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Paul, one quick question before I respond to the major part of your comments. I asked above and still wonder, why do you refer to 'Extreme Right Wing of the South'?

Well, Kenneth, in 2013 I studied the effect of the 1954 Brown Decision (by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren) on the Southern US States. Their reaction to the Brown Decision was quite different than the Northern reaction. It was at this time that we saw a sharp revival of the Confederate Flag in the South.

Although by 1954 the KKK was already severely curtailed in the South, what history witnessed in Mississippi in response to the Brown Decision was something called the "Citizen Councils," also called the "White Citizen Councils" in some regions.

The Citizens Councils recognized that Earl Warren had rendered the Brown Decision in response to political pressure from the NAACP. Therefore, the Citizens Councils targeted the NAACP for special negative pressure.

Realizing that the brute force of the KKK was the main cause of its bad reputation in the USA, the Citizens Councils rejected the KKK and its methods, and concentrated instead on Economic Measures against the NAACP. Membership lists of the NAACP were obtained, and then each member was systematically subjected to Bank Loan recalls, Bank Loan denials, employment rejection and employment termination by any means available.

The Citizens Councils were extremely successful in the 1950's, so that the Brown Decision was largely ignored in the deep South throughout the 1950's. This is what I call the Extreme Right Wing in the South, Kenneth. It's a resistance to Racial Equality under the Law. I take this to be the same as what Dr. Caufield calls the "Radical Right".

President Eisenhower had to respond to this culture in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957, using thousands of Federal Forces to admit thirteen Black American students to Little Rock High School. Eisenhower selected General Edwin Walker to enforce the Brown Decision there, and Walker did that successfully.

However, the Extreme Right Wing converged upon General Walker personally in Little Rock, between 1957 and 1959, so that by 1959 General Walker submitted his first resignation to the US Army, even forfeiting his Army pension, citing "a fifth column conspiracy." Eisenhower rejected that resignation and instead rewarded Walker's success at Little Rock with a command over the 24th Infantry in Augsburg Germany. (Yet Walker would soon resign again, and the second time, JFK would accept the resignation.)

I digress. My reference to the Extreme Right Wing in the South is simply this movement to "Impeach Earl Warren" because of his Brown Decision. Not until the 1960's did Mississippi submit fully to the Brown Decision -- but again it required JFK to send thousands of Federal Troops to Ole Miss University. This time the resigned General Walker was on the other side of the fence -- leading the charges against Federal Troops.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Thanks for that response. I've never made a 'study' of the KKK. However I grew up in the South and have lived here always and I've never seen any KKK activities. Seems as if they're always some other place. Much of it in the North.

So I guess I kinda interpret your use of the sentence "Extreme Right Wing of the South" just as a repetition because someone else used it.

I certainly don't see any reason to associate the assassination of JFK with the South, yes it did happen there but could just as easily have been in Chicago or some northern city. I think it was unrelated to geography.

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Does anyone (besides Paul) believe this statement by Paul?

"Although by 1954 the KKK was already severely curtailed in the South..."

I certainly do. In fact I'd say most of it was over by 1930. While there are still quite a few chapters listed throughout the US, there are little or no 'racial activities'.

Well, then, you and Paul are gravely in error. Check out any historian's writings about the Klan and you will notice that there were two major periods during the 20th century when it grew and was potent. The second period began just after the 1954 Brown decision and continued into the 1960's.

For example: check KKK scholar, David Cunningham's writings. He served as the major consultant for the PBS 2013 series Klansville USA - which was informed by his book Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era KKK (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Below I copy the text of one summary of Klan growth and activity which accurately reflects the history (despite what you and Paul think). I highlight and underline one key portion.

I also recommend that interested parties review the FBI files on the Klan which I donated to Internet Archive. In particular, review documentation regarding the most violent Klan in our nation's history -- i.e. The White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi -- whose Imperial Wizard was Sam Bowers. Also review the extensive 1965-1966 hearings about the Klan by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Also check the FBI monograph about the Klan during the period from 1958-1964 (link below). No serious student of the Klan or of U.S. history believes the conclusion stated by yourself and Paul:

https://archive.org/stream/foia_FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964/FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964#page/n0/mode/2up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South. They gained members from extremist elements among the White Citizens Councils themselves. These organizing efforts succeeded in mobilizing former Klansmen who had been inactive for years.
The strongest of the new groups consisted of klaverns linked under the banner of the U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. (generally referred to as the "U.S. Klans"). This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, and had incorporated his new organization on October 24, 1955.
By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia, the site from which the Second Klan had been launched in 1915. The crowd came in more than 1,000 cars painted with KKK emblems and bearing license plates from seven states – Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana.
At its peak in the late 1950s, Edwards' U.S. Klans had units in nine Southern states. However, the group was beset by internal feuding and challenges to the Edwards leadership. In addition, more than a score of smaller Klans emerged to compete with the Edwards organization.
Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations.
The New Klan Resurgence and Violence
In the early 1960s, the Klans functioned as a clandestine movement that spearheaded the resistance to a national trend toward equality for all Americans. Like their predecessors, the `60s Klans employed terrorism and a form of guerrilla race warfare to carry out their purposes. The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s. The Klans provided the organizational framework and the emotional stimulus necessary to incite members and non-­members alike to violence and terror.
The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. The Klan resurgence was spurred by the historic sit-­in movement launched at Greensboro, North Carolina on February 2, 1960, by young Black civil rights activists. A few weeks later, on the weekend of February 27-28, 1960, representatives of splintered Klan groups from seven Southern states met at the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta and formed a "National Klan Committee" to coordinate their activities. The Klans represented there had long been opposed to Edwards' U.S. Klans; in fact, this opposition was the chief bond among them. The loose confederation of splinter Klans that emerged came to be known as the "National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Edited by Ernie Lazar
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The 1960's rise and activities of extremely well networked and violent Klan groups such as the White Knights of Mississippi is extremely well documented...including with the arrest, trial and conviction of their members. Certainly their activities from 64-64 are easy to find and the subject of everything from books to movies such as Mississippi burning.

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Does anyone (besides Paul) believe this statement by Paul?

"Although by 1954 the KKK was already severely curtailed in the South..."

I certainly do. In fact I'd say most of it was over by 1930. While there are still quite a few chapters listed throughout the US, there are little or no 'racial activities'.

Well, then, you and Paul are gravely in error. Check out any historian's writings about the Klan and you will notice that there were two major periods during the 20th century when it grew and was potent. The second period began just after the 1954 Brown decision and continued into the 1960's.

For example: check KKK scholar, David Cunningham's writings. He served as the major consultant for the PBS 2013 series Klansville USA - which was informed by his book Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era KKK (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Below I copy the text of one summary of Klan growth and activity which accurately reflects the history (despite what you and Paul think). I highlight and underline one key portion.

I also recommend that interested parties review the FBI files on the Klan which I donated to Internet Archive. In particular, review documentation regarding the most violent Klan in our nation's history -- i.e. The White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi -- whose Imperial Wizard was Sam Bowers. Also review the extensive 1965-1966 hearings about the Klan by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Also check the FBI monograph about the Klan during the period from 1958-1964 (link below). No serious student of the Klan or of U.S. history believes the conclusion stated by yourself and Paul:

https://archive.org/stream/foia_FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964/FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964#page/n0/mode/2up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South. They gained members from extremist elements among the White Citizens Councils themselves. These organizing efforts succeeded in mobilizing former Klansmen who had been inactive for years.
The strongest of the new groups consisted of klaverns linked under the banner of the U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. (generally referred to as the "U.S. Klans"). This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, and had incorporated his new organization on October 24, 1955.
By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia, the site from which the Second Klan had been launched in 1915. The crowd came in more than 1,000 cars painted with KKK emblems and bearing license plates from seven states – Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana.
At its peak in the late 1950s, Edwards' U.S. Klans had units in nine Southern states. However, the group was beset by internal feuding and challenges to the Edwards leadership. In addition, more than a score of smaller Klans emerged to compete with the Edwards organization.
Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations.
The New Klan Resurgence and Violence
In the early 1960s, the Klans functioned as a clandestine movement that spearheaded the resistance to a national trend toward equality for all Americans. Like their predecessors, the `60s Klans employed terrorism and a form of guerrilla race warfare to carry out their purposes. The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s. The Klans provided the organizational framework and the emotional stimulus necessary to incite members and non-­members alike to violence and terror.
The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. The Klan resurgence was spurred by the historic sit-­in movement launched at Greensboro, North Carolina on February 2, 1960, by young Black civil rights activists. A few weeks later, on the weekend of February 27-28, 1960, representatives of splintered Klan groups from seven Southern states met at the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta and formed a "National Klan Committee" to coordinate their activities. The Klans represented there had long been opposed to Edwards' U.S. Klans; in fact, this opposition was the chief bond among them. The loose confederation of splinter Klans that emerged came to be known as the "National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Ernie, you don't have a clue. But then you're living in California, so we can't expect much.

What you quoted above: There is no there, there. You don't say anything about violent activities of the KKK. Having a membership card has nothing to do with activities. I'm a life member of the NRA and I've never been to a meeting and haven't fired a gun in 10 years.

I think if you were to re'read what you wrote above, you would have a difficult time trying to find the 'violent activities' you are implying.

I grew up in South Georgia in the 1940's and have lived in the South all my life and I've never seen anyone in a white sheet except in movies, on tv and maybe some photos in newspapers. I've never known anyone that I know to be a member of the Klan.

1. "By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South."

What does that mean? Saying there was a 'marked rise' has nothing to do with actually being increased activity.

2. "This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision,"

Wow, sounds 'terrifying' doesn't it. 'quietly begun organizing' I guess he passed the 'membership' cards while whispering.

3. "By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia," Sounds terrifying. They left out the details on how many people were hanged that weekend. Wow, 3000.....and in over 1000 cars with 'license plates'.

4. "Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations." You probably didn't intend to leave that sentence in did you? Sounds as if they never 'really' got organized.

5. "The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s." Sounds bad? the writer must not have been to Chicago on a typical weekend. I'd like to see some comparative numbers on all these folks that were killed by the Klan in the South in the 60's compared to what happens every week in Chicago. I'm sure you have those numbers at your fingertips.

6. "The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. " Sounds as if most of the 'terrifying' activities of the Klan had to do with organizing and consolidation. Couldn't find a lot of stories about lynchings. I'm sure you have those catalogued. Please tell us about some.

7. There are about as many Klan organizations listed in the North as in the South. Chicago is in the North.

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The 1960's rise and activities of extremely well networked and violent Klan groups such as the White Knights of Mississippi is extremely well documented...including with the arrest, trial and conviction of their members. Certainly their activities from 64-64 are easy to find and the subject of everything from books to movies such as Mississippi burning.

Larry, how well documented are the violent activities in Chicago? There are as many people killed on the typical weekend in Chicago as was claimed to be killed in the entire south by the 'klan' throughout the 60's.

There were more black people killed in Chicago this Labor Day weekend than were killed throughout the South by the Klan in the entire decade of the 60's. Which one is the problem?

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The 1960's rise and activities of extremely well networked and violent Klan groups such as the White Knights of Mississippi is extremely well documented...including with the arrest, trial and conviction of their members. Certainly their activities from 64-64 are easy to find and the subject of everything from books to movies such as Mississippi burning.

Yes, Larry, you are correct but one should also remember that although not as much attention has been paid to the North Carolina Klan under the leadership of Grand Dragon Bob Jones, he grew the North Carolina Klan from a small group of friends to over 10,000 members -- more than the Klans of all other southern states combined.

In addition, this notion that the KKK had been "severely curtailed" by 1954 does not make any sense whatsoever when one considers the symbiotic relationship between Klan groups and the Citizens Councils. They both pursued the same objectives and they both favored the same politicians and the same public policies.

The instrumentalities of local and state government in many of our southern states (particularly in Mississippi) were precisely what Birch Society speaker/author and prominent African American columnist George Schuyler described in a 1961 column he wrote (his comment copied below):
“The White Citizens Council which has branches or cells everywhere, controls by terror such states as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and to a lesser extent, Virginia…It has defied and disrupted the operation of the laws of the land. It has used threats and vicious economic reprisals…It has become a legal arm of Mississippi’s Government.” [4/22/61 Schuyler column in Pittsburgh PA Courier]
Another JBS member (Rev. Delmar Dennis) infiltrated the most violent Klan in our country (the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi) for the FBI. Dennis reported that:
“The Klan in Mississippi has completely infiltrated every phase of the legal, political, social and economic system in Mississippi. The membership in the Klan ranges from common laborers and criminals, to judges, lawyers, doctors and political leaders. While they may not be active members, they are secret members who use their influence to further Klan efforts and aid Klan activities, for example, it is generally known in Klan circles that supervisors who pick juries use their influence to get Klan members on the jury panel.”
Furthermore, it can be very difficult to clearly differentiate between Klan activities versus activities initiated or recommended by non-Klan groups.
For example:
(1) The JBS supported U.S. Senator James O. Eastland of MS and the JBS gave Eastland a score of 96 on its Conservative Index. Their Index was meant to identify the degree to which our national politicians understood Constitutional values and principles and then voted appropriately for legislation.
However, Eastland was a life-long white supremacist who sought and received Klan support for his election campaigns. He impeded the prosecutions of Klansmen who were responsible for the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. A letter by one of the defendants in that case, (Sheriff Lawrence Rainey) addressed “To Whom It May Concern” stated: “I know for a fact that James O. Eastland helped prevent the trial of 16 other men and myself in Philadelphia MS.”
An FBI informant inside the White Knights of KKK of MS reported on 10/20/66 that in Klan circles in the Meridian MS area, there was awareness that Eastland “has been taking credit for the Federal Government dropping charges against those indicted in the Neshoba County slayings.”
The FBI memo on the matter reports that “a prominent local Klansman” in Lauderdale County MS reported that Eastland appeared at a rally held in Forest MS and that Eastland had invited Sam Bowers, Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi, to occupy the speaker’s stand at the rally. "During the rally…Eastland stated that he would help the 17 defendants in the Neshoba County case and that he has been ‘pulling strings for them’. “
(2) Rev. Ferrell Griswold was an Alabama JBS member who spoke under the auspices of the Birch Society's Speakers Bureau on the topic “Civil Rights or Civil Riots” . He was a segregationist and Citizens Council member who frequently spoke at Klan meetings. Griswold told the FBI that he considered the KKK to be a "conservative organization". One FBI report about one of his speeches mentions: "He claimed the Negro civil rights movement is completely dominated by Communists.
(3) Bircher Bill McIlhany who wrote the 1975 book: "Klandestine: The Untold Story of Delmar Dennis and His Role In The FBI’s War Against the Ku Klux Klan" sent me an email which observed that:
"I was disappointed that [JBS magazine - American Opinion] editor Scott Stanley NEVER reviewed Klandestine in American Opinion. He also published an article in AO praising Elmore Greaves, who ran the KKK-fundraising front I described in Klandestine, the so-called White Christian Protective and Legal Defense Fund. When I asked Scott about this, he said, 'You can fight the klan if you want. I’ll fight the Communists.' Which indicated he had not read my book. Medford Evans, father of M. Stanton Evans, wrote many articles and book reviews in AO, many of which were excuses for essays he wanted to write rather than real book reviews. He had expertise about Soviet theft of the atomic bomb. But he was also heading up the White Citizens Councils in Mississippi, which I thought was rather embarrassing. I visited him when I lectured in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 70s. It was clear that he did not like what Delmar did. The Mississippi JBS coordinator at that time also said that some JBS members did not like what Dennis did."
So, at some point, one has to calculate how non-Klan individuals and groups nevertheless did everything they could to protect white privilege and assure the continued domination of their city, county, and state governments by racist bigots -- in ways which actual Klan officials and Klan members welcomed and praised and supported.
Edited by Ernie Lazar
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The 1960's rise and activities of extremely well networked and violent Klan groups such as the White Knights of Mississippi is extremely well documented...including with the arrest, trial and conviction of their members. Certainly their activities from 64-64 are easy to find and the subject of everything from books to movies such as Mississippi burning.

Larry, how well documented are the violent activities in Chicago? There are as many people killed on the typical weekend in Chicago as was claimed to be killed in the entire south by the 'klan' throughout the 60's.

There were more black people killed in Chicago this Labor Day weekend than were killed throughout the South by the Klan in the entire decade of the 60's. Which one is the problem?

There is no moral or practical equivalence between the violence and murders in Chicago and the violence and murders which occurred in Mississippi (and other states) during the 1960's.

That Kenneth Drew would even stoop to make such comparisons is despicable and reveals some depraved indifference within his person.

In Mississippi (and other states) the black Americans murdered or lynched or castrated (and bombed in their churches) were often killed or mutilated solely because they wanted to vote or they wanted to peacefully assemble to bring attention to long-standing legitimate grievances and they wanted be treated with respect and dignity as human beings. Very often, the violence they were subjected to was condoned or even perpetrated by local law enforcement officials who were Klan members or Klan sympathizers.

As J. Edgar Hoover famously observed about the state of law enforcement in Mississippi — at the same press conference where he called MLK Jr. “a notorious l-i-a-r”, — Mississippi was “…filled with water moccasins, rattlesnakes, and red-neck sheriffs, and they are all in the same category, as far as I am concerned.”
Edited by Ernie Lazar
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Does anyone (besides Paul) believe this statement by Paul?

"Although by 1954 the KKK was already severely curtailed in the South..."

I certainly do. In fact I'd say most of it was over by 1930. While there are still quite a few chapters listed throughout the US, there are little or no 'racial activities'.

Well, then, you and Paul are gravely in error. Check out any historian's writings about the Klan and you will notice that there were two major periods during the 20th century when it grew and was potent. The second period began just after the 1954 Brown decision and continued into the 1960's.

For example: check KKK scholar, David Cunningham's writings. He served as the major consultant for the PBS 2013 series Klansville USA - which was informed by his book Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era KKK (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Below I copy the text of one summary of Klan growth and activity which accurately reflects the history (despite what you and Paul think). I highlight and underline one key portion.

I also recommend that interested parties review the FBI files on the Klan which I donated to Internet Archive. In particular, review documentation regarding the most violent Klan in our nation's history -- i.e. The White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi -- whose Imperial Wizard was Sam Bowers. Also review the extensive 1965-1966 hearings about the Klan by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Also check the FBI monograph about the Klan during the period from 1958-1964 (link below). No serious student of the Klan or of U.S. history believes the conclusion stated by yourself and Paul:

https://archive.org/stream/foia_FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964/FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964#page/n0/mode/2up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South. They gained members from extremist elements among the White Citizens Councils themselves. These organizing efforts succeeded in mobilizing former Klansmen who had been inactive for years.
The strongest of the new groups consisted of klaverns linked under the banner of the U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. (generally referred to as the "U.S. Klans"). This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, and had incorporated his new organization on October 24, 1955.
By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia, the site from which the Second Klan had been launched in 1915. The crowd came in more than 1,000 cars painted with KKK emblems and bearing license plates from seven states – Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana.
At its peak in the late 1950s, Edwards' U.S. Klans had units in nine Southern states. However, the group was beset by internal feuding and challenges to the Edwards leadership. In addition, more than a score of smaller Klans emerged to compete with the Edwards organization.
Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations.
The New Klan Resurgence and Violence
In the early 1960s, the Klans functioned as a clandestine movement that spearheaded the resistance to a national trend toward equality for all Americans. Like their predecessors, the `60s Klans employed terrorism and a form of guerrilla race warfare to carry out their purposes. The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s. The Klans provided the organizational framework and the emotional stimulus necessary to incite members and non-­members alike to violence and terror.
The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. The Klan resurgence was spurred by the historic sit-­in movement launched at Greensboro, North Carolina on February 2, 1960, by young Black civil rights activists. A few weeks later, on the weekend of February 27-28, 1960, representatives of splintered Klan groups from seven Southern states met at the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta and formed a "National Klan Committee" to coordinate their activities. The Klans represented there had long been opposed to Edwards' U.S. Klans; in fact, this opposition was the chief bond among them. The loose confederation of splinter Klans that emerged came to be known as the "National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Ernie, you don't have a clue. But then you're living in California, so we can't expect much.

What you quoted above: There is no there, there. You don't say anything about violent activities of the KKK. Having a membership card has nothing to do with activities. I'm a life member of the NRA and I've never been to a meeting and haven't fired a gun in 10 years.

I think if you were to re'read what you wrote above, you would have a difficult time trying to find the 'violent activities' you are implying.

I grew up in South Georgia in the 1940's and have lived in the South all my life and I've never seen anyone in a white sheet except in movies, on tv and maybe some photos in newspapers. I've never known anyone that I know to be a member of the Klan.

1. "By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South."

What does that mean? Saying there was a 'marked rise' has nothing to do with actually being increased activity.

2. "This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision,"

Wow, sounds 'terrifying' doesn't it. 'quietly begun organizing' I guess he passed the 'membership' cards while whispering.

3. "By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia," Sounds terrifying. They left out the details on how many people were hanged that weekend. Wow, 3000.....and in over 1000 cars with 'license plates'.

4. "Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations." You probably didn't intend to leave that sentence in did you? Sounds as if they never 'really' got organized.

5. "The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s." Sounds bad? the writer must not have been to Chicago on a typical weekend. I'd like to see some comparative numbers on all these folks that were killed by the Klan in the South in the 60's compared to what happens every week in Chicago. I'm sure you have those numbers at your fingertips.

6. "The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. " Sounds as if most of the 'terrifying' activities of the Klan had to do with organizing and consolidation. Couldn't find a lot of stories about lynchings. I'm sure you have those catalogued. Please tell us about some.

7. There are about as many Klan organizations listed in the North as in the South. Chicago is in the North.

Kenneth -- nobody is fooled by your bigotry. You want specific evidence of VIOLENCE? Then read the Klan monograph whose link I provided. Or read the HUAC hearings. Or read the hundreds of books and doctoral dissertations written by our nation's most prominent historians and political scientists.

Nobody could possibly be as willfully ignorant as you claim to be.

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During 1951 and 1952 the homes of 40 black Southern families were bombed. Among the more notorious murders by Klan members:


The 1951 Christmas Eve bombing of the home of NAACP activists Harry and Harriette Moore in Mims, Florida, resulting in their deaths.

The 1957 murder of Willie Edwards, Jr. Klansmen forced Edwards to jump to his death from a bridge into the Alabama River.

The 1963 assassination of NAACP organizer Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was convicted.

The 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four African-American girls. The perpetrators were Klan members Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died before he was indicted.

The 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, in Mississippi. In June 2005, Klan member Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter.

The 1964 murder of two black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. In August 2007, based on the confession of Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards, James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted. Seale was sentenced to serve three life sentences. Seale was a former Mississippi policeman and sheriff's deputy.

The 1965 Alabama murder of Viola Liuzzo.

The 1966 firebombing death of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr. in Mississippi. In 1998 former Ku Klux Klan wizard Sam Bowers was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Two other Klan members were indicted with Bowers, but one died before trial, and the other's indictment was dismissed.

The 1967 multiple bombings in Jackson, Mississippi of the residence of a Methodist activist, Robert Kochtitzky, and those at the synagogue and at the residence of Rabbi Perry Nussbaum on Old Canton Road were executed by a Klan member named Thomas Albert Tarrants III who was convicted in 1968. Another Klan bombing was averted in Meridian the same year.


For additional examples, see:

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Does anyone (besides Paul) believe this statement by Paul?

"Although by 1954 the KKK was already severely curtailed in the South..."

I certainly do. In fact I'd say most of it was over by 1930. While there are still quite a few chapters listed throughout the US, there are little or no 'racial activities'.

Well, then, you and Paul are gravely in error. Check out any historian's writings about the Klan and you will notice that there were two major periods during the 20th century when it grew and was potent. The second period began just after the 1954 Brown decision and continued into the 1960's.

For example: check KKK scholar, David Cunningham's writings. He served as the major consultant for the PBS 2013 series Klansville USA - which was informed by his book Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era KKK (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Below I copy the text of one summary of Klan growth and activity which accurately reflects the history (despite what you and Paul think). I highlight and underline one key portion.

I also recommend that interested parties review the FBI files on the Klan which I donated to Internet Archive. In particular, review documentation regarding the most violent Klan in our nation's history -- i.e. The White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi -- whose Imperial Wizard was Sam Bowers. Also review the extensive 1965-1966 hearings about the Klan by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Also check the FBI monograph about the Klan during the period from 1958-1964 (link below). No serious student of the Klan or of U.S. history believes the conclusion stated by yourself and Paul:

https://archive.org/stream/foia_FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964/FBI_monograph-Klan_Organizations-Section_III_1958-1964#page/n0/mode/2up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South. They gained members from extremist elements among the White Citizens Councils themselves. These organizing efforts succeeded in mobilizing former Klansmen who had been inactive for years.
The strongest of the new groups consisted of klaverns linked under the banner of the U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. (generally referred to as the "U.S. Klans"). This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, and had incorporated his new organization on October 24, 1955.
By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia, the site from which the Second Klan had been launched in 1915. The crowd came in more than 1,000 cars painted with KKK emblems and bearing license plates from seven states – Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana.
At its peak in the late 1950s, Edwards' U.S. Klans had units in nine Southern states. However, the group was beset by internal feuding and challenges to the Edwards leadership. In addition, more than a score of smaller Klans emerged to compete with the Edwards organization.
Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations.
The New Klan Resurgence and Violence
In the early 1960s, the Klans functioned as a clandestine movement that spearheaded the resistance to a national trend toward equality for all Americans. Like their predecessors, the `60s Klans employed terrorism and a form of guerrilla race warfare to carry out their purposes. The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s. The Klans provided the organizational framework and the emotional stimulus necessary to incite members and non-­members alike to violence and terror.
The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. The Klan resurgence was spurred by the historic sit-­in movement launched at Greensboro, North Carolina on February 2, 1960, by young Black civil rights activists. A few weeks later, on the weekend of February 27-28, 1960, representatives of splintered Klan groups from seven Southern states met at the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta and formed a "National Klan Committee" to coordinate their activities. The Klans represented there had long been opposed to Edwards' U.S. Klans; in fact, this opposition was the chief bond among them. The loose confederation of splinter Klans that emerged came to be known as the "National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Ernie, you don't have a clue. But then you're living in California, so we can't expect much.

What you quoted above: There is no there, there. You don't say anything about violent activities of the KKK. Having a membership card has nothing to do with activities. I'm a life member of the NRA and I've never been to a meeting and haven't fired a gun in 10 years.

I think if you were to re'read what you wrote above, you would have a difficult time trying to find the 'violent activities' you are implying.

I grew up in South Georgia in the 1940's and have lived in the South all my life and I've never seen anyone in a white sheet except in movies, on tv and maybe some photos in newspapers. I've never known anyone that I know to be a member of the Klan.

1. "By mid-1956, a marked rise in Klan activity was well underway – new Klan groups were drawing strength from the ferment in the South."

What does that mean? Saying there was a 'marked rise' has nothing to do with actually being increased activity.

2. "This group was subsequently chartered and incorporated in the State of Georgia. The leader of the new group was Eldon Lee Edwards, a paint sprayer employed in an Atlanta auto factory. He had quietly begun organizing in 1953, had stepped up his activities in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision,"

Wow, sounds 'terrifying' doesn't it. 'quietly begun organizing' I guess he passed the 'membership' cards while whispering.

3. "By September 29, 1956, Edwards was able to stage one of the largest Klan rallies in years, drawing a crowd of approximately 3,000 to Stone Mountain, Georgia," Sounds terrifying. They left out the details on how many people were hanged that weekend. Wow, 3000.....and in over 1000 cars with 'license plates'.

4. "Although the U.S. Klans remained the strongest of the Klan groups in the South during the second half of the 1950s, Edwards was never able to gain a dominant position, nor to unify the competing and fragmented Klan organizations." You probably didn't intend to leave that sentence in did you? Sounds as if they never 'really' got organized.

5. "The Klans and their allies were responsible for a major portion of the assaults, killings, bombings, floggings, and other acts of racial intimidation that swept the South in the first years of the 1960s." Sounds bad? the writer must not have been to Chicago on a typical weekend. I'd like to see some comparative numbers on all these folks that were killed by the Klan in the South in the 60's compared to what happens every week in Chicago. I'm sure you have those numbers at your fingertips.

6. "The year 1960 was marked by a sharp increase in Klan activities and by the consolidation of some of the previously splintered groups in seven states. " Sounds as if most of the 'terrifying' activities of the Klan had to do with organizing and consolidation. Couldn't find a lot of stories about lynchings. I'm sure you have those catalogued. Please tell us about some.

7. There are about as many Klan organizations listed in the North as in the South. Chicago is in the North.

Kenneth -- nobody is fooled by your bigotry. You want specific evidence of VIOLENCE? Then read the Klan monograph whose link I provided. Or read the HUAC hearings. Or read the hundreds of books and doctoral dissertations written by our nation's most prominent historians and political scientists.

Nobody could possibly be as willfully ignorant as you claim to be.

"Kenneth -- nobody is fooled by your bigotry. You want specific evidence of VIOLENCE? Then read the Klan monograph whose link I provided. Or read the HUAC hearings. Or read the hundreds of books and doctoral dissertations written by our nation's most prominent historians and political scientists.

Nobody could possibly be as willfully ignorant as you claim to be."

Geez, Ernie, did your wife cut you off last night, or something? You wake up with a vendetta this morning? As long as you choose to live in California, I wouldn't bring up the subject of ignorance.

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Thanks for that response. I've never made a 'study' of the KKK. However I grew up in the South and have lived here always and I've never seen any KKK activities. Seems as if they're always some other place. Much of it in the North.

So I guess I kinda interpret your use of the sentence "Extreme Right Wing of the South" just as a repetition because someone else used it.

I certainly don't see any reason to associate the assassination of JFK with the South, yes it did happen there but could just as easily have been in Chicago or some northern city. I think it was unrelated to geography.

Well, Kenneth, what I said was that I made a study of the Citizens Councils that began in the mid-1950's in response to the Brown Decision. I didn't say I made a study of the KKK.

I've read a lot about the KKK, however, and I agree that they haven't disappeared -- however, their power and influence -- even in the 1960's -- cannot be compared to their vast power and influence at the turn and the early part of the 20th century.

I refer to the era of President Woodrow Wilson, who encouraged the KKK in the South, and invited them to a massive march in Washington DC. The 1915 movie by D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation (which adulates the KKK), was extolled by President Wilson not only as great art, but as historical fact.

(We should remember the roots of the US Democratic Party in the South as the party opposite Abe Lincoln, which often bowed to the Dixiecrats in the South until the arrival of FDR. Woodrow Wilson was favored for the Presidency by those who praised his successful efforts to keep Princeton University purely white.)

The 1910's were the days when the KKK was truly powerful -- because they had the backing of the President of the USA.

Matters were sharply reduced for the KKK by the 1950's, because the brutality of arbitrary lynching in the South became widely reported. Things got so bad for the KKK that when Earl Warren passed his Brown Decision, political leaders in the South struggled to distance themselves from the KKK, knowing that their brutal methods would only bring damnation down from Washington DC.

So, the Citizens Councils were born in order to torment the NAACP -- without resorting to KKK methods.

In no way did I imply that the KKK had vanished. As Larry noted, the 1988 movie, Mississippi Burning (starring Gene Hackman, Willem Defoe and Frances Louise McDormand) offers a graphic portrayal of KKK activity suppressing the Civil Rights movement with murder in 1964.

This is precisely what the Citizens Councils were hoping to avoid.

Rather, the preferred methods of the Citizens Councils were to telephone the employers of NAACP members, and harass them until each employee was fired, and to telephone the mortgage bankers of NAACP members, and harass them until their loans were called in. Firings and evictions were the methods of the Citizens Councils -- rather than beating, shooting and lynching methods of the KKK.

And their slogan was: "Impeach Earl Warren!"

As for the geography of the JFK assassination -- I truly believe that too little is made of it. Yes, there were also JFK murder plots in Miami, in Chicago and even in Washington DC. However all those plots were quickly foiled by the FBI and Secret Service.

It is historically significant, IMHO, that the FBI and Secret Service were blind-sighted specifically in Dallas -- in the South.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited by Paul Trejo
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During 1951 and 1952 the homes of 40 black Southern families were bombed. Among the more notorious murders by Klan members:
The 1951 Christmas Eve bombing of the home of NAACP activists Harry and Harriette Moore in Mims, Florida, resulting in their deaths.
The 1957 murder of Willie Edwards, Jr. Klansmen forced Edwards to jump to his death from a bridge into the Alabama River.
The 1963 assassination of NAACP organizer Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was convicted.
The 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four African-American girls. The perpetrators were Klan members Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died before he was indicted.
The 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, in Mississippi. In June 2005, Klan member Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter.
The 1964 murder of two black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. In August 2007, based on the confession of Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards, James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted. Seale was sentenced to serve three life sentences. Seale was a former Mississippi policeman and sheriff's deputy.
The 1965 Alabama murder of Viola Liuzzo.
The 1966 firebombing death of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr. in Mississippi. In 1998 former Ku Klux Klan wizard Sam Bowers was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Two other Klan members were indicted with Bowers, but one died before trial, and the other's indictment was dismissed.
The 1967 multiple bombings in Jackson, Mississippi of the residence of a Methodist activist, Robert Kochtitzky, and those at the synagogue and at the residence of Rabbi Perry Nussbaum on Old Canton Road were executed by a Klan member named Thomas Albert Tarrants III who was convicted in 1968. Another Klan bombing was averted in Meridian the same year.
For additional examples, see:

So, you listed some 17 persons killed by the Klan from 50 thru 67 and you say that the lives taken in Chicago can't compare with those deaths. Sounds like an opinion of someone from California, or something.

I wonder how many of the parents of the 8 persons murdered in Chicago this weekend would agree with you that their child was less valuable and didn't compare to the death of a child in Mississippi. Get me a list of those, would you?

This significant event: " Another Klan bombing was averted in Meridian the same year." was really newsworthy, I wonder how many additional murders were averted in Chicago this weekend. I live in a small city of about 10,000 and no one was killed this weekend, so I guess we could say that 'the deaths of 10,000 local citizens was averted this weekend.

When you start throwing words like 'ignorant' around, you're only inviting comparisons. Having a different point of view is not necessarily ignorance. I personally think the lives of the folks in Chicago are of the same value as the persons in Mississippi. I guess it's 'who is doing the killing' that makes it unimportant to you.

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Thanks for that response. I've never made a 'study' of the KKK. However I grew up in the South and have lived here always and I've never seen any KKK activities. Seems as if they're always some other place. Much of it in the North.

So I guess I kinda interpret your use of the sentence "Extreme Right Wing of the South" just as a repetition because someone else used it.

I certainly don't see any reason to associate the assassination of JFK with the South, yes it did happen there but could just as easily have been in Chicago or some northern city. I think it was unrelated to geography.

Well, Kenneth, what I said was that I made a study of the Citizens Councils that began in the mid-1950's in response to the Brown Decision. I didn't say I made a study of the KKK.

I've read a lot about the KKK, however, and I agree that they haven't disappeared -- however, their power and influence -- even in the 1960's -- cannot be compared to their vast power and influence at the turn and the early part of the 20th century.

I refer to the era of President Woodrow Wilson, who encouraged the KKK in the South, and invited them to a massive march in Washington DC. The 1915 movie by D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation (which adulates the KKK), was extolled by President Wilson not only as great art, but as historical fact.

(We should remember the roots of the US Democratic Party in the South as the party opposite Abe Lincoln, which often bowed to the Dixiecrats in the South until the arrival of FDR. Woodrow Wilson was favored for the Presidency by those who praised his successful efforts to keep Princeton University purely white.)

The 1910's were the days when the KKK was truly powerful -- because they had the backing of the President of the USA.

Matters were sharply reduced for the KKK by the 1950's, because the brutality of arbitrary lynching in the South became widely reported. Things got so bad for the KKK that when Earl Warren passed his Brown Decision, political leaders in the South struggled to distance themselves from the KKK, knowing that their brutal methods would only bring damnation down from Washington DC.

So, the Citizens Councils were born in order to torment the NAACP -- without resorting to KKK methods.

In no way did I imply that the KKK had vanished. As Larry noted, the 1988 movie, Mississippi Burning (starring Gene Hackman, Willem Defoe and Frances Louise McDormand) offers a graphic portrayal of KKK activity suppressing the Civil Rights movement using murder in 1964.

This is precisely what the Citizens Councils were hoping to avoid.

Rather, the methods of the Citizens Councils were to telephone the employers of NAACP members, and harass them until each employee was fired, and to telephone the mortgage bankers of NAACP members, and harass them until their loans were called in. Firings and evictions were the methods of the Citizens Councils -- rather than beating, shooting and lynching methods of the KKK.

And their slogan was: "Impeach Earl Warren!"

As for the geography of the JFK assassination -- I truly believe that too little is made of it. Yes, there were also JFK murder plots in Miami, in Chicago and even in Washington DC. However all those plots were quickly foiled by the FBI and Secret Service.

It is historically significant, IMHO, that the FBI and Secret Service were blind-sighted specifically in Dallas -- in the South.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Thanks Paul. Unlike you, I've not done a study of the Citizens Councils. As I've said, I was born in south Georgia, grew up there, have lived in Va, NC, SC, AL, FL, Ms and La and I have never seen or known a member of the Klan. Edit: I have also never known a member of a 'citizens council'. end edit. I have known several members of the NRA but it is especially a non violent organization.

From what I've read about the Klan of the early century, circa 1915, it seems to have been primarily against the Catholic Church, for some reason.

Any or all klan activities I heard of back in the 50's-60's were always somewhere else, not near where I was.

The Democratic party of the south prior to 1960 were the racists. They converted over to complete racial pandering with the arrival of the civil rights decisions of the 50's 60's. So while they are still the racists in the South today, they at least hide it well enough to keep the black people voting for them. My opinion is if you didn't have the Democrats with their racial pandering, especially in the South but actually throughout the US, there would be little noticeable racism remaining in the US. Especially with Repubs in the south, race is a non issue except for the Democrat pandering for votes.

Back to the issue of Extreme Right Wing. You know that many people refer to Nazi's as 'extremist and right wing', etc? Well, of course they were extremist, but it is all 'left wing'. The very name is National Socialists and very few socialists would come down on the 'right' in politics.

As I say though, I know you didn't invent the term, but I think it is a much 'misused' term and is often only repeated without thought being given as to the meaning.

Just a casual observation, if I were putting 60's pols in their proper alignment. I would put LBJ on the left, I would put JFK a little to the right. I would think the lefties would have more reason to kill JFK than the righties. It would bring LBJ to the presidency so that he could improve the pandering to the civil rights groups.

So, it still remains my problem as to the association of Walker to Extreme Right Wing except as to the benefit to the Extreme lefties that it brought to them by the reference.

Edited by Kenneth Drew
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Thanks for that response. I've never made a 'study' of the KKK. However I grew up in the South and have lived here always and I've never seen any KKK activities. Seems as if they're always some other place. Much of it in the North.

So I guess I kinda interpret your use of the sentence "Extreme Right Wing of the South" just as a repetition because someone else used it.

I certainly don't see any reason to associate the assassination of JFK with the South, yes it did happen there but could just as easily have been in Chicago or some northern city. I think it was unrelated to geography.

Well, Kenneth, what I said was that I made a study of the Citizens Councils that began in the mid-1950's in response to the Brown Decision. I didn't say I made a study of the KKK.

I've read a lot about the KKK, however, and I agree that they haven't disappeared -- however, their power and influence -- even in the 1960's -- cannot be compared to their vast power and influence at the turn and the early part of the 20th century.

I refer to the era of President Woodrow Wilson, who encouraged the KKK in the South, and invited them to a massive march in Washington DC. The 1915 movie by D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation, was extolled by President Wilson not only as great art, but as historical fact. We should always remember the roots of the US Democratic Party in the South, as the party that opposed Abe Lincoln's Republican Party, and which quickly bowed to the Dixiecrats in the South. Woodrow Wilson was favored for the Presidency by those who praised his successful efforts to keep Princeton University purely white.

The 1910's were the days when the KKK was truly powerful -- because they had the backing of the President of the USA.

Matters were sharply reduced for the KKK by the 1950's, because the brutality of arbitrary lynching in the South became widely reported. Things got so bad for the KKK that when Earl Warren passed his Brown Decision, political leaders in the South struggled to distance themselves from the KKK, knowing that their brutal methods would only bring damnation down from Washington DC.

So, the Citizens Councils were born in order to torment the NAACP -- without resorting to KKK methods.

In no way did I imply that the KKK had vanished. As Larry noted, the 1988 movie, Mississippi Burning (starring Gene Hackman, Willem Defoe and Frances Louise McDormand) offers a graphic portrayal of KKK activity suppressing the Civil Rights movement using murder in 1964.

This is precisely what the Citizens Councils were hoping to avoid.

Rather, the methods of the Citizens Councils were to telephone the employers of NAACP members, and harass them until each employee was fired, and to telephone the mortgage bankers of NAACP members, and harass them until their loans were called in. Firings and evictions were the methods of the Citizens Councils -- rather than beating, shooting and lynching methods of the KKK.

And their slogan was: "Impeach Earl Warren!"

As for the geography of the JFK assassination -- I truly believe that too little is made of it. Yes, there were also JFK murder plots in Miami, in Chicago and even in Washington DC. However all those plots were quickly foiled by the FBI and Secret Service.

It is historically significant, IMHO, that the FBI and Secret Service were blind-sighted specifically in Dallas -- in the South.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

As usual, Paul has his facts wrong. In many previous messages, I have pointed out that fiction writers are not constrained by any rules of logic or evidence. Consequently, they can simply invent whatever they want -- and substitute their fertile imagination for fact. Paul often makes bold declarations but please notice that he NEVER directly quotes his sources -- especially primary source documentation to support his contentions. That is because Paul is primarily a fiction writer and he does not want to be constrained by actual factual evidence.

FOR EXAMPLE:

The "Movement to Impeach Earl Warren" slogan came into usage in January 1961 as a result of a John Birch Society project on its monthly agenda for its members, The precipitating event given as justification for the impeachment campaign was a series of Supreme Court rulings which the Birch Society considered to be damaging "to our Constitution and to our whole system of safeguards which a constitutional republic offers against the powers of demagogues to manipulate majorities..."

The JBS claimed that the Warren Court was consciously destroying the established notion of "state's rights". [Check out the JBS "Impeach Warren" packet for details and see info quoted below].

The "Grounds For Impeachment" portion of the argument for replacing Warren does not focus just upon or primarily upon the Brown decision. But Paul does NOT want anybody to know that because it undermines his fictional narrative.

The "Impeach Warren" packet refers to the Brown decision as "only a horrible beginning". Most of the "grounds" listed focus upon Smith Act case decisions by the Court. In particular, the JBS discusses the Steve Nelson case, the Koninsberg case, and the Sweezy case.

It is therefore, anti-historical to claim (as Paul does) that the Brown decision was the primary motivation behind the Impeach Warren movement.

The Birch Society produced a one-page flyer which contains what they considered to be their best anti-Warren arguments. There are six (6) itemized reasons which I am going to quote below---because (unlike Paul Trejo) I believe in primary source documentation.

As will be seen below, JBS reasoning was focused upon something quite different from what Paul wants us to believe.

(1) "Chief Justice Warren had no judicial experience when appointed to his present position. Many of his decisions have shown abysmal ignorance of, and utter contempt for, the most fundamental principles of law"

(2) "In cases involving Communist purposes and personnel Warren has voted as desired by the Communists more than ninety percent of the time."

(3) "Among the immediate effects of some of the Warren Court decisions have been: to free known Communists, who had been properly convicted of some crime, from sentences already imposed; to force both local and federal government agencies to re-employ, frequently with huge sums of back pay, employees who had been dropped for supporting Communist purposes; to deprive the separate states of all power to protect themselves against Communist subversion."

(4) "Chief Justice Warren has taken the lead in both the decisions and the attitude of the Supreme Court, aimed at doing away with those safeguards of law which would maintain this nation as a constitutional republic, and at converting it into a democracy---in which all individual rights, minority rights, and property rights would be completely subject to the whims and views of demagogues temporarily in power".

(5) "Chief Justice Warren has been accused by his fellow Justices of the Supreme Court, in various dissenting opinions, of many different usurpations of power; and of invasions of the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of private citizens, of states, and of Congress. These violations of the Constitution by a Supreme Court Justice are certainly impeachable offenses.

(6) "Many of the Warren Court decisions, which he has written, or in which he has concurred, have given aid and comfort to our Communist enemies. This is unmistakably proved by the actions of the Communists themselves. After the infamous 'Red Monday' decisions, on June 17, 1957, a leading Communist on the west coast exulted: 'This is the greatest victory the Communist Party ever had'. And in September, 1957, the Communists held a rally in New York 'To pay honor to the U.S. Supreme Court and its recent decisions' and to 'Hit out at attempts to undo the decisions.'

The closing paragraph summarizes the JBS position -- i.e. the primary reason why the JBS wanted Warren impeached was because of "the incredible distortions of law, precedent and justice required to make such decisions and the gaping holes which those decisions have punched in the Constitution of the United States..."

The Citizens Council movement began in 1954. Obviously - they did not need any slogan regarding Earl Warren to energize or justify their movement. Their concern was triggered by one Supreme Court decision that directly affected their entire existence and the underlying arguments which justified the prevailing practices which were extant in our southern states at that time. The Councils correctly understood that overturning "separate but equal" could never be limited to only public education. Over time, the Court would inevitably make comparable decisions about other areas of southern life.

Edited by Ernie Lazar
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