of membership applications and reports

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Georgia Historical Society Creator: Ku Klux Klan (1915- ) Title: Ku Klux Klan of Georgia membership applications and reports Dates: 1947-1948 Extent: 0.25 cubic feet (3 folders) Identification: MS 1819

Biographical/Historical Note

The Ku Klux Klan is a secret society committed to in the United States. The KKK has existed in various forms since it was first organized in Tennessee by veterans of the Confederate Army after the end of the Civil War to restore white supremacy. In the 1870s, the KKK was suppressed by the federal government, but the organization resurfaced again in 1915. This revived Klan grew slowly during World War I, but in 1920 the secret order broadened its appeal across the nation with its militant advocacy of white supremacy, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and nativism. In the 1920s, the Klan became a great influence in American politics, but due to internal feuding the Klan soon entered a period of decline. The Klan disbanded in 1944 after being prosecuted for failure to pay their federal taxes.

Later in 1944, Samuel Green from , Georgia worked to restore the KKK in the form of the Association of Georgia Klans, with an emphasis on white supremacy and anticommunism. When Green died in 1949, several other Klan groups organized, making this new Klan movement fragmented without any central organization like it had in the past. Also, in contrast to the powerful Klan of the 1920s which drew much of its membership from the social mainstream, the Klans that formed in the late 1940s and later were typically small, fanatical groups whose members were often on the fringes of respectable society.

With the in the 1950s and 1960s, the KKK became extremely violent in their efforts to resist desegregation. As a result of the KKK violence, federal authorities acted to suppress and disrupt Klan activities with some success, but the KKK has remained persistent and klans still exist to the present day.

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains membership applications for citizenship in the invisible empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the Realm of Georgia from 1947 to 1948. Also included are weekly reports from the Kleagle, who was responsible for recruiting new members into the Klan.

Index Terms

Application forms. Ku Klux Klan (1915- ) Ku Klux Klan (1915- ). Georgia. Reports.

Administrative Information

Processing Information

This collection is processed at the Basic Level (or collection level). There is no detailed inventory for this collection as it is not fully processed. To request that this collection be added to our priority list of collections to be fully processed as staffing and funding allow, please contact the Library and Archives staff.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Sponsorship

Encoding funded by a 2008 Archives-Basic Projects grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.