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Annex Seven

Where have all the Klansmen gone? Long time passing.

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  (1) This headstone is for a Klanslady. W.O.K.K.K. stands for Women of the Ku Klux Klan.

  (2) This Klansman died at a rather young age. In those days medicine wasn't nearly as advanced as it is today. People died much younger and from many ailments that are easily cured today.  

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(3) A Klansman, in Lodge of Sorrow robe, stoops by Klansman's grave. At times the KKK was so popular people wanted their membership to be known for a long time. Even after death.

(4) We know a little bit more about this one. He was a Nighthawk in the Klan. He was also Deputy Sheriff for Elkhart, IN. He drowned on a fishing trip. Below the date 1971 is a Klan Nightrider. After its third great increase in membership during the turbulent 1960's, by the 1970's the KKK was in decline once again.

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(5) There was no date on this headstone. The name is for Roy L. Cook. Above the name is a fiery cross and three K's flanking the base of the cross.

(6) We know a lot about this one. For nearly fifty years Roy Frankhouser was an active Klansman starting with the United Klans of America and ending with the Keystone Knights of the KKK. He rose to the rank of Grand Dragon for the state of Pennsylvania, had his own local TV talk show, and was seldom out of the news.

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  (7) This is the headstone of exConfederate General and First Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest. (Free mason) (8) Hard to read, but this is the headstone of fraternalist and Imperial Wizard, "Col." William Joseph Simmons (Free Mason), who revived the KKK in 1915.

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(9) This photo didn't get the entire headstone. James Colescott (Free Mason) was the first northern man to rule the KKK.

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(10) Samuel Roper (Free Mason) took over as Imperial Wizard of the KKK when Dr. Green died. Roper was a police chief by profession.

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  (11) James Venable led the National Knights of the KKK. He was an attorney. His family owned Stone Mountain. (12) Virgil Griffin led the Christian Knights of the KKK. He was a small business owner.

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(13) Edward White was a member of the original KKK and did night patrols in New Orleans. He was Supreme Court Justice during the Wilson Administration. (14) Hugo Black was in the Simmons era Ku Klux Klan. He was a Supreme Court Justice during the F.D. Roosevelt Administration. (15) Hard to read, but, this is the headstone of Klansman and United States President, Harry S. Truman. Truman's family has denied his membership in the KKK and, no doubt, will continue to do so. The fact is he was a minor member from 1920-22. He joined at a time when it was respectable and fashionable to do so. He had a major falling out with the KKK over appointing Catholics to positions in politics. He lost an election because he lost Klan support.

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(16) Gutzon Borglum was a prominent member of the Simmons era Klan. He carved Mt. Rushmore, Stone Mountain (the scene of two major Klan revivals), and did work on the base of the Statue of Liberty. (17) D.C. Stevenson was no longer in the KKK when he was tried for the death of Madge Oberholtzer. He had already started his own organization after he had a falling out with Imperial Wizard Evans. None the less, the mass media has made his actions look like the KKK had a hand in it. In spite of the fact that Stevenson acted on his own, the KKK was discredited by the media's yellow journalism. The media has, also, claimed that Stevenson was not a veteran of World War One, but, only pretended he was to gain support from veterans. I fail to see how that claim of the mass media could be true considering what it says on Stevenson's headstone. I, also, fail to see how a false claim made by Stevenson in the1920's could have endured through massive investigations and his years in prison and made it onto his headstone. Knowing the mass media for what it is, I am inclined to believe the headstone.

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(18) Thomas Dixon was not a Klansman, but, his best selling novels about the original helped the Simmons' revival of the KKK become such a great success. (19) Albert Pike was a major figure in Scottish Rite Masonry and was Chief Judicial Officer for the original KKK as well as Grand Dragon of Arkansas. In spite of the conclusive documentation, the History Channel has aired a "documentary" in which the Free Masons make a poor attempt to deny Pike's membership in the Ku Klux Klan. So many high ranking Klan leaders and Klan members were Free Masons in the 1920's that some newspapers were claiming the KKK was a branch of Free Masonry. The Masons may have tried making the Klan just that. There are many Masonic overtones in the Ku Klux Klan.        

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    (20) In the 1980's I asked every person I met who was old enough to have lived during the 1920's. They all told me it was common knowledge that President Calvin Cooledge was a member of the KKK. I do not have conclusive documentation to that effect, though. However, he allowed cross lightings on the steps of the Capitol Building and marched along side Imperial Wizard Evans in the great Washington, DC Klan parade (1925). He was elected President because of Klan support and may very well have been a Klan member, the same as President Harding, who was sworn into the KKK by Simmons, himself, in the Green Room of the White House. (21) Bishop Alma White founded the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarapath, near Bound Brook, New Jersey. I used to live a few miles away and visited the place. It is a religious center. Bishop White was a Kleagle in the Women of the Ku Klux Klan and she praised the KKK in three books: The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy, Klansmen - the Guardians of Liberty, and Ku Klux Klan - Heroes of the Fiery Cross. She, also, praised the KKK in her church newspaper, the Good Citizen. Imperial Wizard Evans visited her church at Zarapath several times. At one time, an anti Klan hate mob from Bound Brook attacked the church. The religious people at Zarapath had to barricade themselves inside the church and adjacent buildings. The whole thing resembled a modern siege of the Alamo. It took a column of state police to break through the mob and rescue the church people. Damage to church property was severe.

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       Photos (22) to (24). Two more graves of the rank and file members. Note the age difference. Photo 24 is a clsoe up of the emblem on grave 23.