A 1922 article from The Atlantic Monthly by LeRoy Percy (1860 – 1929), a well-off planter who had successfully fought the spread of the KKK into Washington County, Mississippi. This article explains how the Klan operated in 1922. The wide-spread appeal of the KKK is also discussed.
“Among Southerners a romantic tradition of patriotism and terrible justice hallows the memory of the old Klan. Thoughtless enthusiasts have joined the new because of that tradition. Among the Negroes the very name is still a thing of nightmare terror… The Klan excludes from membership Negroes, Jews, Catholics and foreign-born, whether citizens or not. In its own phrase, it is the only Gentile White Protestant American-born organization in the world. It is secret… When asked if he is a member, the custom is for a good Klansman to evade, more rarely to reply in the negative, but in any event not to avow his membership.”
Click here to learn about the origins of the term “Jim Crow”.
Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive.
