Forgotten History: Blacks in the KKK

If ever there were a post title that people would think was a joke, this is it. There was a time, however, when there were thousands of blacks in the Klan. While some folks over 40 are aware that blacks served with the Union Army during the Civil War and fewer people are aware that blacks also fought with the Confederate Army, almost no one is aware that blacks were members of the KKK. Info is scarce, but here are some basics: (I'll have the source link at the end.)

"The Ku Klux Spirit", by J.A. Rogers, noted Negro historian of the 1920's. The Ku Klux Spirit was first published in 1923, by Messenger Publishing Co. It was republished in 1980, by Black Classic Press. On page 34 of his book we find the amazing passage: "A fact not generally known is that there were thousands of Negro Klansmen. These were used as spies on other Negroes and on Northern Whites."

Albion Winegar Tourgee (1838-1905). In 1880 he published his book, "A Fool's Errand", (New York: Fords, Howard and Hubert). It was republished in 1989 by Louisiana State University Press as, "The Invisible Empire". On page 79 of his book we find the passage: "There were no Colored men in the band (of Klansmen) that night. Their hands were not covered. I could see their boots and pants, and I could judge from their hands and feet. Most of them were genteel people, besides being white people. I could also have told by their language if there had been any Colored people among them. Their language was that of white men, and cultivated men."

"Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography", by Jack Hurst. On page 305 we find this interesting quote: "...(the Klan was) reorganized to oppose radical proponents (the Radical Republicans) of what it perceived to be Black domination, NOT to scourge Blacks themselves. Although it has been written that Ku Klux Klan ranks were open only to the more than 100,000 honorably discharged ex-Confederate veterans, the hierarchy in some areas and some instances seems to have accepted and even recruited Blacks, provided they went along with Conservative-Democratic political philosophy. In Memphis of late 1868, sixty-five Blacks organized a "Colored Democratic Club" under the watchful eye of Klansman-editor Gallaway - - who according to an account in the Appeal, "made a motion on behalf of the White men present, that they give employment and protection to Colored democrats." (Yes, it was the Democrats that started the KKK, just ask former Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd)

 One source of information is from the book: Hard Times by Studs Terkel (1970, New York). The book is about the conditions in this country during the Great Depression. On page 239 :

“The Ku Klux was formed on behalf of people that wanted a decent living, both black and white. Half the coal camp was colored. It wasn’t anti-colored. The black people had the same responsibilities as the white. Their lawn was just as green as the white man’s. They got the same rate of pay. There was two colored who belonged to it. I remember those two coming around my father and asking questions about it. They joined. The pastor of our community church was a colored man. He was Ku Klux. It was the only protection the working man had. ……. One time a Negro slapped a white boy. They didn’t give him any warning. They whipped him and ran him out of town. If a white man slapped a colored kid, they’d have dome the same thing. They didn’t go in for beating up Negroes because they were Negroes. What they did was keep the community decent to live in. What they did object to was obscenity and drinking.”

=============================

Quite a while ago I remember seeing some more info on blacks in the Klan, but it basically echoed what is shown above. By 1915, when the "new" Klan came about, the number of blacks in the Klan declined. During the 1920's Klan membership exceeded 3 million, and that was at a time when the U.S. population was about a third of what it is today.

As we can see, most blacks in the Klan were used as spies.  Some, however, weren't.
Spin this bit of history as you will, but it is interesting.

http://www.kkklan.com/negroklan.htm