U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was a Georgia-based Klan organization incorporated on October 24, 1955. The group was led by Eldon Edwards and was the largest Klan of the 1950s with an estimated 50,000 members in nine southern states. Eventually the group was besieged by infighting and more than a score of smaller Klans broke with the U.S. Klans. The United Klans of America later absorbed many of these breakaway Klans.[1]
By 1964 the group was greatly diminished. The FBI listed it as the seventh largest Klan in America with only 70 members and two klaverns remaining.[2]
Edwards died in August 1960 and was succeeded by Robert “Wild Bill” Davidson. Davidson later resigned from the U.S. Klans and formed the Invisible Empire, United Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America. Upon the resignation of Davidson, Earl E. George became the head of the U.S. Klans. George remained in that position until October 26, 1963 when he was banished on charges of embezzlement. The next month he formed a new Klan organization.[3]
The Rebel was the U.S. Klans newspaper.
State Grand Dragons
- James H. Bickley, South Carolina
- H. L. Jones of Jonesboro, Georgia
- A. C. Hightower, Arkansas
- Alvin M. Horn and later Robert Shelton, Alabama
- Thurman Miller, North Carolina
- Edgar Taylor, Louisiana
- William J. Griffin, Florida
Notes
- ↑ The Segregationists, by James Graham Cook, page 133
- ↑ Klan Organizations 1958-1964 (FBI publication)
- ↑ White Robes and Burning Crosses: A History of the Ku Klux Klan from 1866, by Michael Newton, page 134