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The Order
The Name
"Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."
"Forever hereafter it shall be known as Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."
Its Divisions
"There shall be four Kloranic Orders of this Order, namely:
1. "The order of citizenship or K-UNO (Probationary).
2. "Knight Kamellia or K-DUO (Primary Order of Knighthood)."
3. "Knights of the great Forest or K-TRIO (The Order of American Chivalry)
4. "Knights of the Midnight Mystery or K-Quad (Superior Order of Knighthood
and Spiritual Philosophies)."…
Its Government
The Constitution provides for and establishes that form of government
that will best further the interests of the movement and develop to the
highest possible efficiency all of its component elements.
1. This form of government is military in character. It will
suffice to compare the Klan's form of government to the government of
an army. As the United States Army is duly organized with its various
officers and troops, so is the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan welded together
as an organized force for the fulfillment of its patriotic mission.
The Commander-in-Chief is the Imperial Wizard. The divisional Commanders
are the Grand Dragons. The Brigade Commanders are the Great Titans.
The Regimental Commanders are the Exalted Cyclops. All of these Commanders
have their respective staffs and other subordinate officers and aids.
2. This form of government is necessary. (a) For efficient administration:
(b) For effectiveness in method and operation: (c) For the preservation
of the order.
Fraternal order history records the failure of many patriotic
societies that were organized on a so-called democratic basis. Without
this feature of the military form of government which is designed to provide
efficient leadership, effective discipline, intelligent cooperation, active
functioning, uniform methods, and unified operation, quickly responsive
to the call to put over the immediate task at hand, even the Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan would degenerate into a mere passive, inefficient, social
order. The military form of government must and will be preserved for
the sake of true, patriotic Americanism, because it is the only form of
government that gives any guarantee of success. We must avoid the fate
of the other organizations that have spilt on the rock of democracy.
Objects and Purposes (Article II, The Constitution)
Mobilization
This is its primary purpose: "To unite white male persons, native-born,
Gentile citizens of the United States of America, who owe no allegiance
of any nature or degree to any foreign government, nation, institution,
sect, ruler, person, or people; whose morals are good; whose reputations
and vocations are respectable; whose habits are exemplary; who are of
sound minds and eighteen years or more of age, under a common oath into
a brother hood of strict regulations."
Cultural
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a movement devoting itself to the needed
task of developing a genuine spirit of American patriotism. Klansmen are
to be examples of pure patriotism. They are to organize the patriotic
sentiment of native-born white, Protestant Americans for the defense of
distinctively American institutions. Klansmen are dedicated to the principle
that America shall be made American through the promulgation of American
doctrines, the dissemination of American ideals, the creation of wholesome
American sentiment, the preservation of American institutions.
Fraternal
The movement is designed to create a real brotherhood among men who are
akin in race, belief, spirit, character, interest, and purpose. The teachings
of the order indicate very clearly the attitude and conduct that make
for real expression of brotherhood, or, "the practice of Klannishness."
Beneficient
"To relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering and
unfortunate, especially widows and orphans."
The supreme pattern for all true Klansmen is their Criterion of Character,
Jesus Christ, "who went about doing good." The movement accepts the full
Christian program of unselfish helpfulness, and will seek to carry it
on in the manner commanded by the one Master of Men, Christ Jesus.
Protective
1. The Home. "To shield the sanctity of the home." The American
home is fundamental to all that is best in life, in society, in church,
and in the nation. It is the most sacred of human institutions. Its sanctity
is to be preserved, its interests are to be safeguarded, and its well-being
is to be promoted. Every influence that seeks to disrupt the home must
itself be destroyed. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan would protect the
home by promoting whatever would make for is stability, its betterment,
its safety, and its inviolability.
2. Womanhood. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan declare that it is
committed to "the sacred duty of protecting womanhood"; and announces
that one of its purposes is "to shield… the chastity of womanhood." The
degradation of women is violation of the sacredness of human personality,
a sin against the race, a crime against society, menace to our country,
and a prostitution of all that is best, and noblest, and highest in life.
No race, or society, or country, can rise higher than its womanhood.
3. The Helpless. "To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless
from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent,
and the brutal." Children, the disabled, and other helpless ones are to
know the protective, sheltering arms of the Klan.
4. American Interests. "To protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States of America, and all laws passed in conformity thereof,
and to protect the states and the people thereof from all invasion of
the right from any source whatsoever."
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