Okay. And maybe John Gotti wasn’t a cold-blooded, vicious criminal when he joined the mafia…

Geez. It’s like joining NORML but saying you hate pot/never smoked pot/but if you did smoke pot you didn’t inhale.

Being a Southern White Male, however,(Not now, nor ever, a member of the KKK) one must realize that in a historical context the Klan of today is not the Klan of yesteryear— or so my more experienced elders say.

I only know of the racist, subversive, bigots of today, therefore I obviously am biased toward anyone who would join such an organization.

In fairness, below are two “versions” of the one KKK History, albeit with different viewpoints. The first is taken from pointsouth.com, the second from the African American History Museum.

This Version from pointsouth.com:
“While today’s modern Klan groups are fighting for a goal that is a far cry from what the original Klan fought for, I believe if you have a better understanding of exactly what was going on during Reconstruction, that just about any race of man today, if put in their shoes, would join such a group. They had a purpose, and they came out to fight for it. Once their job was done, they closed shop. The Klan today have no such purpose as they did (at least not one that is so obviously abusive), and their actions today have different intents and outcomes.

Try to imagine yourself in the late 1860’s, after the war, living in the South. The Yankees have invaded, stealing and destroying just about all of your family belongings, digging up graves for treasure items, etc. Many of them have raped and killed your wives and slaves. They have stolen everything dear to you, and burned down your house. You must now return to try to get back to life.

If that was not bad enough, you now find that all sense of State government that you are used to, has been destroyed and replaced by armed soldiers in and around your neighborhoods, enforcing their views. They come and go as they please, continuing the abuse of you and your family. They will not allow any white southerner to vote for anything. All voting is granted only to the un-educated former slaves, and they are only allowed to vote, if they vote for the party in charge. An example to be made, is that of a banner displayed in Georgia voting booths during the 1868 presidential campaign, that states “Every man [nNegro that didn’t vote the Radical [Republican] ticket, this is the way we want to serve him: hang him by the neck.” If they refuse, of course they are abused and even killed. So in essence, the voting process is just game playing.

On top of all of this, you have scalawags and carpetbaggers coming down and holding secret meeting, teaching the ex-slaves how to best go back now and take vengeance on their former masters. They are armed and taught how to kill, rape and destroy, and then sent out in the night to do so. On top of the Yankee atrocities already having taken place, you now have this rebellion going on. Masses of former slaves are going about raping, killing, burning, and destroying just about anything.

As mentioned above, flooding into the South, came Northern troops and men with hostile ideas. They brought heavy taxation and more abuse. Along with them, came the Union League - supported by a new militia of ex-black Union soldiers. They moved right into the plantations, cities, towns and villages, looking for the ex-slaves. The illiterate, simple minded freedman became easy prey for their political agenda. Hate the whites, hate your masters, and vote for us. We will divide the spoils of the South with you. The Union League and militia constantly insulted the whites, in front of the ex-slaves, giving them the illusion that they had great power and superiority. By telling them they would soon acquire the land of their former masters, these newly freed blacks had false expectations and were furnished with a disincentive to work.

Secret clubs were established with the intent of rising the ex-slaves into political power over the Southern Whites. It soon became almost “anything-goes,” with the ex-slaves abusing and threatening whites at every turn, causing the beaten down Southern whites to live in much fear. The Union League, militia and ex-slaves patrolled all the streets, harassing and threatening all the wives and daughters of the towns.

In the beginning, the Klan was organized by a small group of men, to have fun. The spirits of the people were much beaten down after the war and Reconstruction, and it was a very sad state of affairs. Theses ex-soldiers made home-made costumes and rode through town like clowns, making faces, acting silly, etc. However, they noticed that many ex-slaves saw these strange horseman and thought they were the ghosts of Confederate dead. This caused many a rebellious ex-slave to cease their activities of destruction and lawlessness,and seek gainful employment.

In the face of the overwhelming abuse and oppression placed upon them, it is no hard thing to understand how this soon became a tool to be used attemp

Pg2

In the face of the overwhelming abuse and oppression placed upon them, it is no hard thing to understand how this soon became a tool to be used attempt to restore order and balance as was once in place. Thus the Ku Klux Klan turned into a militant, guerilla order group, with a purpose to preserve white rule in the South, and to protect themselves from militant ex-slaves who sought revenge at any cost.

The Klan soon developed a system that allowed them to monitor these secret meetings and rallies that the carpet baggers and Union League soldiers were holding with the ex-slaves. The Klan would rally their men, in costume, and ride through, breaking up these meetings that sought to teach and incite rebellion and destruction. They, in a sense, became a form of the law, since rarely was a crime against a white punished under this new regime. When men of any color were caught destroying, raping, or any other crime, they were dealt with. It was not as if the Klan simply rode around town looking for any and every black man to lynch or kill, it was seeking the rebellious, destructive ones, and restoring order to the lawlessness whenever possible.”



This version of the History of the KKK can be found on the African American History Museum wesite:

“Late 1800’s: The Ku Klux Klan was formed as a social club by a group of Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee around 1865. A Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was the Klan’s first leader, whose title was the Grand Wizard. The group adopted the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle, and the English word clan.
White superiority was the philosophy of the Klan, and they would often use violence and terrorization of blacks as a means of exercising this philosophized superiority. The Klan detested the idea of blacks gaining any rights following the Civil War into the Reconstruction, and terrorized blacks to prevent them from voting in elections or practicing any other right. Blacks and white sympathizers were often threatened, beaten, or even murdered by Klan members in the South; the Klan used the now familiar white robes and hoods to mask their identity. The Ku Klux Klan became known as the Invisible Empire as it grew and spread rapidly.
In 1871, the Force Bill was passed by Congress. This act gave the President the authority to use federal troops against the Ku Klux Klan if he deemed the action necessary. Soon after this bill was passed, the Klan all but disappeared.

Early 1900’s: William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher, organized a new Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1915 as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. This new Klan directed its activity against, not just blacks, but any group it considered un-American, including any immigrants, Jews, and Roman Catholics. The Ku Klux Klan grew rapidly from here and had more than 2 million members throughout the country by the mid-1920’s. Although the Klan still reverted at times to violence of previous years, burning crosses, torturing and murdering those who they opposed, most of the Klan acted through peaceful means. The KKK instead became a more powerful political force as it elected many public officials throughout the nation. However, eventually the organization became weakened by disagreements among the leadership and because of public criticism of Klan violence. By 1944 the Ku Klux Klan had faded out again.

Mid-1900’s: The Klan was revived again in 1946 by an Atlanta physician, Samuel Green. However, shortly after Green’s death in 1949, the Klan split into many smaller groups. During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights movement began and a new wave of violence by the Ku Klux Klan was brought about. In Mississippi, three civil rights leaders were killed; in Birmingham, Alabama a church was bombed, killing four black girls. President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe the Ku Klux Klan and sent some Klan members to prison. Following this, Klan member ship fell to about 5,000 by the early 1970’s.”

Good research, P.R., but there’s still a truth staring us in the face: You’d have to be stone stupid to think that the Klan was primarily an anti-Communist, or anti-Yankee, anti-Union or anti-whatever organization. The KKK always had racism at its roots, and Byrd’s statements from the period make it clear that he was in fact a racist at the time. Whether he is racist or not now is an open question, but he unquestionably was a racist when he was a Klansman.

The letter Byrd wrote, whose authenticity has never been seriously challenged, was something Byrd said he “would not dispute” when presented with it, and now he’s issuing a non-denial denial. The letter clearly spelled out the man’s thoughts about Black people back then.

Any serious examination of his explanations throughout the years shows him to be quite Clintonian indeed.

P.S. His explanation for his recent use of the n-word was that it has no place “in today’s society” which implies that such a word once did have a place.

This reminds me, there’s an old building on the Quad at UNC bearing the name of a Klan member, and when I was there they were demanding his name be removed.

George Washington’s name has been removed for being a slave owner.

Do you realize how many buildings and bridges in West Virginia will be getting new names?

Not to mention a city, a state…

Greetings,
dean at dean’s world

http://www.deanesmay.com

has a very worthwhile read and take on the whole issue.
Cheers

I like Dean a lot but merely pointing out the possibility that he may be telling the truth in one instance doesn’t make him less of a liar than others. If he will tell such a whopper as “I was not a racist in the Klan” when there is documentation that he held racist views by the dictionary definition of the term, on top of the fact that he filibustered the Civil Rights Act… what else is he lying about here?

Oops that’s “in others,” not “than others.”

Sorry for the multiple posts… the “he’s an old man” stuff is bizarre. If he considers himself competent to remain a U.S. Senator, he can take the heat.

This is not to defend or denigrate Sen. Byrd, but to provide a view of the KKK that stunned me when I learned of it. My father’s family (he’s now 88 years old) is from southwestern Pennsylvania coalmining area. Geographically and culturally, this is quite close to West VA (as a matter of fact, we are descended from the Hatfields of the McCoy/Hatfield feud). My paternal grandfather, a coal miner, joined the Klan. It was not because of race - there were no blacks in the area. According to my grandmother, there were two reasons: One, all the law enforcement was owned by the steel companies/coal mines. The accountability was to the corporations only. Cops, if you can call them that, could and did beat anyone, in or out of their homes, with impunity; two was the Catholic Church, supported by overwhelming slavic and Italain immigrants to the area. The church was seen as trying to replace the government with the Pope. This is not as farfetched as it sounds today. I would refer you “Battleground of Freedom” by McPherson. He writes about the Church’s effort to take over the American school system and how the priest he sent to do it had to be escorted to the New York harbour under police escort to get him safely out of the country.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but thought you might be interested in a little history that’s different from what’s in the books.

“He writes about the Church’s effort to take over the American school system(…)”

I’m sorry, but one man taking over the entire American school system at a time when there was not even the contemplation of a national Department of Education, was in fact a great deal MORE far-fetched than it might seem today.

Kevin, sorry for not responding, I wasn’t on yesterday. I’m not home right now so don’t have access to my books, but will look up the reference and get back to you. But I understand your point that there was no NATIONAL system and will try to clarify (or correct) with the source

I can believe that there was fear of replacing the government with the Pope — Hubert Humphrey pandered to that very thing in the 1960 West Virginia primary — but that doesn’t mean there was any serious danger of it.

Frankly, whether it’s against blacks or against Catholic immigrants, it’s still bigotry.

If Byrd was a conservative they would have run him out of town on a rail a long time ago. But since he is an enemy of the conservatives, the old “enemy of my enemy is my friend” is what enables Byrd to continue to exert power. (That and the fact that West Virginia has a disproportionate amount of federal porkbarrel spending because of Byrd’s prominence in the legislature.)

Ok, got it, and Kevin, my memory did not serve me QUITE as well as I wish, but here goes: (From the 1988 Oxford Univ Press publication of Battle Cry of Freedom, James M. McPherson, pg 131-133).
…Archbishop Hughes in 1850 delivered a well-ublicized address “The Decline of Protestantism and Its Causes”. “The object we hope to accomplish,” said Hughes, “is to convert all Pagan antions, and all Protestant nations. …There is no secrecy in all this…Our mission {is} to convert the wrold-including the inhabitants of the United States-the people, Senate, the Cabinet, the President, and all!” …Protestantism is effete, powerless, dying out…and concious that its last moment is come when it is fairly set, face to face, with Catholic truth”.

Damn, I wasn’t finished with the post. Here’s more.

In 1852 the first Plenary Council of American bishops, meeting in Baltimore, attacked the godlessness of public education and decided to seek tax support for Catholic schools or tax relief for parents who sent their children to such schools. …Whigs won several elections on the platform of defending public schools as the nursery of republicanism against the “bold effort” of this “despotic fait” to “unite…the Church andthe State,”…
Int the midst of these school campaigns,Hughes threw the hierarch into another emotional struggle, this one over control of church property…In July 1853 Monsignor G. Bedini arrived in the U.S. as a papal nunci to adjudicate the property dispute in certain dioceses…As bedini’s tour continued, riots broke out in several cities that he visited, and upon his departure for Italy in February 1854 he had to be smuggled abouard a ship in the New York harbor to escape a mob.

Ok, that’s all I’m gonna quote (and probably more than anyone will read!). So, I think I remembered correctly that there was a fear of Papist takeover in many aspects of American life, but I did not correctly remember that the priest smuggled onto the boat was here for reasons other than the schools.