CARNAGE CIVIL WAR OBSERVER

~ EDITORIAL PAGE ~

March 21, 1868

Ku Klux Klan:

The Epitome of Ethnic Evil

By Marie Garlock

Concealed in the cloak of religiosity, false kinship and cowardice, the "Ku Klux Klan" is a hideous monster spawned from evil’s ignorance and hatred’s spouting fires, and is a disgraceful detriment to our post-civil-war society. This racist group of mongrels misrepresents others born to the white race, spreading the cancer of hatred and bigotry throughout Southern society. The "reconstruction" era we are now living in is the prime habitat for the vermin Klan, enabling this infested carrier of hatred and fear to contaminate the countryside. The Klan was founded in 1865, and since then has terrorized all who oppose it, including the Negroes, the abolitionists and the entire nation.

In the three short (yet seemingly long) years since the Klan was started, the "Knights" have terrified thousands, but have done so by cowardice- through secrecy only do they make their moves. This secrecy was one of the main principles the founders agreed on when the diabolical plan for the KKK was hatched one windy night in December 1865 in Pulaski TN, near the Alabama border. Six embittered Confederate veterans started the Klan. Using fanciful titles and elaborate rites to boost their image, the fledgling Klan elected a former Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest (their second choice to Robert E. Lee), to be the "Grand Wizard" (or head) of the organization. N. B. Forrest, who participated in many victorious Confederate battles, was a Lt. General admired for his military strategies. The positions of "Grand Magi" (assistant), "Grand Turk" (who greets candidates for admission), the "Grand Scribe" (secretary), "Night Hawk" (messenger), "Lictor" (guard) and "ghoul" (member) were created that night. Initially , the Klan only accepted members who had been honorably discharged from the Confederate Army or had been in Union prisons during the war, but now the barbaric Klan accepts all men of corresponding beliefs into the Invisible Empire’s "klaverns" (local organizations).

Heavy with symbolism, this group of ruffians derived the name "Ku Klux Klan" from the Greek word "kuklos" meaning circle (in this context, white racial brotherhood), and the English word "clan." The symbol of the Klan is a circle (they believe that it represents creativity and unity among the white race) and the red ultimately represents the blood of Jesus Christ- they believe that they are "true Christians" and that the blood of Jesus Christ was shed for them and only them. The Klan burns crosses at their meetings and in front of the houses of people they wish or plan to torture or kill. This ritual of "lighting the cross" is used to represent the "blazing spirit of Western Christian Civilization" and was ironically adapted from the Scottish symbol of opposition to tyranny and obedience to God.

The ghastly group of men ride upon sheet-clad horses in the night to hide their criminal acts. The costumes these men wear are white linen sheets covering their bodies and pointed hats over their heads, intending to create the impression of ghosts to scare superstitious Negroes. The hats, held up by a stick within, give the Klansmen their desired ghostly look- but some of them add hair, quills and red paint for a more dramatic "nightly-ride." Many of the shroud-like robes are sewn by women who find materials and instructions tossed into their windows, not even knowing the name of the person they labor for.

Through the recent rule of whites, black "slave codes" have been introduced since the War - virtually re-enslaving the Negroes. The Klan feels it is their duty to reinforce these unjust laws that they call the "Ku Klux Laws." Though the government has instituted enforcement acts to prohibit the often glaringly criminal, yet also frequently secret "invisible government" of the Ku Klux Klan, the tactics of cowardice and terror have seemingly won out. In recent months, unorganized groups of Negroes have tried to revolt against these evils, yet they were disorganized, and the Klan quickly slaughtered them (as they do to all that oppose them). The government appears to be doing all in its power to eradicate the KKK, yet no methods have thoroughly worked, for the hidden venom of the Klan is still spread by the vicious bite of the sheet-clad Southern Klansman.

The cruel Klan is a resistance through cowardice, and its members insist in the "ultimate supremacy of whites" and the inferiority of Negroes. It arose out of Southern anger over the Civil War defeat. Their "sour grapes" include the fact that the Southern cities and farms were ruined and the South was "poor and hungry" (assuredly, the poor whites did not suffer any fraction of the pain the slaves endured, though). They feel that all has been lost, including their slaves and honor (what "noble honor" from these vicious murderers!).

The primary targets of the Klan are Negroes, Republicans and Northerners. Now that the Negroes have been given suffrage (the right to vote), the Republican party is the only place for them, and one of the many malicious missions of the Klan is to prevent Negroes from having any rights- especially those remotely equal to those of whites. The Klan has been known to scare away Negroes from the polls in any way possible - exploiting the superstitious beliefs of former slaves (they dress up as dead Confederate soldiers) and using any other feasible tactics to scare away potential votes against Southern white favor. They are known to murder Negroes suspected of Republican sympathies. After murdering the blacks, they place their votes several times under different names. They also want to prevent Negroes from attending schools and are known to stab, beat and kill teachers and educators in Negro schools, saying that these people need to "get out of town." As part of this campaign of terror, White Liners set up dummies representing Negroes and shoot the targeted things full of holes in shooting contests. They then parade the battered dummies through the streets. In Jackson Mississippi, Governor Ames’s wife was reported to have said, "the crack of the pistol or gun is as frequent as the barking of dogs."

The Klansmen, in a quest to prevent civil equality, have committed numerous and unforgivable acts of violence. The Klan’s major goal is to "kill or drive away all leading Negroes and only let the humble and submissive remain." It now seems that anyone wearing a pointed hood and a white sheet can get away with rape, assault, floggings, beatings, mutilations, shootings and murders of Negroes and those who oppose the ignorant and immoral beliefs of the Klan. An elderly black man named Charles Green was ordered to cook a meal for a mob of 100 whites, and was then shot by a white man who later explained his "need to try out his gun." They have been known to capture Negroes and ride them around like goats- on all fours with the evil whites on their backs. They then carry the victims up to a bridge, make them stand on its banisters and shoot them off into the water. The Klan shoots people and leaves them lying in the middle of the road with biscuits or apples in their dead, innocent mouths. They tar and feather people- this basically means that they boil people alive in tar (it is a pain close to death, but they do not receive the relief of dying) and then they cover the person in feathers. The KKK leaves coffins on the doorsteps of those they plan to murder, carved with their saying, "some live today- tomorrow die." The Klan lynches innocent people- they kidnap Negroes and hang them from trees until their deaths, enjoying every sick moment of it. The purpose of the Klan started to take away the voting rights of superstitious Negroes and has now become an organization of murderers and rapists and is the hub of evil in the newly reconstructed America.

According to the KKK, the whites were "beggared, mourning, poor lost souls that had freed slaves and equal voting rights as the inferior Negroes." Such pain -- to give people of the same species as they, but with a different color of skin, the right to live and vote and lead simple, yet insufficiently nurtured lives. The pain they endure pales alongside the Negroes’ suffering, with inadequate shelter, food and clothes, whose backs are still scarred by the slashes of their whips, and whose bodies and spirits are still crushed by the oppression of slavery and the tyranny of the Klan.

The Klan evidently is seen by its members as "leadership and a rallying point for Southern whites to begin their arduous struggle to regain their lost dignity and indeed the values of Western civilization." The Klansmen believe that they stand for the beliefs of "America First," the Constitution (this fine document should not be read, let alone interpreted to fuel the evil of these dogs) and "Free Enterprise." The KKK calls itself a "righteous Christian organization"- and could not be farther from the truth.

As a white person and as a Christian, I am enraged by the scars left by these vicious snakes who claim to be part of the same group as me. These fiends’ beliefs and practices are as far from Christian as Hell is from Heaven – the Klan are hateful, violent, murderous, unlawful, narrow-minded, egotistical pigs who do not deserve the privilege of calling themselves American. Indeed, the true Christian and American ways are to forgive, tolerate and love- the exact opposite of what the Klan stands for. The Klan is an intolerant mass of prejudice and is a compromise between the "know-nothing party," slave-owners, racist scum and the devil himself. Rather than drive others out, the Klan should not have the right to live in America. Perhaps they should move to a remote island off of the American coast- there they could establish their bigoted government, have an all white population and not be bothered by the "offensive" Negroes, abolitionists, Republicans and Northerners.

The Klansmen of the KKK are sore-losers that need to cut their losses and rebuild in the face of the truth that the Union army won the Civil War. For the sake of this country’s welfare, they need to stop trying to win through terrorism what they lost on the battlefield. The pure sins that the Klan commit make me sick to my stomach and overwhelmed with grief. The KKK is the epitome of all evil in our society, and the group brings shame to all of the white race. This Klan is detrimental not only to society and the world, it is detrimental to itself- it strips whites of their dignity and reputations, yet none is as bad as what they do to the Negroes of our time. The serpents that call themselves men, pastors and preachers hide in cowardice and wickedness behind their pointy hoods, dirtying with blood not only their white hands, but the rolling hills of the once grand and now violence-torn America. The Ku Klux Klan is a disgrace, a malevolent, hateful core of crime and monstrosities, and a treasonous dragon whose sharp fangs tear away at freedom, harmony, peace, love, Christianity, diversity, equality and life- the foundations of our unified nation.