Aleph Number:
Collection is open for research.
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[Identification of item], Ku Klux Klan Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Ku Klux Klan Collection were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift and purchase beginning in the 1960s-2012.
Processed by RL Staff
Updated by Meghan Lyon, March 2012
Encoded by Meghan Lyon, March 2012
Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2010-0095, 2011-0194, 2012-0026
This collection is minimally processed: materials may not have been ordered and described beyond their original condition.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
The Ku Klux Klan is a classified hate group first established following the Civil War. It advocates a white supremacist, pro-nationalist, anti-immigration America, and historically has used terrorist and intimidation tactics. The first Klan largely died out in the 1870s. The group revived in the 1920s as nativist and anti-Communist, while the third Klan re-emerged following World War II to oppose the Civil Rights movement.
Collection includes printed materials, distributed by various chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, that refer to race relations in the U.S.; and also clippings concerning Klan activities. Five of these items were acquired from a booth operated by the Klan at the North Carolina State Fair in 1966. There is also a selected bibliography and outline of the history of the Klan; a six-page typescript statement by Imperial Wizard James R. Venable in 1966; a letter to Lamar Q. Ball, city editor of the "Atlanta Constitution" (April 1940), regarding Frank Dudley's King Cobra; a reproduction of "The Imperial Night-Hawk" (1923); an issue of "The Clansman" (1967); apologetics, and membership solicitations; circulars, brochures, pamphlets, broadsides, periodicals, cards and ephemera; a clipping that refers to a federal investigation of the Klan and charges related to the murders of civil rights leader, Vernon Dahmer, and educator Lemuel Penn; and a list of state offices with explanatory notes.
Volumes include two briefs prepared by the staff of the "Enterprise-Journal," (McComb, Miss.), commenting on McComb as a center of racial conflict in the mid 1960s; and an Imperial Decree prefaced by the Ku Klux Klan Kreed. There is also a tape of a devotional service and address, probably by Dr. Wesley A. Swift, speaking on Jewish people, and the responsibility of Christians in fighting Communism. Included is the printed text of the "Ku Klux Klan Kreed"; a petition (1916) for incorporation of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Fulton Co., Ga. with a charter and court order; and an original blank form issued by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Atlanta, Ga. (about 1925) listing members of the Konklave by name.
Collection also includes printed items from the Knights of the Green Forest chapter in Tupelo, Miss., as well as the Miss. state chapter and the national office in Ala.
Other items were first distributed during a talk by C. P. Ellis to freshmen students at a Duke University dormitory in 1969. Items include a 45-rpm sound disc with the songs "Flight NAACP 105" and "High ride"; a flyer regarding protests against the playing of the song "Dixie" at student events; a membership form for the North Carolina chapter; and printed items, including God is the Author of Segregation (1967) and an issue of The Fiery Cross (vol. 2, 12th ed.).
Finally, the collection includes materials from the Pennsylvania realm of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan, including newsletters and official correspondence regarding fundraising, membership, and Klan meetings. These papers include references to the Klan's charity work for Klan Haven, an orphanage. There is also a large panoramic photograph of a Klan reunion at Gettysburg battlefield, featuring many groups identified as Women of the KKK.
Additional panoramic photographs can be found in the Charles D. Johnson series, including Klan reunions at Gettysburg (a second copy of the above photograph), Miami, and Washington, D.C., from the 1920s. Another piece of the Charles D. Johnson materials is his wallet, which includes an undated membership passport card to the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The wallet also includes membership cards to other organizations such as the American Legion and the National Motorists' Association.
This material has not been fully processed or arranged; items are foldered by the order in which they arrived.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
Panoramic photographs of Klan celebrations and reunions in the 1920s, as well as Johnson's wallet, which includes a Klan passport card. The wallet also includes membership cards to other organizations such as the American Legion and the National Motorists' Association.