A Ku Klux Parade

Lester and Wilson, Ku Klux Klan, p. 61. Copyright 1884, 1905. Used by permission. This parade was in Pulaski, Tennessee.

[1868]

ON the morning of the 4th of July, 1867, the citizens of Pulaski found the sidewalks thickly strewn with slips of paper bearing the printed words: "The Ku Klux will parade the streets tonight." This announcement created great excitement. The people supposed that their curiosity, so long baffled, would now be gratified. They were confident that this parade would at least afford them the opportunity to find out who were the Ku Klux.

Soon after nightfall the streets were lined with an expectant and excited throng of people. . The members of the Klan in the country left their homes in the afternoon and traveled alone or in squads of two or three, with their paraphernalia carefully concealed. .. After nightfall they assembled at designated points near the four main roads leading into town. Here they donned their robes and disguises and put covers of gaudy materials on their horses. A sky-rocket sent up from some point in the town was the signal to mount and move. The different companies met and passed each other on the public square in perfect silence; the discipline appeared to be admirable. Not a word was spoken. Necessary orders were given by means of the whistles. In single file, in death-like stillness, with funeral slowness, they marched and countermarched throughout the town. While the column was headed North on one street it was going South on another. By crossing over in opposite directions the lines were kept up in almost unbroken continuity. The effect was to create the impression of vast numbers. This marching and counter-marching was kept up for about two hours, and the Klan departed as noiselessly as they came. . .

The efforts of the most curious and cunning to find out who were Ku Klux failed. One gentleman from the country, a great lover of horses, who claimed to know every horse in the county, was confident that he would be able to identify the

riders by the horses. . During a halt of the column he lifted the cover of a horse that was near him. . and recog nized his own steed and saddle upon which he had ridden into town. The town people were on the alert also to see who of the young men of the town would be with the Ku Klux. All of them, almost without exception, were marked, mingling freely and conspicuously with the spectators. Those of them who were members of the Klan did not go into the parade.

This demonstration had the effect for which it was desig nated. Perhaps the greatest illusion produced by it was in regard to the numbers participating in it... [Some] were confident that the number was not less than three thousand. Others, whose imaginations were more easily wrought upon, were quite certain there were ten thousand. The truth is, that the number of Ku Klux in the parade did not exceed four hundred. This delusion in regard to numbers prevailed wher ever the Ku Klux appeared.

The Klan had a large membership; it exerted a vast, terrifying and wholesome power; but its influence was never at any time dependent on, or proportioned to, its membership. It was in the mystery in which the comparatively few enshrouded themselves. Gen. Forest, before the Investigating Committee, placed the number of Ku Klux in Tennessee at 40,000, and in the entire South at 550,000. . . Careful investigation leads to the conclusion that he overshoots the mark in both cases. It is an error to suppose that the entire male population of the South were Ku Klux, or that even a majority of them were privy to its secrets and in sympathy with its extremest measures. To many of them, perhaps to a majority, the Ku Klux Klan was as vague, impersonal and mysterious as to the people of the North, or of England. They did attribute to it great good and to this [day] remember with gratitude the protection it afforded them in the most trying and perilous period of their history, when there was no other earthly source to which to appeal.

One or two illustrations may here be given of the methods resorted to to play upon the superstitious fears of the negroes

and others. At the parade in Pulaski, while the procession was passing a corner on which a negro man was standing, a tall horseman in hideous garb turned aside from the line, dismounted and stretched out his bridle rein toward the negro, as if he desired him to hold his horse. Not daring to refuse, the frightened African extended his hand to grasp the rein. As he did so, the Ku Klux took his own head from his shoulders and offered to place that also in the outstretched hand. The negro stood not upon the order of his going, but departed with a yell of terror. To this day he will tell you: "He done it, suah, boss. I seed him do it." The gown was fastened by a drawstring over the top of the wearer's head. Over this was worn an artificial skull made of a large gourd or of pasteboard. This with the hat could be readily removed, and the man would then appear to be headless. Such tricks gave rise to the belief still prevalent among the negroes that the Ku Klux could take themselves all to pieces whenever they wanted to.

Some of the Ku Klux carried skeleton hands. These were made of bone or wood with a handle long enough to be held in the hand, which was concealed by the gown sleeve. The possessor of one of these was invariably of a friendly turn and offered to shake hands with all he met, with what effect may be readily imagined.

A trick of frequent perpetration in the country was for a horseman, spectral and ghostly looking, to stop before the cabin of some negro needing a wholesome impression and call for a bucket of water. If a dipper or gourd was brought it was declined, and the bucket full of water demanded. As if consumed by raging thirst the horseman grasped it and pressed it to his lips. He held it there till every drop of the water was poured into a gum or oiled sack concealed beneath the Ku Klux robe. Then the empty bucket was returned to the amazed negro with the remark: "That's good. It is the first drink. of water I have had since I was killed at Shiloh." Then a few words of counsel as to future behavior made an impression not easily forgotten or likely to be disregarded. Under ordinary

circumstances such devices are unjustifiable. But in the pe culiar state of things then existing they served a good purpose. It was not only better to deter the negroes from theft and other lawlessness in this way than to put them in the peni tentiary; but it was the only way, at this time, by which they could be controlled. The jails would not contain them. The courts could not or would not try them. The policy of the Klan all the while was to deter men from wrong doing. It was only in rare exceptional cases, and these the most aggravated, that it undertook to punish.

Influence in the Elections

House Misc. Doc. no. 12, 41 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 14. Statement of a Louisiana Radical.

[1869]

THERE were numerous secret political organizations of the democratic party throughout the parish, [New Iberia] known . . as the "Ku Klux Klans," whose objects were to intimi date the republicans and prevent them from voting at all, unless they would vote the democratic ticket. These organizations were armed with fire-arms and patrolled the parish night and day, committing murders and outrages upon the republicans, and produced such terror and alarm among the freedmen and others belonging to the republican party that it was unsafe for them to hold meetings. . . It was utterly impossible to distribute republican tickets among the voters of the parish without danger of being mobbed and killed... Witness knows of a great many freedmen who were republi cans, and who desired to vote the republican ticket, who were, by violence, fraud, and intimidation, compelled to vote the democratic ticket. . . Before and on the day of the election the principal roads in the parish leading to the different places of voting were patrolled by armed men of these Klans for the purpose of intercepting republicans going to vote; and, in many instances, plantations where freedmen were employed were guarded by armed men to prevent the freedmen from going to the polls.

Negro Officials Ordered to Resign

Ku Klux Report, South Carolina testimony, p. 1096.

K. K. K.

[1871]

HEADQUARTERS; NINTH DIVISION, S. C.,

Special Orders No. 3, K. K. K.

"Ignorance is the curse of God." For this reason we are determined that the members of the legislature, the school commissioner, and the county commissioners of Union shall no longer officiate. Fifteen (15) days' notice from this date is therefore given and if they, one and all, do not at once and forever resign their present inhuman, disgraceful, and outrageous rule, then retributive justice will as surely be used as night follows day.

Also, "An honest man is the noblest work of God." For this reason, if the clerk of the said board of county commissioners and school commissioners does not immediately renounce and relinquish his present position, then harsher measures than these will most assuredly and certainly be used.

For confirmation, reference to the orders heretofore published in the Union Weekly Times and Yorkville Enquirer will more fully and completely show our intention. A. O., Grand Secretary.

March 9, 1871.

Ku Klux Discipline

Ku Klux Report, South Carolina testimony, p. 436. A negro's statement.

[1871]

THEY came to my door and they said "Hey!" I was asleep. They called, "Hey, hey!" My wife says, "Lewis listen." "What are you doing there?" I says; and they said, "By Christ, come out; I will show you what I am doing." and I got up and sat on the bed, with my legs hanging out, and peeped out . . .. They says, "Lewis, by Christ, arn't you going to get up and open the door?" I spoke and said, "What do you want; do you want to whip me?" I have done nothing to be whipped; . . He says, "By Christ, open the door; I will tell you by Christ, what I am to whip you for." I