of wanting to know if I wanted to join the Klan and how I felt about the situation with the Klan,” McDaniel continued. “I made a decision that evening. I went in, was sworn in the Klan, and I guess thirty or forty guys that was robed out and everything. It was a real experience. And when they took the robes off, I knew half of them or more.”

McDaniel worked relentlessly to build up the Klan in Mississippi. Within six months, he had organized chapters in 76 counties in the state. In 1964, McDaniel became Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America (UKA). Like the Citizens’ Council, the UKA disavowed violence, while secretly condoning it. But a rival Klan emerged in Mississippi at the same time, the White Knights of the KKK. They were more secretive than the UKA, but more deadly. According to sociologist David Cunningham: “ The White Knights were responsible for most of the highly visible acts of violence in MS throughout ‘60s,” including at least ten murders.

http://americanradio...ippi/index.html

Edited January 18, 2013 by Michael Hogan

[Terri Williams]

Ooops! I reiterate, Ooops!

Edited January 18, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

“ The White Knights were responsible for most of the highly visible acts of violence in MS throughout ‘60s,” including at least ten murders.

It was the White Knights that I grew up surrounded by. They were most deadly. My grandmother drove my brothers and I out to see a couple of lynchings when we were young (around 55-59). The White Knights ruled the roost in my neck of the woods. Even on the Gulf Coast, where I spent my summers with my other grandparents, the White Knights reigned supreme. Another uncle of mine, my father's brother, was in the White Knights. He lived in Gulfport. He was close with the Dixie Mafia, probably a member.

The principal who came around to tell us that the president had been shot, his name was Mr. McDaniel.

To join the White Knights, usually aimed at young teens, one had to do something nasty to someone the Klan didn't like. Since I was considered a "n lover", when my cousin, a few year older than me, wanted to join (at the age of twelve, late 50's) she was accepted after she bullwhipped me, with a full length bullwhip.

Of course my great grandparents were upset about it, but they had no power to stop her from joining the Klan. They could even see why she wanted to. We lived around the most violent Klansmen, they were all over the place, especially next door, across the road. I know that in 1967, when I had returned from another 18 month stay in Syracuse, NY, the White Knights were in a frenzy about integration. That's when I first heard of the White Citizens' Council. Much talk was going around about how to keep blacks out of public places. They were really concerned about having to swim in a mixed pool and sending their kids to school with blacks, let alone sitting in a library next to a black person or standing in line with blacks to vote.

So the "Academies" (private white-only schools) started springing up. Terry developed the Terry Academy for all the good white Klankids. That was the next trick up their sleeve to stop integration. My grandmother wanted me to go to the academy, but I refused and threatened to drop out of school if she sent me there. In August of 1968 or 9, the school my great grandmother, my grandmother and mother had attended, that had always been pure white, was then mixed.

There were some Klan kids in attendance. They were the ones who didn't have the money to go to the private school. They were considered poor white trash. My grandmother was livid that I wanted to attend at a school with poor white trash, let alone black children.

It was not new to me. In New York I had already gone to, not only school, but church with black people and they were my friends. They were decent people, not at all like the Klan had portrayed blacks to be. I even had a black boyfriend.

But back in Mississippi, it was an entirely different scene. There was no going anywhere with black people, if you were white, even if you wanted to. The Klan made sure no one stepped out of line without retribution. It was scary.

By 1970 I was quite fed up with being afraid of the Klan. I started rebelling.

My mother had moved us all back to New York in September of 1965, a year after my friend Junior was murdered. We lived there until the end of 1966, then went back to Mississippi. There was much talk about integration and the Klan kids were in a frenzy. I hopped on my horse and rode out to a white friend's house one afternoon, after school. She was upset about blacks coming to Terry School. I told her about my experiences in New York, that blacks went to church, school and everywhere with whites.

She was horrified. I went on and told her that I even had a black boyfriend and was trying to tell her what a nice person he was when she jumped up, said, "Excuse me" and left the room.

It was when she close her bedroom door that I saw the Klan robes hanging on the back of the door. The next thing you know, her father was standing in the doorway. Fear shot through me. I had no idea Joyce was Klan. Her father owned the grocery store where the town's black people mostly shopped, so I thought he was not Klan. But that was a big mistake. He was high up in the White Knights.

He told me in the very same voice, the same words that Mr. Lewis had told me a decade earlier, "You gonna hafta leave here now and don't come back here no mo'". I jumped on my horse and rode back into town as fast as I could. I was very afraid, since I was on a back road.

And if you seriously think that only 10 people lost their lives at the hands of the White Knights, you are dead wrong. Lynchings were not an everyday occurrence, but they happened often enough and in enough places, that there was probably more like hundreds of people who lost their lives in lynchings. In fact, the only time I remember the rest of the USA making a big deal about anyone who was lynched was ONLY when the two whites boys were killed. You would not know Chaney's name if he hadn't been with the white boys.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

Even New Orleans was all Klan, as far as I could tell. I know that when my grandfather, (mother's father, piano player) played in clubs in New Orleans, he would, like most musicians, jam with the band members (some were black) afterwards. His family, who lived in Old Spanish Town, were informed by the Klan, that he had been "cavorting" with blacks. They were urged strongly to have him committed, which the family did. Same with my mom. White folks, of prominent families, were shipped off to the nutward, by the family, at the insistence of the White Knights. Granpop eventually killed himself, so the story goes.

[Terri Williams]

Since the end of the 1920s, the Klan had been largely inactive in Mississippi. Historians say the Klan simply wasn’t needed to maintain white supremacy.

This may have been the case. I remember, before Rosa Parks and in the earlier fifties, that we used to go visit the Taylors, the black family who helped out my great grand parents. My great grandparents and even grandmother would sit on the porch with Ruth and Lem and have a friendly conversation, while all us kids had fun playing together in the front yard (at the black folks's house). It was like a party and I got along better with the Taylors than I ever did with the Lewis'. Then after Little Rock and especially Rosa Parks, we never did that anymore. I kept asking to go visit and my grandmother would get furious. I never really understood why.

We used to go to the Ransom's and play, too. I used to play with Martha's children and Junior was a playmate. I like Junior because he was strong and gentle. I did not have a crush on him, I merely thought he was a fine human being; I thought of him as a good friend, someone I could trust. Then after the mid fifties, we were not allowed to go visit anymore. For most of the time that I lived in Mississippi, the scene was quite surreal. I guess because I moved around so much and because I saw the situation more from a Northern perspective. I found it hard to take the White Knights seriously. It was a big mistake. I was then labeled "carpetbagger" and called a "traitor". But nothing they did ever bent my will.

I knew they were wrong, that all their talk of the dangers black people presented was 'hyperbole'. I knew it wasn't true. There was nothing on Earth that could have made me join the Klan.

This upset my grandmother. I don't know how many of you have done your research into the Klan enough to know about the Royal Titles that were granted to Klan members back then. Not that the Crown and the KKK were in bed together, just that one was descedent from another, down from the Magna Charta, as my family is.

I am not bragging, nor am I trying to incriminate the Royal Family, just saying that it is a fact that some White Knight members had Royal titles. The men would have had titles of 'Baron' or 'Knight' and the women 'Dame'. Well my grandmother was one of them. In order to be granted a royal title, one had to prove they were directly descedent from the families of the Magna Charta (oddly enough). Many southerners were descendent from royal Scottish families, as mine is. My grandmother managed to obtain the proof she needed and helped other southern families do the same. The titles meant a lot to them and descendants were expected to fall into line, Klan line.

My grandmother had tried to entice my mother into line with the title, after Mom's bus thing. My grandmother wanted desperately for my mother to be her successor. but Mom would not have any of it. So my grandmother then turned her sites towards me. I was to be the successor, since I was the first born daughter of her first born, a daughter.

So it was important to my grandmother, that since she failed with her own daughter, that she succeed in making me into the her "little princess". I had a protocol to follow and I was xxxxing up big time by the end of the 60's.

The White Knights in my hometown, gave my grandmother an ultimatum. Whitfield had not worked to whip my mother into line, nor my grandfather. The title business wasn't working on my mother or me, I was, at the age of 17, according to the Klan, ruined beyond hope.

So, they called her up and said, "We can't protect her no mo' (meaning I would finally be taken to the woods). You gonna hafta send her to Bubba." So off to live with uncle Bubba, my mother's younger brother, I went.

The titles were important to the Klan, I believe. My grandmother had no lack of work coming up with the documentation and coats of Arms for them.

My grandmother was from the family that had given the land the town was built on, to the town, so long as they named it after him, Robert Terry, my great grandmother's uncle. The Terry's had not always been favoured, however, because the Patriarch of the family had bought slaves, merely to set them free. So my family was under a lot of pressure, that I was unaware of at the time, to tow Klan lines. My family's money and land had dispersed over the century since the days of Robert Terry, so we were not as powerful as we once were. My grandmother, I think was trying to relive old days of glory or something and often bragged that her first cousin was senator Sam Ervin.

So it was tremendoudly important to her that I tow the line, and since I was considered ruined by 17, I was disposed of, so everyone thought.

Sorry for rambling on so, but since there is not much literature on the history of the White Klansmen South, I feel it is important that you understand the headspace they were coming from. What ever sort of Klan were in the rest of the country, the White Knights ruled our neck of the woods, and I believe, most of the south back then.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Michael Hogan]

.......And if you seriously think that only 10 people lost their lives at the hands of the White Knights, you are dead wrong. Lynchings were not an everyday occurrence, but they happened often enough and in enough places, that there was probably more like hundreds of people who lost their lives in lynchings.

I don't know where you get the notion that I think any such thing. I can only conclude that you are not a careful reader.

Until my last post you never mentioned the White Knights. Now all of a sudden you grew up surrounded by them. Now all of a sudden, you're writing about them.

As far as your claim that the KKK started the Citizens' Council, it is you that is dead wrong. You don't seem to want to talk about that.

There are a lot of EF members here that know more about Civil Rights and the South in the 60s than you might think.

You wrote about all the misconceptions that Northerners have about racism in the South and yet you continue to show a lack of even

the most basic knowledge or curiosity about the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. The material is out there and easily accessible.

Terri, I really don't have a desire to engage in extended debate with you. Just don't attribute things to me I didn't say. Please.

If Paul wants to find your stories reasonable and credible, that's his business. My thoughts are more in line with those of Lee Farley.

[David Andrews]

Deleted

Edited January 19, 2013 by David Andrews