purposes of the Ku Klux Klan may interest the reader. The facts mentioned
were derived from authentic and official sources.
The first den was organized in Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, in 1866,
and Pulaski continued to be the centre of the order throughout its
existence as an interstate organization. Six men organized the den for
diversion and amusement in a community where life was dull and monotonous.
The original name was Ku Kloi (from the Greek word Ku Klos), meaning band
or circle. It was changed to Ku Klux and Klan was added.
The constitution of Tennessee was imposed by a fraction of the people. The
legislature passed an act restricting suffrage which disfranchised
three-fourths of the native population of the middle and western parts of
the state. This obsequious legislature also passed acts ratifying the
illegal edicts of the autocratic and tyrannical Governor Brownlow ("The
Parson"); the sedition law was revived and amplified; freedom of speech
and press was overthrown, and a large militia force composed of negroes
was created and made responsible to the governor alone. At an election
enough men had been permitted to register to thwart Brownlow's plans. He
threw out the entire vote of twenty-eight counties. Registrars were
removed, registration set aside, the counties placed under martial law,
and negro militia quartered therein. The legislature had become
unanimously Republican in both branches.
The people began to consider means of counteracting this high-handed
tyranny. The Pulaski Ku Klux organization had attracted much attention and
branches of it had been organized in many parts of the state. Leaders of
the people quickly saw that it could be utilized for the purpose in view.
And this was done. The order, thus perverted, soon spread from Virginia to
Texas. The ritual was simple and easily memorized and was never printed;
but a copy of the prescript was obtained and used in a trial in Tennessee
and reproduced in United States government publications. At a meeting in
Nashville of delegates from all dens this was modified. That convention
designated the southern territory as "The Invisible Empire." It was
subdivided into "realms" (corresponding to states); realms were divided
into "dominions" (congressional districts); dominions into "provinces"
(counties); provinces into "dens." Officers were designated as follows:
Grand Wizard of Invisible Empire and his ten Genii (and the grand wizard's
powers were almost autocratic), Grand Dragon of Realm and his Eight
Hydras, Grand Titan of Dominion and his Six Furies, Grand Cyclops of Den
and his Two Night Hawks, Grand Monk, Grand Scribe, Grand Exchequer, Grand
Turk, Grand Sentinel, The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Gobbins and Night Hawks
were staff officers. It is said that the gradation and distribution of
authority were perfect, and that no more perfectly organized order ever
existed in the world. The costume consisted of a mask with openings for
the nose and eyes; a tall, pointed hat of stiff material; a gown or robe
to cover the entire person. Each member was provided with a whistle, and
with this, and by means of a code of signals, communicated with his
comrades. They used a cypher to fix dates, etc., and published their
notices in the newspapers, until repressive laws forbade this. Their
horses were robed and their hoofs muffled.
Meanwhile, other orders formed: White brotherhood, White League, Pale
Faces, Constitutional Union Guards and Knights of White Camelia; but all
evidence shows that they were for the most part short-lived, the very
name of Ku Klux having caught the fancy of the members. General Forrest is
credited with having consolidated all of them into the one grand order. An
interview with General Forrest was published in the _Cincinnati
Commercial_ in September, 1868, in which he was quoted as saying that in
Tennessee the klan embraced a membership of 40,000, and in all the states
550,000. He said to the congressional commission that the order was
disbanded by him when it had fulfilled its purpose. No doubt he meant that
the general organization was disbanded, for certainly detached bodies
existed after the date fixed by him as that of the disbandment. Fleming
says that the general was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, formerly
his chief of artillery, and became Grand Wizard. In his testimony General
Forrest said that the klan in Tennessee was intended as a defensive
organization to offset the Union League; to protect ex-Confederates from
extermination by Brownlow's militia; to prevent the burning of gins, mills
and residences.
Congress and the radical legislatures resorted to all possible means to
break up the klans, but they existed until after white supremacy was
restored. Even then, counterfeit bodies perverted the name until they were
suppressed by the natural rulers of the land. Congress passed a bill which
provided for suspension of civil government in any district in which Ku
Klux lawlessness existed, thus depriving all the people of trial by jury
and other rights, and placing whole communities under the ban of military
power. The Alabama legislative enactment pronounced anyone found in
disguise a felon and outlaw. It also provided that if a person was whipped
or killed by men in disguise, the county could be sued for a penalty
ranging from $1,000 to $5,000; and it made it the duty of the prosecuting
attorney of the county to institute suit for and in behalf of the victim
or his relatives, in any case where no indictment was found.
After the Nashville convention the order courted publicity, in order to
inspire respect for its powers, and the Ku Klux sometimes paraded in
daylight. Their appearance in public was sudden and unheralded; and they
disappeared as silently and mysteriously. The perfection of their
movements in drill revealed the training which the members had received as
cavalrymen during the war. Sometimes the parades were at night, and then
the mystery of their sudden appearance and the weirdness of the spectacle
were heightened. One of the night parades was in Huntsville, and the story
of it was circulated throughout the north as evidence that another
revolution was imminent. It was in the nature of an acceptance of
challenge, and the circumstances connected with it were as follows:
On October 30, 1868, C. C. Sheets, a Grant candidate for elector, made a
speech in Florence. About ten o'clock that night a band of disguised men
visited his sleeping apartment. He attempted to escape by way of a
gallery, but was caught and taken back to his room. After a short stay the
band retired without having in any way harmed him. Sheets said that they
exacted from him a promise that he would desist from making inflammatory
speeches. Later in the same month Sheets delivered a speech in Huntsville.
It was reported that in the course of that speech he told his colored
audience that he had been interfered with a few nights before in Florence
by Ku Klux, and that he had promised them then that he would not make the
abusive and inflammatory speeches that he had been making; but up there,
where there were so many colored people, he wasn't afraid to say what he
pleased, and that if the colored people would do what was becoming in
them, they would carry with them weapons and shoot down those disguised
men wherever they found them; that the reason the Ku Klux paraded the
country was because the negroes were weak-kneed.
The speech excited the negroes. They remained in town all day, and at
night a meeting was held in the court-house and many negroes, with guns,
attended. During the day leading negroes loudly proclaimed that Ku Klux
would never again be permitted to enter the town; that if they attempted
to do so, they would be shot on sight. A federal military officer had said
it would be lawful to do this. A rumor circulated that Ku Klux were
assembling at a point some miles distant, and about dark two large posses
of negroes, under command of deputy sheriffs, repaired to points along
principal roads to intercept them. While the speaking at the court-house
was in progress, fugitive negroes from the posses, which had suddenly
dissolved at the approach of danger, rushed to the court-house and
announced that Ku Klux were marching on the town. The meeting broke up in
confusion and the people hurried into the yard. All the near-by streets
and the sidewalks surrounding the square were thronged with people, white
and black. Suddenly the cavalcade, numbering about two hundred, fully
uniformed in tall conical hats, long gowns, and hoods with eyeholes, some
armed with guns and sabres, wheeled into the square, and without sound
save the whistle signals--then almost as awe-inspiring as had been the
"rebel yell"--rode in military order completely around the court-house,
and then turned into one of the streets. Proceeding along this some
distance, the column halted and formed into battle line. After maintaining
this formation for a few minutes, the march was resumed and the band
disappeared.
There was stationed in Hunstville at that time a regiment of regular
troops, and their commander, General Cruger, with some of his staff
officers, from a hotel veranda viewed the spectacle of the Ku Klux parade.
His comment was that "it was fine but absurd."
There was an unfortunate episode of the event:
Just as the Ku Klux withdrew there was a discharge of firearms in the
courtyard. Some witnesses said that the first discharge, an accidental
one, due to nervousness, caused the others. Judge Thurlow, a visitor, was
mortally wounded, and said a short while before his death that he was shot
accidentally by his Republican friends. A negro seated on the court-house
steps was killed instantly. Two white men and a negro were wounded. This
tragedy was without design, and the excitement was quickly quieted.
A rumor that a few undisguised Ku Klux were posted about the square was
supported by the fact that after the departure of the troop three men,
having disguises in hand, were arrested by soldiers while in the act of
mounting horses in one of the side streets. Later in the night they were
rescued from jail by their comrades, and were never officially identified.
But their paraphernalia was retained by the officials and often exhibited
and photographed. Perhaps none other was ever captured directly from a
wearer.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A MISCARRIAGE
There were some miscarriages in the operations of the klan. A memorable
one of this character is recalled. A cavalcade, supposed to have started
from the western side of the Warrior river, rode through Greensboro and
proceeded to Marion, a distance of about thirty-five miles, presumably to
take from jail and execute a negro who had, with but slight provocation,
killed a white man with a paling which he wrenched from a fence. The
riders visited the jail and demanded the keys. The jailer's wife appeared
and implored them to desist. The jailer himself, a member of a fraternal
order, made an appeal which was recognized and respected by members of the
party and was successful, and after much parleying, the invaders withdrew
without molesting the custodian of the county Bastile or his charge. But
an episode of the foray was embarrassing and dangerous. The riders had
proceeded only a short distance when one of the horses fell and expired,
in full mock panoply. Here was an awkward situation for the raiders. A
comrade, far away from home, unhorsed and subjected to inevitable
detection should he be abandoned! It is not known by what means he escaped
and regained the realms of the "Grand Cyclops."
The warning to evil-disposed persons conveyed by this raid perhaps
obviated the necessity for another in that particular part of the county.
Across the border line of Mississippi occurred a lamentable disaster, due
to incompetent leadership and ignorance of locality.
In 1870 the carpetbag government in Mississippi reached the zenith of its
power, and its baleful influence pervaded every nook and corner of the
state. The effects of misgovernment were deplorable. Lands which in
ante-bellum days were appraised at twenty-five to seventy-five dollars per
acre had so depreciated in value that at forced sales only about one
dollar per acre could be obtained. There were few real estate transfers;
some of the lands were depopulated; the only immigrants were carpetbaggers
seeking offices; taxation was oppressive, especially for the support of
schools, and almost the entire burden was laid upon the whites; the scanty
possessions of negroes were within the limits of exemption; even the poll
tax, devoted to school purposes, was evaded by them. In some counties
tax-payers bore the expense of schooling three negro pupils to one white
pupil. At length they resisted collection of the tax.
Robert W. Flournoy, of Pontotoc, distinguished himself in the resultant
controversy. When not engaged as deputy postmaster and county
superintendent of education, he conducted a weekly newspaper, and made it
and himself odious. In his paper he bitterly denounced the Ku Klux as
"midnight prowlers and assassins," and responsible for the suppression of
public schools. He insisted that in the schools there should be no
separation of races, and engaged in a prolonged and heated controversy
with the governor over the question of admitting negroes to the State
University.
Colonel Flournoy received from the Grand Cyclops a communication,
intimating that at an early date he would receive a visit from the men
whom he had denounced. About midnight, May 13, 1871, Flournoy's office
foreman and a companion aroused him from sleep with the startling
announcement that a band of Ku Klux had appeared in the village, and the
leader was inquiring where the colonel's residence was located. He had
some shotguns, and, arming himself and his callers, departed from home and
repaired to a blacksmith shop near by. At this place a number of
townsmen, well armed, had already assembled. The colonel subsequently
accounted for their presence with arms with the statement that during the
afternoon they had been hunting, and when the foreman had alarmed them
they were engaged in a game of cards. Altogether, these men constituted a
strong force, and proceeded to arrange an ambuscade at the shop.
Meanwhile the Ku Klux, who, according to later revelations, were
strangers, wholly unacquainted with the locality, having learned the
situation of the Flournoy residence, were approaching it, unconscious of
the state of affairs. Fronting the place and extending a long distance
were deep and tortuous gulleys, and in their progress the horsemen became
entangled and bewildered as in a maze and their formation broken.
Extricating themselves in groups and singly, they approached the shop.
Chancellor Pollard and Deputy Sheriff Todd were with the concealed
villagers, and the former emerged from the rear of the shop and commanded
the riders to surrender. Simultaneously, someone in concealment fired a
shot, and instantly the ambushers sprang from cover and discharged a
volley in the direction of the disordered klansmen. The surprise was
complete and overwhelming. Horses, becoming unruly, frantically turned and
fled. The riders in advance were thus thrown back upon those emerging
from the gulleys. In the resultant confusion there was desultory firing
back and forth, but the unfortunate strangers were unable to rally at any
point, and singly and in small groups they withdrew to the main street,
where they found themselves in little less embarrassing a situation. No
one knew in what direction they should retreat. They had lost their
bearings and knew not how to reach the road over which they had entered
the village. Disbanded, they fled in different directions.
Colonel Flournoy's supporters, for the most part, were ignorant of the
character of the men whom they had assaulted and the object of the foray,
and were easily led into the mistake of pressing the advantage they had
gained. Consequently, led by Flournoy, they intercepted a small body of
the raiders and fired on them.
Stampeded as they were, the resolute riders halted and returned the fire.
After daybreak a man, fully costumed and still in mask, badly shot, was
found at the place where he and his comrades had been waylaid. The
unfortunate was tenderly cared for, but expired a few hours later. Three
others were wounded, but escaped. Sixteen horses, abandoned by their
riders, together with the disguises of those riders, were picked up next
day. The original party comprised thirty men.
There was profound sorrow in the little town when the inhabitants learned
what an awful mistake had been made.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX
Throughout the reconstruction period there was perhaps more turbulence in
Choctaw than in any other county of the district, but, after all, the
climax in the struggle for restoration of white supremacy was in an
orderly and regularly-organized meeting of citizens, without any attempt
at secrecy of proceedings.
Judge J. Q. Smith, as substitute for Judge Luther R. Smith, as previously
chronicled, undertook to hold the regular term of the circuit court at
Butler. The sheriff attempted to arrest a boisterous man outside the
court-house and met defiance and resistance; consequently, in alarm he
resigned, and the judge, after some deliberation, concluded he could not
proceed without a sheriff and returned to his own proper jurisdiction. The
people in attendance and the residents of Butler held a meeting and
adopted a resolution requesting resignations from all public officials.
More cautious men dissuaded the leaders from promulgating the resolution,
and a movement started to have meetings in all the precincts and
delegates to a county meeting chosen. This project was successfully
accomplished, and the county meeting adopted a resolution which had been
adopted at a meeting in Sumter county. But in the interval between the
impromptu gathering and the regularly-organized county meeting most of the
officials had taken time by the forelock and anticipated the request that
they vacate the offices. The resolution adopted declared devotion to law
and order and opposition to any violation thereof, but recited the fact
that the objectionable officials held office, not by choice of the people,
but contrary to their will; that the officers had demonstrated their
incapacity to enforce the laws, and, therefore, in the interest of the
public they should resign.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FOILED THE KU KLUX
Throughout the reconstruction period there was less lawlessness in Hale
than in the counties adjoining, and overthrow of the radical
administration was effected without bloodshed.
January 19, 1871, in the wee sma' hours, a cyclops and his retinue of
seventy unceremoniously called at Judge Blackford's apartments to pay
their respects. The call was intended as a sort of "surprise party"; but
coming events had cast their shadows before, and those shadows were as
premonitions of an early nocturnal visit, and the judge was "not at home."
He was cautiously domiciled in a room adjoining his office, in another
part of town. Here, in the embrace of Morpheus, perhaps reveling in dreams
of a blessed land beyond the jurisdiction of the Grand Wizard, he was
aroused with the cry of "Ku Klux!" by an alert negro, who had hastened
from the judge's home to apprise him of the presence there of the
unwelcome visitors. The alarm was not premature, for the horsemen were
hotfooting in the wake of the negro and reached the office almost as soon
as he. The judge needed no repetition of the dreadful tidings. His
transition from Dreamland to earth was instantaneous, and his plunge in
dishabille through an open window was a disappearing act worthy of
reproduction on a dramatic stage. The weird sound of a whistle close at
hand broke discordantly into the sweet concert of frogs, katydids and
other melodists of the nights and accelerated the speed of him who sought
asylum and ghostly solitude in the boneyard in the depths of the forest.
Recounting the thrilling incidents of that awful night, and his sojourn of
three nights in the gruesome refuge, Dr. Blackford, expressed bitter
resentment of the rude treatment to which his glossy tile, which he
abandoned in vanishing through the window, was subjected by the klansmen;
they placed it on the end of a staff and bore it as a sort of mock pennant
at the head of the cavalcade. Often trivial incidents, if ridiculous or
amusing, eclipse those that are grave. It was so in the Eutaw riot, when a
"plug hat" diverted dangerous men from an unlawful purpose,--but that is
another story, and will be told in due time.
For the next few days, Dr. Blackford camped at night and returned to his
office in the morning. According to his own statement, a prominent
Confederate general took him to his quarters in a hotel and promised him
protection temporarily. One evening, in general conversation, the subject
of the Ku Klux was broached, and the host imparted to his very receptive
guest much information thereon. The klans pervaded the country, and were
better organized than the Confederate army had ever been. There was no
escape for a proscribed man if he should tarry when ordered to be on the
move; when they dealt with a man, a klan from some other county or state
did the work, and all residents could be seen pursuing their accustomed
walks. "You are watched," he said, "day and night, and your whereabouts
cannot long be concealed. On that night when the Ku Klux were after you,
not more than one or two persons in the vicinity had knowledge of their
coming."
[There were at that time in Greensboro two distinguished Confederate
generals, Forrest and Rucker, engaged in building the Selma and Memphis
Railroad.]
Judge Blackford conferred with some prominent citizens, and at his request
they consented to purchase his property on condition that he resign and
betake himself to other parts. After prolonged negotiations, the
arrangement was effected. Governor Lindsay appointed as Blackford's
successor to the probate judgeship Mr. James M. Hobson, father of
Congressman Richmond P. Hobson. Dr. Blackford, with his grievances,
repaired to Washington, where an emollient in the form of a special agency
of the Postoffice Department diverted his thoughts from the enemies he had
left behind.
The details of Dr. Blackford's statement of information derived from the
Confederate general should be taken with a grain of salt, because his
memory was not accurate. In Washington he testified in regard to another
occurrence in Greensboro, and General Blair's inquisitiveness exposed the
infirmity referred to.
He said the citizens regarded the soldiers "as a set of niggers and
offscourings of creation" whom they could "buy with two dollars and a
drink of whisky," and make them do their will. Then he related that "while
probate judge" there was an election in Greensboro, and soldiers in charge
at the polls got drunk and changed negroes' votes. He interfered, and one
of them asked: "What the devil have you got to do with it?" The doctor
replied: "I have simply this much, I am the presiding officer here of this
county; I propose to keep the peace and enforce my rights as the presiding
officer of the county, and I will deal with you myself if you do not
leave." The valiant doctor then drew a pistol and said, "If you do not
leave here now, I will shoot you." Comrades of the obstreperous soldier
interposed and bore him away, leaving the doctor in serene enjoyment of
his rights as "presiding officer of the county." After he had testified
further at considerable length, Senator Blair suddenly projected himself
into the inquiry with the question:
"On what occasion was it you drew your pistol upon a United States soldier
and told him you would shoot him if he would not desist?"
"It was on the day of the election."
"What election?"
"For the constitution; the day we voted on the constitution, I think that
was the day."
"What office did you hold then?"