The Ku Klux Klan In Madison County

            The source that I found in the archives in the EKU library is called “Home Rule-The Klan Way”, and presents an interesting, if biased, perspective of events surrounding the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Madison County, Kentucky, seemingly focused on the year of 1868.  Now, I have heard of the Ku Klux Klan, as I live in a southern town in Kentucky.  However, I am not sure if any Klan activity in my area has been as violent as that which is described in this article, written by Green Clay on January 27, 1950.  While reading through the source, I found that there are significant parallels between it and Redemption, along with basic ideas derived from Confederate Outlaw, particularly focusing upon Southern hostility to Northerners arriving in the South, the idea of continuation of guerilla warfare, and the treatment of those who took the law into their own hands in the Reconstruction period. 

A connection I found particularly interesting is the idea of “outsiders, devoid of morals” trying “to organize the ignorant negroes recently turned loose on the community by act of Congress” (page 96).  It may not explicitly mention the Republican Party, but this sounds like the actions described by Lehmann.  The hatred the Southerners held for these “outsiders”, most likely Northerners who had relocated to the South, is telling as a population who feels that they are being invaded, and that these recent transplants to their area are attempting to turn their world upside down and ruin the natural order of things.  The Southerners would never think that blacks could actually come up with actions by themselves, so they used the Northerners as scapegoats in that situation, so that they wouldn’t have to believe that blacks were capable of independent thought. 

To continue, another connection I found is with that of Champ Ferguson’s story, mainly on how the guerrillas inspired such fear and terror during the Civil War.  This article mentions something that would also inspire those feelings within a population (particularly for those who supported black rights), and that is, on all of the murders the Klan committed, they left “a white card… marked K.K.K.” (page 103) on the corpse.  It must have been terrifying to see a body, perhaps someone you knew, with that small white card attached to their clothing, leaving no doubt in one’s mind what had happened to them.  This is also telling in how unafraid of punishment the K.K.K. was in the area; if they could simply leave the evidence of what they had done, even boast about it with their card, one can conclude that they clearly weren’t concerned about being caught or tried for murder.  A specific example, the execution of a man named Frank Searcy, shows that the local population was terrified of the Klan:  They hung this man (a white man who basically betrayed them), and left one of the little cards on his coat that said “Don’t cut him down until tomorrow-KKK.” (page 106).  The locals were witnesses to the execution, but they certainly did not cut the body down until the next day.  This serves to show that the Klan was very nearly a dictatorship during that time, as people were too afraid to go against the group’s wishes to cut down a dead man who had been hung from a tree. 

Going off from the idea of the Klan leaving white cards on those they had killed, the KKK was technically a law unto itself, and behaved as such.  In looking at how the group viewed itself, after the murder of a man referred to only as “Squire X” was the clan formed.  They joined together, it is said, because “not since the war began has there been any real law enforcement in our community” (page 98).  Once again, this description is of a group of men taking matters into their own hands, like the guerillas during the Civil War.  They perhaps thought that their cause was noble, and the biased author of this article seems to agree, writing this statement: “Virtue spread over the land and peace prevailed.  There was never a clash between the Klan and the county or state officers” (page 105).  Since the KKK took the law into their own hands, they had no fear of repercussion from the actual law itself, such as the local sheriff or another law officer.  Overall, it would have been a terrifying time to be anyone who opposed the Klan, since one couldn’t exactly run to the nearest official for help.  This short period in Madison County’s history was dangerous for anyone who wasn’t a white Southerner, and illustrates the idea of men trying whatever method was necessary to retain the natural order of their environment during a difficult period, Reconstruction.  

Source:  
Clay, Green. Madison County Chronicles. 2. Manchester, IN: Heckman Bindery Inc., 1966. 93-107. Print.