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Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan

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The national leader of the Ku Klux Klan is called either a Grand Wizard or an Imperial Wizard, depending on which KKK organization is being described.

Grand Wizard

Not to be confused with The Grand Wizard of Wrestling.

The grand wizard (sometimes called the imperial wizard or national director) is the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad.

The title "Grand Wizard" was used by the first Klan which was founded in 1865 and which existed during the Reconstruction era until 1872. The title was chosen because General Forrest had been known as "The Wizard of the Saddle" during the Civil War.[1]

The second Klan, founded in 1915, styled their national leader the "Imperial Wizard". National officers were styled "Imperial" officers. State or "Realm" officers were styled "Grand" officers. For example, a "Grand Dragon" was the highest-ranking Klansman in a given state.

First Klan (1865–1872)

The Ku Klux Klan was founded by six confederate veterans in 1865 but did not elect a Grand Wizard until after Nathan Bedford Forrest joined in 1867.[2][3][4]

  • Nathan Bedford Forrest, Grand Wizard, 1867–1869.[1] Forrest resigned in 1869 and ordered the KKK dissolved although the group remained active until 1872[5][6]

Second Ku Klux Klan

  • William Joseph Simmons[7] (1880–1945) was the Imperial Wizard (national leader) of the second Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1922.[8]
  • Hiram Wesley Evans (1881–1966), part of a group that ousted William Joseph Simmons from the position of Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Evans was Imperial Wizard from 1922 to 1939,[9] during which time the Klan's membership peaked.
  • James A. Colescott (1897–1950), Imperial Wizard, 1939-1944.[10] Colescott dissolved the organization after the IRS filed a lien for $685,305 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest from 1920s against the Klan.[11]
  • Samuel Green[12] (1889–1949). Green reformed the KKK in 1946[13] He was briefly Imperial Wizard of a reorganized Klan in 1949, but died of a heart attack within two weeks of his election.

Other Ku Klux Klan movements

  • Jeff Berry[14] (1968–2013)
  • Samuel Bowers[15][16] (1924–2006)
  • David Duke (born 1950), Imperial Wizard, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 1974–1981, Duke started a new branch of the KKK[17]
  • Virgil Lee Griffin[18] (1944–2009)
  • Thomas Robb, National Director, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 1989–present[19][20]
  • David Wayne Hull (born 1962)[citation needed]
  • Johnny Lee Clary (1959–2014), Imperial Wizard in 1989 of the White Knights Organization but subsequently renounced his membership and became an ordained Christian minister speaking against racism and movements such as the Ku Klux Klan.
  • Ron Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the Imperial Klans of America.
  • Robert Shelton (1930–2003). Grand Wizard, United Klans of America Inc., 1961–1987, Shelton started a new branch of the KKK[21]
  • Louis Beam (born 1946)
  • Bill Wilkinson (born 1942), Imperial Wizard, Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 1975–1981, Wilkinson formed a competing branch which, at the time, was the largest national KKK organization[22][23]
  • Don Black (born 1953), formally imprisoned white nationalist and Imperial Wizard, from 1981–1987.
  • Eldon Edwards (1909–1960), Imperial Wizard, Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 1950–1959[24][25]
  • Roy Elonzo Davis (1890–1967) Second in command of 1915 KKK under William Simmons, Grand Dragon of Texas under Eldon Edwards. Imperial Wizard, Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Knights of the Flaming Sword 1959–1964;[26] Both organizations disbanded.[27]
  • Samuel Roper (1895–1986), law enforcement officer turned Imperial Wizard of the KKK, from 1949–1950. Styled Imperial Wizard, Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 1949–1950,[28] He was preceded by Samuel Green, and was later succeeded by Eldon Lee Edwards.
  • Bob Jones (1930–1989), Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America in North Carolina from 1963–1967.[29]
  • Tom Metzger (1938–2020), Grand Wizard of the KKK in the 1970s. Founder of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR).

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Hurst, Jack (2011-06-08). Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-78914-3.
  2. ^ Horn, Stanley F. (1939). Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan, 1866–1871. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith Publishing Corporation.
  3. ^ Fleming, Walter J., ed. (1905). Ku Klux Klan: Its Origins, Growth and Disbandment. Neale Publishing.
  4. ^ Wyn Craig Wade (1998). The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. Oxford University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-19-512357-9.
  5. ^ United States. Congress. Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States (1872). Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, So Far as Regards the Execution of the Laws, and Safety of the Lives and Property of the Citizens of the United States and Testimony Taken: Report of the Joint committee, Views of the minority and Journal of the Select committee, April 20, 1871 – Feb. 19, 1872. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 14. When it is considered that the origin, designs, mysteries, and ritual of the order are made secrets; that the assumption of its regalia or the revelation of any of its secrets, even by an expelled member, or of its purposes by a member, will be visited by 'the extreme penalty of the law', the difficulty of procuring testimony upon this point may be appreciated, and the denials of the purposes, of membership in, and even the existence of the order, should all be considered in the light of these provisions. This contrast might be pursued further, but our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order, (the reader may form his own conclusion upon this question,) but to trace its development, and from its acts and consequences gather the designs which are locked up under such penalties.
  6. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: The Enforcement Acts, 1870–1871", Public Broadcast Service [1]. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  7. ^ Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in AmericaArchived 2006-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Wade, Wyn Craig (1987). The Fiery Cross: the Ku Klux Klan in America. Oxford University Press US. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-671-41476-4. OCLC 652217460 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ Wade 1987, p. 191.
  10. ^ Wade 1987, p. 265.
  11. ^ Wade 1987, p. 275.
  12. ^ Samuel Green Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Green, Klan Chief, Dies At His Home. Atlantan Was Head Of Force Which Led New Movement Of The Hooded Groups". The New York Times. August 19, 1949. Retrieved 2011-04-27. Dr. Samuel Green, imperial wizard of the Associated Klans of Georgia, died at his home tonight of a heart attack at the age of 59. He had been promoted from grand dragon to the wizard post at a "Konklave" two weeks ago. ... He was the driving force behind the revitalized movement of their hooded order that followed World War II. The old Klan was by Federal tax suits, ...
  14. ^ "Key Leader Profile: Berry, Jeff". www.tkb.org. Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
  15. ^ "CNN - Former KKK leader convicted of 1966 murder - August 21, 1998". www.cnn.com.
  16. ^ Samuel Bowers Bio Archived 2010-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Reed, Julia (April 9, 1992). "His Brilliant Career". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved October 21, 2019. (subscription required)
  18. ^ Martin, Douglas (17 February 2009). "Virgil Lee Griffin, Klan Leader, Dies at 64". The New York Times.
  19. ^ "Thomas Robb". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  20. ^ "Pastor Robb Alive and Well". Christian Revival Center via Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 2023-10-15.
  21. ^ Theroux, Paul (2015). Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads. London, UK: Hamish Hamilton. p. 74. ISBN 9780241146729.
  22. ^ "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  23. ^ Wilkinson, Bill (1982-11-04). "CNN Crossfire" (Interview). Interviewed by Tom Braden and Pat Buchanan.
  24. ^ Sims, Patsy (1996). The Klan. University Press of Kentucky. p. 34. ISBN 0-8131-0887-X.
  25. ^ Staff report (March 4, 1986). Samuel W. Roper, 90, was second director of GBI in early 1940s. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  26. ^ "Imperial Wizard Says KKK's Membership Very Small in Texas". Dallas Morning News. February 11, 1961.
  27. ^ Committee on Un-American Activities (January 1966). Activities of Ku Klux Klan Organizations of the United States; Parts 1–5. United States Congress. p. 48.
  28. ^ Staff report (August 28, 1949). Ex-Chief of Georgia G-men is new head of Ku Klux Klan. Chicago Tribune
  29. ^ Cunningham, David. Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan. Massachusetts: Oxford Scholarship Online, 2012. Print.
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