The Pittsburgh Press (December 16, 1945)
Klan stirring racial hatreds again in South
Trying to capitalize on war unrest
By Allan L. Swim, Scripps-Howard staff writer
The men who preach racial and religious intolerance and exploit prejudices are trying to capitalize in the South the unrest that follows war.
Today the situation is confined chiefly to the South – but such things have a way of spreading. The Ku Klux Klan after the last war was a good example; the threatened national influence of Huey Long was another.
These advocates of intolerance seek to turn Protestant against Jew, management against labor, war veterans against unions.
The Scripps-Howard Newspapers sent Allan L. Swim on a tour of the South to report on this situation. Below is the first of six stories based on his investigation.
ATLANTA, Georgia (SHS, Dec. 15) – The recent appearance of a huge burning cross on Stone Mountain near here gave notice that the Ku Klux Klan is back in action.
The 300-foot cross blazed near the spot on which the Klan, in its modern form, was organized in 1915.
Nine Klan units now meet regularly in Atlanta. Members wear hoods and robes and carry out all of the KKK rituals of former days.
“There are probably 25,000 Klansmen in Georgia now,” said Dr. Samuel Green, grand dragon.
‘Never going to die’
“The Klan has never been dead – and the Klan is never going to die.
“Publication of our newspaper (The Fiery Cross) was stopped some time before Pearl Harbor. Our board of directors thought we ought to lay down anything that might produce prejudice during the war. In our last issue we asked all groups to join hands in the war effort.”
Dr. Green says many men returning from the armed services are joining the Klan “because they feel many of their rights and benefits have been taken away from them – and they want them back.”
No ‘foreigners’ allowed
The Klan, he says, is not fighting the Jews because of their religion.
“The Klan is essentially a white man’s organization and essentially a Protestant organization,” he said. “A man to belong must be a native American. No foreigners are allowed.
“One of our most active fights right now is against the Communists.
“We have had nothing to do with the America Firsters or any of that group and don’t intend to have any dealings with them. As a general rule, our individual members have nothing to do with such organizations.”
Principles claimed
Dr. Green, 55, physician, and a Klansman since 1922, said the “cardinal principles” of the KKK are “to develop character, to practice clannishness, to protect the home and the chastity of white womanhood and to exemplify a pure patriotism to the United States, its constitution and its flag.”
Under the guise of carrying out these principles, Klan groups in various parts of the country have engaged in terrorism and flogging. They sowed race hatred and carried on active campaigns of discrimination against Negroes, Jews and Catholics.
Numerous individuals hid their identities under Klan hoods while carrying out acts of personal revenge.
Negro fears Clan
The average southern Negro fears the Klan more than any other organization.
Although the Klan 1s not operating as a nationwide, incorporated organization because of a federal tax suit against it, KKK groups are being reorganized throughout the South.
J. B. Stoner of Chattanooga is devoting full time to organization work in Middle Tennessee. Cards he passes out to prospective members bear the words “white supremacy.”
Stoner says there are “several hundred” Klansmen in Chattanooga.
Burning crosses again
“We’ve been burning crosses in this area for about a year,” he says. “We burned one recently in downtown Chattanooga.
“We get along pretty well with the Catholics here, but were fighting the Jews and Negroes.”
Stoner last year sent Congress a “petition” which said: “I request, urge and petition you to pass a resolution recognizing the fact that the Jews are children of the devil and that, consequently, they constitute a grave danger to the United States of America.”
Klansmen in Houston and Dallas say the KKK in Texas is “ready to go into action if the need arises.” Several crosses have been burned this year in San Antonio.
TOMORROW: The commoner party.