James Venable
James Reagan Venable (January 15, 1903 - January 18, 1993)[1] was an Atlanta attorney, small town mayor, and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He was also associated with the Atlanta-based organizations The Columbians and the Christian Anti-Jewish Party.[2] His family owned Stone Mountain in Georgia where the Klan was revived on several occasions. James Venable was mayor of nearby Stone Mountain Village from 1946 to 1949.[3] Venable first joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1924.
In 1958 James Venable was the defense lawyer for several of the accused in the bombing of the Atlanta Jewish Temple.[4]
From 1963 to 1987 James Venable was Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Previously he promoted the Defensive Legion of Registered Americans and worked closely with the Christian Voters and Buyers League.
James Venable was born in DeKalb County, Georgia. He graduated from Atlanta Law School in June 1930. As an attorney he defended both Klansmen and Black Muslims. He won an appeal for two Black Muslims in Louisiana. They were convicted on charges after the police raided their mosque.
In October 1975 he banished five of his Grand Dragons who accused him of financial mismanagement and senility.
James Venable died in Lawrenceville, Georgia at a nursing home. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease, cancer and pneumonia. Before his death Venable appointed Railton Loy as the new Imperial Wizard of the National Knights.
Notes
- โ Find A Grave
- โ White rage: the extreme right and American politics, by Martin Durham, page 48
- โ "James R. Venable, 92 Leader of Klan Group", The New York Times, Janaury 21, 1993
- โ FBI file of Wallace H. Allen