On Christmas Eve, 1865, in Pulaski, TN, six former Confederate officers were drinking at a fraternal social club when they came up with the Ku Klux Klan idea. Those six officers remain unidentified, but by 1867, former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had been appointed the first “Grand Wizard.” Forrest had been generally considered a fine military leader except that Fort Pillow Massacre blemish his record. After the Civil War, he’d been reduced to managing a plantation using convict labor, so becoming Grand Wizard was a step up.
Bedford’s superior forces attacked Fort Pillow, which had about 600 soldiers, half of them black. After their commanding officer was killed by a sniper and the second-in-command ran away, the troops eventually complied with Bedford’s earlier request to surrender, expecting to be taken captive. General Bedford ordered the 300 black soldiers shot and killed, which he later defended because the white officer who ran away refused to surrender hours before. After the Civil War, he’d been reduced to managing a plantation using convict labor, so becoming Grand Wizard was a step up.
The early Klansmen made their own outfits, including fake beards, horns, polka-dot hats, pillowcases, flour sacks, and even blackface; some wore white or other colored robes. Their outfits were designed to instill fear and keep their identities secret.
During the early years of the Klan, many Southern cities were still occupied by Federal troops (former Union Soldiers). Immediately after the end of the Civil War, Southern states began passing legislation called the Black Codes, which did their best to duplicate slavery, controlling the labor and behavior of the former slaves. The reaction to that from Congress was the passage of a series of Reconstruction Acts beginning in 1867, which gave black men the right to vote and participate in government. This drove the Klan to take up one of their primary missions, voter suppression, to restore white power throughout the South. The Klan threatened and killed black leaders (along with white carpetbaggers). They murdered black people with little repercussions for trying to vote, being uppity, and real or imagined offenses against white women.
The first of three iterations of the Klan mostly faded away when the Compromise of 1877 led to the removal of Federal Troops from the South to resolve a disputed Presidential Election in 1876. The Republicans, who until then were anti-slavery and had previously placed their thumb on the South through the Federal troops they controlled, were allowed to retain the Presidency while agreeing to remove the Federal troops that made Reconstruction possible. The troops left, Democrats regained control, and almost all of those black Representatives in Congress were either defeated in the next election or forced out of their races by the threat of violence. The Federal Government did conduct some Klan prosecutions beginning in 1872 and even claimed victory over the Klan, but the number of lynchings throughout the South told a different tale. The threat of long prison sentences drove them further underground, but like the devil, they were busy.
History is replete with stories of what happened before the end of Reconstruction. The tale of what happened afterward is less forthcoming. Jim Crow laws were passed in Southern states, including Tennessee, there was less of a need for the Klan as they had gained through the legislative process, almost everything they hoped to obtain with violence.
In 1915, the Klan made a strong comeback, greatly influenced by the film “The Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the original Klan. The film depicted black people as savages and a threat to white women; the Klan was portrayed as heroes. President Woodrow Wilson screened the film in the White House; the movie included a screenshot of Wilson’s book, “A History of the American People,” which was generally favorable to the Klan.
The Birth of a Nation pictured Klansmen almost uniformly in the white robes we’re now accustomed to, not the come as you are collecting outfits more typical of the first iteration of the Klan. Two things happened to cause the white robes and pointed (dunce) cap to catch on. A Georgia preacher, William Joseph Simmons, viewed the response of people to the film. Many white Southerners, in particular, began wearing Klan aprons and the regalia depicted in the film. Simmons began organizing, deciding the Klan must rise again.
The second event was the publication of a catalog. The Klan was one of several organizations that had salesmen call on them promoting items. They began including items from the film and soon published a catalog of robes and other items for the occasion where a sheet with holes in it wouldn’t do. Various colors represented a rise in hierarchy and power within the organization. The standard white represented purity and their “Christian beliefs.” The colored robes represented power though specific meanings differed among sects. Purple was typically the Imperial Wizard.
The standard robe came at the price of $5 and was almost all white.
As one rose in the ranks, they got fancier gear like the Exalted Cyclops.
There were several other designs with names including; Terror, Special Terror, Band Man, Band Master, Service Man, Great Titan, my favorite the Imperial Representative,
And as a reward for a lifetime of service, the Grand Dragon.
Once properly outfitted, the Klan held parades and marches. Could this have been the first Million Man March in 1928?
The Great Depression left many Klansmen unable to pay their dues, leading to a great reduction in their numbers. What’s recognized as the third era of the Klan coincided with Civil Rights. Some say it ran between 1951–1979; others believe it continues to the present although splintered in hundreds of groups across America and Internationally.
It was always true of the Klan that they were resistant to a national structure and were more a band of loosely tied independent groups. It was reported by US News that in 2017 there were 42 active Klan groups based in 22 states. Total membership then was estimated at 3,000 though it was noted that membership was growing.
People like to point to the diminished membership of the Klan without recognizing the rise in hate groups and the effort to make racial animus mainstream. In some cases, the Klan robes have been replaced by suits and ties or red and white hats. White Nationalists have made their way into the current White House, not that those like Woodrow Wilson and Andrew Johnson haven’t occupied the Oval Office previously. For those for want to express themselves in the current era and only Klan, attire will do, visit the multiple Klan websites where you can still place your order, though the prices have gone up considerably. This stunning outfit goes for $695.
The Klan robe has made relatively recent appearances in public at a hate rally in Charlottesville.
Protesting outside a Nevada caucus.
A Klan hood was seen in May 2020 at a San Diego supermarket being used as a mask.
Some will try to convince you the Klan, and their garb is a thing of the past. Are you going to believe them or your lying eyes? Given the recent pattern of the Republican Party, clinging to white supremacy and voter suppression. These fashions are just the thing for their next outing.
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This post was previously published on Black History Month 365.
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