Although the Ku Klux Klan can be traced from the 1700s through the Civil War and is still evolving at present, many people fail to realize its reach and influence. Some perceive the KKK as merely a radical racist group composed primarily of ignorant, uneducated members, but it is much more. Some Klan groups are political, while others are simply social. Some “meet and eat” like any mainstream civic or church group, but others are focused on well-planned violence. Not all Klan groups advocate an overthrow of the U.S. government, though some do.
Avoiding the bias of previous works—written by either Klan apologists or detractors—the author traces the historical development of the Klan and its organization, membership, ideologies and philosophies. Also detailed are the secret oaths of allegiance, the Imperial Wizards, and the concept of Knighthood.

Chester L. Quarles is a professor of criminal justice and serves in the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Mississippi. While serving as a state criminal investigator, director of the State Crime Laboratory and as the state ballistics examiner, he participated in the investigations of almost all KKK activity in Mississippi in the mid to late 1960s, testifying in court during the trial of the first KKK member convicted since Reconstruction. Quarles has studied the Klan for over 40 years and, in conducting extensive hands-on research, has attended Klan meetings in Mississippi and Tennessee and has interviewed many of the more notable Klan figures in Mississippi. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Chester L. Quarles
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 324
Bibliographic Info: appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008 [1999]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3887-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v

Preface      1

Introduction      7

1. Before the Beginning      13

2. An Empire Is Born      27

3. 1915—A New Image      53

4. The Ku Klux Klan in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s      77

5. The Modern Klan      93

6. The Klan in the 1970s and the 1980s      113

7. Klan Surrogates      129

8. The Religion of the Ku Klux Klan and Its Offspring      155

9. Right-Wing American Terrorism      183

Appendix I The Original 1866 Ku Klux Klan Prescript      195

Appendix II The Revised and Amended Prescripts of the KKK (1869)      205

Appendix III Constitution and Laws of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Incorporated), 1915      217

Appendix IV The Constitution of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of the Sovereign Realm of Mississippi      251

Appendix V The Klan Oath Top Secret      273

Appendix VI Imperial Wizards      275

Appendix VII Brochure : Twenty Reasons to Join the Klan      277

Appendix VIII Brochure : Ideals of a Klansman      279

Appendix IX Brochure : A Message from the Invisible Empire      283

Appendix X Klan Terms Used After World War II      285

Notes      289

Bibliography      305

Index      311

“a straightforward presentation…recommended”—Public Library Quarterly; “chronicles the directions the Klan has taken during its long and diverse history”—C&RL News.