The Ku Klux Klan
By
Annie Cooper Burton
President, Wade Hampton Chapter, No. 763,
United Daughters of the Confederacy,
Los Angeles, California
Cover Design by Howard Willard
Typography by Taylor's Printery
WARREN T. POTTER
PUBLISHER AND BOOKMAKER
511-12 Baker-Detwiler Building
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Copyright, 1916, by
WARREN T. POTTER
All Rights Reserved
To Father
The Ku Klux Klan
The great Ku Klux Klan sprang up like a mushroom,a Southern organization formed in a timewhen no other power in the world could have savedthe suffering South from the utter disorder whichprevailed during the awful period following the Warbetween the States.
The stigma attached to the name Ku Klux Klanby the uninformed masses has, at this late day, beenpractically removed, thanks to that Southern author,Thomas J. Dixon, who through "The Clansman"swayed public opinion the right way; and thanksagain to that master director, David W. Griffith,another Southerner, who filmed this wonderful storyand set the people to exclaiming, "Why, the KuKlux Klan was a grand and noble order! It rankswith the best."
Every clubhouse of the United Daughters of theConfederacy should have a memorial tablet dedicatedto the Ku Klux Klan; that would be a monumentnot to one man, but to five hundred and fiftythousand men, to whom all Southerners owe a debtof gratitude; for how our beloved Southland couldhave survived that reign of terror is a big question.
The very name Ku Klux shows that the order wasformed among men of letters. It is a Greek wordmeaning circle. Klan suggested itself; the namecomplete in turn suggested mystery. Originally theorder was purely a social organization, formed inPulaski, Tennessee, May, 1866, and gave diversion[10]to the restless young men after the reaction of war.They found vast amusement in belonging to a clubwhich excited and baffled curiosity; great sport, too,was found in initiating new members. But it waswhen the Klan realized that it had a great, vitalwork to perform that it rose majestically to thegigantic task.
When the order at the end of a year had grownthroughout the South to such a size that a masterhand was needed to guide it, Nathan Bedford Forrest,famous cavalry general of the Southern Army,he of the charmed life, a man who was in "morethan one hundred battles and had twenty-sevenhorses shot under him," a leader famous for his militarystrategy, was elected Grand Wizard of the InvisibleEmpire. Forrest always stressed the orderthat no fighting would be allowed. If they neededto fight they would throw off their disguise and fightlike soldiers. Their purpose was to scare into submissionthe unruly free negroes and the trouble-makingcarpetbaggers; and this purpose they accomplished,without one drop of blood being shed,except in the