◆ SpookStack

7, the ..énsmen, whether cloaked and noodea menbers of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Kian, or skulking in anonymity as menbers of a sham organization, “The Anti-Conmsunis= Christian Association", or brazenly resorting to violence on the open streets of Bogalusa, are a "fearful conspiracy against society... [holding] men silent by the terror of [their actsJand-2 to disband and directed klansmen to buratheir—robes and hoods. | / {their} power for evil". As early as 1868 General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first and only Grand Wizard of the original Invisible Empire, dismayed by mounting, uncontrollable violence laid to the klan, ordered the klan 3 x General Forrest was a Confederate cavalry hero, a man without fear . and, certainly to most Southerners, a man beyond reproach. He anncunced that he would dissociate himself from all klansmen and cooperate with public officials and the courts in enforcing law and ordor. But the founders of the Invisible Empire had sown dragon's : teeth. Te evil that led General Forres to daisband the original Ku ’ lux Klan was its perversion of purposes by undisciplined klans led 4 by irresponsible leaders. The evil we find in the Original Knights * ‘of the Ku Klux Klan is an absolute evil inherent in any secret order holding itself above the law: “the naturaltendency of al] such organizations .. - to -violence ang exine." As history teaches, and as the defendants’ admissions and the proof demonstrate in this ease, violence and crime follow as the night the day when masked men conspire against society itself. Wrapped in myths and misbeliefs which they think relieve them of the obligations of ordinary citizens, klansmen pledge their first allegiance to their Konstitution and give tneir first loyalty to a cross éieetepby in flames. None of the defendant klansmen is a leader in his community. As a group, they do not appear to be representative of a cross-section of the community. Instead they appear to be ignorant bullies, callous of eee ee cen oe