White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were considered the most militant of all Ku Klux Klan organizations. It originated in Mississippi in the early 1960s under the leadership of Samuel Bowers , her first Grand Wizard . The White Knights of Mississippi were formed from the Original Knights of Louisiana in 1963 and initially consisted of 200 members. Similar to the United Klans of America (UKA), the White Knights of Mississippi were a very secretive group. It was not a public seeking organization and did not give any information about itself to the public. Shortly after it was founded, the membership grew to 6,000 and there were claverns (local chapters) in more than half of the counties in Mississippi. But by 1967 the number of active members dropped to four hundred.
Murders of members of the civil rights movement
The White Knights were responsible for a number of bombings, church arson, assault and murder. In 1964 they murdered the three civil rights activists Andrew Goodman , James Earl Chaney and Michael Schwerner . The victims were members of the Congress of Racial Equality . Samuel Bowers wanted to kill Schwerner because he appeared as an activist of the "Freedom Summers" and wanted to register blacks as voters. Because Schwerner was a white man who wanted to help blacks, he was seen as an enemy. On a first attempt, Bowers gathered 30 White Knights on Memorial Day 1964 and surrounded Mount Zion Church with them during a meeting. Bowers thought Schwerner would attend the meeting, but didn't meet him. When he could not find him, the Ku Klux Klan members began beating the participants in the meeting and then set the church on fire.
Schwerner was in Ohio at the time, helping the National Council of Churches find more volunteers to help with the Mississippi Summer Project. When he found out about the arson he decided to return to Mississippi. Together with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman he drove to Longdale in Neshoba County and was stopped by Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and his Deputy Cecil Price . Both were members of the clan, although they later denied it. The three were locked up and held at the police station until Price worked out the details of the murder with White Knight member Edgar Ray Killen . Hours later, Price released the three but followed them in his car. When they realized they were being followed, they stopped and Price ordered them to get into his car. Two cars full of Klansmen showed up and the three activists were shot dead at close range. The bodies were buried with a D-4 bulldozer .
Lawrence Rainey and Cecil Price were arrested a year later but released shortly afterwards. It was not until 1967 that 18 members of the clan were arrested. Six of them were convicted, including Sam Bowers and Deputy Cecil Price. Seven men were found not guilty and one acquitted on all charges. Bowers and alleged gunman Wayne Roberts received ten years ' imprisonment . The film Mississippi Burning (1988) is based on these events.
Among those arrested was Edgar Ray Killen , who was not convicted only because a jury member did not want to convict a priest. Killen was found guilty 40 years later and received a prison sentence of three times 20 years at the age of 79.
Bowers was also charged with another murder. He is believed to have murdered civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer on January 10, 1966, using an incendiary bomb in his home in Hattiesburg , Mississippi. After several unsuccessful charges, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in August 1998 and died in the Mississippi State Penitentiary .
The end of the White Knights
In 1989 the White Knights of Mississippi tried to establish themselves nationally and appointed the wrestler Johnny Lee Clary , who competed as "Johnny Angel", as the Imperial Wizard. This succeeded the old clan leader Sam Bowers. Clary appeared on various talk shows , such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Morton Downey Jr , and tried to build a more modern image for the Ku Klux Klan . Clary tried to unite the various organizations of the clan and held a meeting in Pulaski , Tennessee , the birthplace of the clan. However, there were internal disputes there. It also found that Clary's friend was an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation . When this became public, Clary lost the clan's trust and he withdrew. He later became a born again Christian and campaigned against the clan as a civil rights activist.
With the conviction of Killen in 2005, the Klan finally lost its importance and disbanded. Price passed away in 2001 and Roberts has passed away as well. Today there is a successor organization under the name "Mississippi White Knights" of a few 100 members under the leadership of the Imperial Wizard Richard Green.
literature
- Charles C. Alexander: The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest . University of Kentucky Press, Lexington 1965.
- Jack Nelson: Terror in the Night: The Klan's Campaign Against the Jews . Simon & Schuster , New York 1993, ISBN 0-671-69223-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stanley Nelson: " Gunshots in Morgontown signaled changes in Klan membership ", The Concordia Sentinel. 01/10/08. Retrieved October 25, 2008.
- ↑ a b Sam Bowers. UMKC School of Law, accessed February 4, 2012 .
- ↑ a b c d Douglas Linder: The Mississippi Burning Trial: US vs. Price et al. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 14, 2008 ; Retrieved October 16, 2008 . 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.
- ↑ Johnny Lee Clary Testimony. Official website, accessed February 4, 2012 .
