Guide to the Ku Klux Klan Collection (MUM00254)

MUM00254

PURL

http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00254/

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Summary Information

Repository
University of Mississippi Libraries
Creator
University of Mississippi
Title
Guide to the Ku Klux Klan Collection
ID
MUM00254
Date [inclusive]
1955-1978, undated
Extent
2.26 cubic ft. 1 box (C-9) + 1 oversize box (G-9)
Location note
D-15
Abstract
Correspondence, pamphlets, publications, newspaper clippings, and other materials related to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the South after World War II. Contains materials about Klan activity in the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Preferred Citation

Ku Klux Klan Collection (MUM00254). Archives & Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library, The University of Mississippi

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Historical Sketch

The Ku Klux Klan was the largest and best known of the secret societies and vigilante groups formed after the American Civil War by ex-Confederates and opponents of Reconstruction. Initially formed as a social group, the Klan became notorious for its efforts to maintain white political and economic control in the South by threatening, assaulting, or murdering freedmen, African American politicians, and white Republicans who supported Reconstruction. Some of the Klan's prominent members, despite their agreement with the principles of white supremacy, later distanced themselves from the lawlessness that characterized the organization. By the 1880s, when Democrats had regained political power in the South, the Klan began to wane in membership and influence.

In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan re-emerged, this time spreading well beyond the South. The Klan's popularity in this period reflected widespread nativist sentiment aroused by a flood of new immigrants, particularly Catholics and Jews from Eastern Europe, who were viewed by many Americans as threats to the economic and religious stability of the United States. The Klan continued to espouse white supremacy, and was responsible for many of the lynchings that took place across the South in the early twentieth century. Internal strife and federal intervention contributed to the weakening of the Klan, but it continued to exist in the 1930s and 1940s.

While the Klan never again reached its 1920s membership levels, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s inspired renewed Klan activity, especially in the South. Whenever African American citizens took action to gain their rights, the Klan gained in popularity. The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, located in Mississippi, was the most prominent order active in the post-World War II period. The White Knights and local Klan organizations in other states were responsible for numerous acts of intimidation, violence, and murder against civil rights activists and supporters. Violence by the Klan grew after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and throughout the 1960s, when civil rights groups increased their efforts to achieve desegregation and voting rights. The Klan also operated a wide-scale publicity campaign to disseminate its viewpoints and recruit new members.

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Scope and Content Note

This collection documents the second Ku Klux Klan revival following World War II. It contains printed material related to Klan organizations in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and Tennessee between 1955 and 1978. The material is housed in two boxes and is organized according to the state where it was created. Contents include Klan recruitment posters and flyers, literature about the Klan and its activities, clippings, correspondence, and general hate speech from Klan chapters and leaders.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

University of Mississippi Libraries 2004 September 15

Copyright Restrictions

This collection is protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code).

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use", that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

Provenance

The Ku Klux Klan collection was created by compiling printed material drawn from the Knox Collection (79-1) and the Race Relations Collection (76-15), both housed in the Department of Archives and Special Collections at The University of Mississippi.

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

  • Ku Klux Klan (1915-) - Southern States

Geographic Name(s)

  • Mississippi - Race relations - History

Subject(s)

  • Hate groups - United States
  • Violence

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Collection Inventory

Box 1 

b1f1 10 May 1964   photocopied pages

Scope and Contents note

Broadsheet, official publication of the KKK of Mississippi.

The Klan Ledger April 1965 

The Klan Ledger undated   5 copies

b1f2 KKK/Alabama 

The Fiery Cross 15 December 1961 

Broadsheet, "Martin Luther King at Communist Training School" c. 1961 

The Fiery Cross 1973 

The Fiery Cross undated 

Broadside, "Save Our Land, Join the Klan" undated 

Broadside, "The Truth About Black History" undated 

Broadsheet, "This Symbol has a Future Behind It" undated 

Document, KKK General information undated 

Pamphlet, "The Principles of the United Klans of America, Inc." undated 

Pamphlet, "An Introduction to the Knight of the Ku Klux Klan" undated 

Broadsheet, "The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King" undated 

Broadsheet, "What Will You Tell Your Children?" undated 

Broadsheet, "Aren't You Grown-ups Ashamed?" undated 

b1f3 "Preliminary Results of Investigation, Alabama, United Klans of America, Incorporated, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Other Klan Organizations," By Richmond M. Flowers, Attorney General of Alabama 18 October 1965 

b1f4 KKK/Georgia 

Charter of incorporation for the U. S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Georgia 24 October 1955 

Receipt from Ben W. Fortson, Jr., Secretary of State, Department of State, to Mr. J. J. Cooke for Copy U. S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for $1.50, and 3x5 card 21 May 1964 

T. L. S. James R. Venable, KKK, Tucker, Georgia, to "Dear Patriot" 22 June 1965 

T. L. S. James R. Venable to "Dear Patriot" 10 August 1965 

Card, Clayton County Province undated 

KKK document, Tucker, Georgia undated   3 copies

Broadside, "Wanted for Impeachment, Earl Warren" undated 

Form letter from the U. S. Klans, Inc., College Park, Georgia, to "Dear Friend" undated 

KKK broadside, signed by James R. Venable, Imperial Wizard of the KKK undated 

b1f5 KKK/Louisiana 

Bumper sticker, "Secret Member of the Ku Klux Klan" undated 

Pamphlet, "Beyond Human Belief" undated 

Calling card from the KKK, Metairie, Louisiana undated   3 copies

Fiery Cross undated 

Pamphlet, "Abraham Lincoln Speaks" undated 

Pamphlet, "Race and Integration" undated   2 copies

Pamphlet, "An Introduction to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" undated 

Pamphlet, "Nightmare" undated 

Broadside, General Information Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Louisiana undated 

T. L. S. (copy) David Duke, National Director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to "Dear Patriot" n. d. 

Broadsheet, "The Truth About David Duke" undated 

Broadside, "Save Our Land Join the Klan" undated 

General information, KKK Louisiana undated   2 copies

b1f6 KKK/Mississippi 

T. L. S. Robert Patterson, Secretary of the Citizens' Council, with photocopied pages from KKK, "Twenty Reasons Why You Should Join the KKK in Mississippi," and "A Delta Discussion," undated 4 June 1964 

Broadside, "Klan Rally, Only the Truth Will Survive," Pelahatchie Creek 22 April 1967 

Pamphlet, "Big Wheels Move the Machinery to Destroy Law and Order of a Great Nation" 12 March 1968 

Broadside, "United Klans of America Americanism Rally," Biloxi 28 August 1976 

Document, KKK General Information, Natchez, Mississippi undated   3 copies

Pamphlet, "The Principle of the United Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" undated   4 copies

Broadside, "My Fellow American" undated 

Typed statement from the KKK to "People of Panola County" undated   2 originals and carbon

Pamphlet, "Some Questions that Need Straight Answers" undated 

Broadside, "Save Our Land, Join the Klan," Brookhaven, Mississippi undated 

Broadsheet, "God Commands Racial Segregation" undated 

Pamphlet, "United Klans of America, Inc., Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Realm of Mississippi" undated 

Broadsheet, untitled undated 

Broadsheet, "Aren't You Grown-ups Ashamed" undated   2 copies

Broadside, "Save Our Land, Join the Klan," Olive Branch undated 

Broadside, "Save Our Land, Join the Klan," Liberty undated 

Pamphlet entitled "Lincoln on Negro-White Marriages" undated 

The Fiery Cross Bulletin undated 

Fiery Cross  undated 

Pamphlet, "Seven Symbols of the Klan" undated 

Pamphlet, "Will the South Unite or Become a Black Communist Satelite [sic]" undated 

Broadsheet, "Fifty Reasons Why You Should Become a Member of the KKK" undated 

Pamphlet, "KKK Brings Real Facts to the Surface" undated 

"Black Guard Organizers Manual," KKK, Jackson, Mississippi undated 

b1f7 KKK/Maryland, New York, Ohio & Pennsylvania 

Nightrider, Official publication of the KKK, Realm of New York July-August 1977 

Broadside, "KKK Rally," York, Pennsylvania 13 August 1977 

Nightrider, Official Publication of the KKK, Realm of New York October 1977 

Pamphlet, "The Principle of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" undated 

Broadsheet, "The Symbols of the Klan" undated   2 copies

Calling Card, "You Have Been Patronized by the KKK" undated 

Broadside, "On the Question of Law and Order" undated 

Broadside, "Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion" undated 

Broadside, "Ground Wanted We Pay Top Prices for KKK Rally" undated 

Broadside, undated undated 

b1f8 KKK/Tennessee 

Broadside, "Open Meeting of the KKK" 17 October 1965 

Calling card, "Dixie Klan, Inc." undated 

Broadside, undated undated 

b1f9 KKK/General 

Poem, "T. W. A. K.: Confederate Mother's Day" 1961 

Calling card, "Greetings-You Have Been Patronized by the KKK" undated 

Bumper Sticker, "Kan the Kennedy Klan" undated 

Document, General Information, KKK undated 

Document, Dixie Klans, Inc. undated 

Broadside, "Fifty Reasons Why You Should Be a Member of the KKK" undated 

Broadside, "The Klan's Answer to Lyndon Johnson" undated 

Broadside, "To All God Fearing People" undated 

Broadside, "Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" undated 

Pamphlet, "Knights of the KKK: Its Problems, Its Programs, Its Purposes" undated 

Pamphlet, "Why You Should Become a Klansman" undated 

b1f10 Facts, Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'Rith publications 

Facts, "The KKK Revival" November-December 1956 

Facts, "The KKK in Its Present Phase" February-March 1958 

Facts, "The Ku Klux Klans" January 1961 

Facts, "The KKK-1965" May 1965 

Clippings re: KKK 

Clippings re: KKK 

Clippings re: KKK 

Box 2 

b2f1  Imperial Office Newsletter (Alabama) 27 September 1977 

b2f2  The Klansman (Louisiana) May-August 1978   4 issues

b2f3  The Crusader (Louisiana) February 1977 

Issue # 19 

Issue #23 

Issue # 29 

b2f4  The Fiery Cross (Alabama) 

 20 May 1964 

   1976 

 1977 

 1977 

 1978 

 1978   2 copies

No. 13 1978 

 July undated 

b2f5  The Fiery Cross (Alabama) (headlines: The UKA in Washington) undated   3 copies

 b2f5   February Issue 

 b2f5   August 1964 

 b2f5  Sex and Civil Rights issue undated