Klan Unmasks at Order of Imperial Wizard, Giving Organization New Status

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The Ku Klux Klan, the reactionary force in American life which has been operating for the past seven years under the protection of the mask and has carried on an agitation against Jews, Catholics and negroes, is no longer a masked order.

The new status was brought about, according to an official announcement issued at Klan headquarters here, at ceremonies held throughout the United States by Klan branches at midnight on February 22, Washington’s birthday, as the result of an edict issued by Dr. H. W. Evans. “Emperor and Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”

To commemorate the outward change in the policy of the reactionary organization which marks, those well informed state, the defeat of the forces of bigotry and corruption which rallied around the Klan, the Imperial Wizard ordered the conferring of a new degree upon the Ku Kluxers, the degree of the “Knights of the Great Forest.”

This “distinction” is being conferred upon the members of the former hooded order for their consent to obey the edict of the Emperor and Imperial Wizard to discard the mask in the Klan regalia since the Emperor’s order makes it “unlawful” for any member of the organization to wear a mask or to fraternize with or remain “in Klannish fidelity” to anyone “who shall thereafter wear upon his helmet a mask or visor.”

In making a virtue of the necessity, the Ku Klux Klan leaders here declared that “it was well known that a change in the Klan has been going on for two or three years; that there has been, inside the order, a gradually increasing sentiment toward unmasking so that eventually it became but a question of when and how it should be done.”

In a statement issued at Klan headquarters, it was explained that the change in the Klan policy marks the completion of the first phase of the organization’s work and the beginning of a second period. As to the future policy of the Ku Klux Klan in this new period, it was declared on the authority of the Emperor and Imperial Wizard that “the first great task of the order was to promote 100 per cent. Americanism by stopping unrestricted immigration. This policy of the Klan has been adopted and made a part of our national policy and the man who would today try to change it would indeed be simple. The second phase of the Klan’s work calls for an intensive effort to promote the assimilation of those aliens now in America, for the sturdy support of our constitution and laws, and the inculcation throughout America of the wholesome patriotism based upon the great fundamentals of Americanism as established in the founding of the Republic; to produce homogeneity and happy understanding of each other by the people upon the firm foundation of American principles will continuously engage the attention of the Klan for the next few years.”

The “edict” of Dr. H. W. Evans, being the official announcement of the unmasking reads as follows:

“By virtue of the power and authority in me vested as Emperor and Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and in performance of the solemn duty assigned to me by its constitution and laws. I do hereby proclaim the following: Edict: That on and after midnight of February twenty-second. Year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-eight, no mask or visor shall be upon the helmet of the regalia of any Klansman. It shall thereafter be unlawful for any Klansman to wear any mask or visor as part of his regalia and each Klansman who shall be unavoidably absent from the meeting of a Klan to be held throughout the Invisible Empire on the Twenty-second Day of February, shall as soon thereafter as possible, attend a regular meeting of a Klan, and there become a member of the Knights of the Great Forest. That on and after the said date all Klansmen are forbidden to fraternize with, or remain in Klannish fidelity to, any one who shall thereafter wear upon his helmet a mask or visor.”