Knights of the White Camelia
Knights of the White Camelia (KWC) (English for: Knights of the White Camellia) was an American secret society , similar to the Ku Klux Klan , which mainly in Louisiana in the period after the Civil War (1861-1865) during the so-called reconstruction was active. The federal government rejected the Republican Party and saw itself as a group that stood up for white supremacy . Organized similarly to the Ku Klux Klan, albeit a little less militant, this organization was often confused with it. Like the first Klan, he supported the Democratic Party and fought against the so-called Carpetbagger , northerners who came to the defeated south after the Civil War to do business. At the time, the Democratic Party represented reactionary views and the Republican Party , Abraham Lincoln's party , represented progressive views.
history
The Knights of the White Camelia were in May 1867 by Southern - Colonel Alcibiades DeBlanc in New Orleans founded. They mainly spread in the deep southern United States, from central Texas to North Carolina and South Carolina . They denied any connection with the clan, but had similar rituals and a similar structure. The name is derived from a snow-white flower from the genus of camellias and should accordingly be a reference to the skin color of its members.
The organization took place in local groups, the councils, with each council having between five and several hundred members. Each council was headed by a “Commander” and his deputy, the “Lieutenant Commander”. Other high-ranking members were the "Guard" (watchman), "Secretary" (secretary) and "Treasurer" (treasurer). All posts were filled by election once a year. It was planned to set up several “State Councils” and a super council to represent the organization as a whole. However, due to the short duration of its existence, these levels were never reached.
Like the Ku Klux Klan, the KWC tried to defeat its opponents primarily through intimidation. The targets were Republicans and Blacks . The procedures ranged from threats and flogging to murder, but to a lesser extent than the Klan. The people were either forced into the Democratic Party or were supposed to pay protection money to it through so-called "Protection Papers". The influence of the KWC meant that in Louisiana, one of the main areas of the KWC, the people in the presidential election of 1868 voted 99% in favor of Horatio Seymour , who nevertheless lost to Ulysses S. Grant at the federal level . In the election year, between 700 and 1,000 murders were committed, in which both the KWC and the Klan played a large part.
Overall, the secret society was more open, so its members admitted to outsiders that they belonged to the Knights. In terms of social structure, primarily better-off people, such as journalists, lawyers and politicians, were members of the federal government. The Knights existed from 1867 to 1869, but the lack of militancy caused many members to switch to the Klan or the White League . After a Republican newspaper exposed its secret rituals, passwords, and identifiers, the Knights disbanded between 1869 and 1870.
Today there are various organizations under the name "Knights of the White Camelia" or "Knights of the White Kamelia", which have little in common with the original organization and are mostly spin-offs from the Ku Klux Klan.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Knight of the White Camelia. The Handbook of Texas Online, archived from the original March 2, 2009 ; Retrieved August 5, 2013 .
- ^ A b James G. Dauphine: The Knights of the White Camelia and the Election of 1868: Louisiana's White Terrorists; A benighting legacy . In: Louisiana Historical Association (ed.): Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association . Vol. 30, No. 2, 1989, pp. 173-190 , JSTOR : 4232730 .
- ^ Dan Barry: Shrunken and Splintered Klan Is Still a Potent Lure for the Disaffected. New York Times , October 23, 1999, accessed August 5, 2013 .