Robert Shelton

Robert Shelton (born June 12, 1929 in Tuscaloosa , Alabama , † March 17, 2003 ibid) was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan . He headed the United Klans of America (UKA) from 1961 until it was dissolved in 1987 .

Life

Shelton was a factory worker for BF Goodrich when he joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1950s. In the US clan of Eldon Lee Edwards he rose to the leader in Alabama until he was ousted by Edwards in the spring of 1960. Instead of giving up, he founded his own clan group, the Alabama Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He began to record several Klaverns and quickly gained new members. In 1961 he renamed the Alabama Knights to the United Klans of America. They became the largest sound group of their time and at times had nearly 30,000 members and a large number of passive supporters. Shelton again led the clan as a secret society that was very secretive. In 1966 he was sentenced to one year in prison after he refused to subscribe to the Klan's membership listsForward Un-American Activities Committee .

During his tenure as the clan leader, numerous crimes were committed, particularly against civil rights activists and African-Americans , by members of the clan. In 1987, Beulah Mae Donald, the mother of the murdered Michael Donald , sued the UKA for damages with the support of the Southern Poverty Law Center and was awarded the sum of 7 million US dollars. Shelton then dissolved the financially ruined clan.

Shelton then moved to Northport near Tuscaloosa and disappeared from the public eye. In 1994 he was interviewed by the Associated Press and told them:

The Klan will never return. Not with the robes and the rallies and the cross lightings and parades, everything that made the Klan the Klan, the mysticism, what we called Klankraft. I'm still a Klansman, always will be. The Klan is my belief, my religion. But it won't work anymore. The Klan is gone. Forever.

“The Klan will never come back. Not with the robes, the rallies, the burning crosses and the parades. Everything that made the Klan, the mystical, what we called Klankraft. I'm still a Klansman, always will be. The clan is my belief, my religion. But it doesn't work anymore. The clan has disappeared. Forever."

- Robert Shelton : quoted in Anti-Defamation League , 2001

Shelton died of a heart attack in Tuscaloosa at the age of 73 . He left behind a son and daughter, both of whom do not share his beliefs.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Emergence of the UKA. (No longer available online.) Anti-Defamation League , archived from the original on November 10, 2007 ; Retrieved February 5, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Robert Shelton, 73, Leader of the Big Klan Faction. New York Times , March 20, 2003, accessed February 5, 2012 . 
3. ^ The Decline of the United Klans of America. (No longer available online.) Anti-Defamation League , 2001, archived from the original on June 29, 2011 ; Retrieved February 5, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.