What Ex-Klansmen from 1871 Want to Tell You

My research paper delves into testimony for the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. About 125 witnesses came before Congress. Most were former Confederate soldiers. Some had joined the KKK voluntarily; others were coerced. Some quit because their wives or ministers insisted. Now, that’s a thought for today.

I have taken the following excerpt from my paper— if you read these brief quotes, you will form your own connections from the past to the present. [In that time, Democrats were pro-states rights/pro-slavery; Republicans were today’s version of liberals.]

The Ku Klux Klan created an integrated terror system, using economic segregation and exclusion to achieve its political objectives. Seven more witnesses came before the House of Representatives to testify about the Klan’s labor segregation practices.

William L. Rogers, a South Carolina merchant, explained that he left the Democratic party because “they passed a resolution declaring that they would give no work to any man, white or black, who voted the Republican ticket, nor permit him to live upon their lands, nor sell him provisions, but would starve him out.” 

A South Carolina Confederate veteran, John R. Cochran, repeated this theme: “Democratic clubs were organized throughout the county, and it was generally understood, and I was so told by many members of the clubs, that resolutions were passed in the clubs that no man should employ colored men who voted the Republican ticket, and there was a general system of intimidation and violence in many portions of the county.” 

Thomas C. Scott explained how the Klan tied its campaign of political terror to employment for freed blacks: “I heard Gabriel Cannon, state canvasser, say, in addressing the colored people, that if they voted the radical ticket, they would lose their friends and wonder about like Indians; get their length, two by six, and their bones would whiten the hills, as they were dependent upon us for everything— bread, employment, and sustenance.” 

Thomas Hill, whose residence was not disclosed, testified to being economically coerced to join a Klan-supported Democratic club: “Being a poor man, and in order to save my life, I was compelled to sail under false colors.” 

Jed P. Porter, Union County South Carolina, testified about a threat made to a former slave:

A short time before the election a freedman who lived in my neighborhood informed me that a coffin had been left in the shop where he worked, with a notice that if he did not leave the country at once he would be killed for being a Radical. I am satisfied it was true, and the freedman left at once for Columbia.

Wilson Cook, a resident of Greenville County, South Carolina for more than 30 years, elaborated on his observation of political intimidation: “Threats that if they voted the Republican ticket they would be turned away from the homes which they occupied as employés.”

Testimony of Johnson Wright, a 38 year-old carpenter, demonstrated that the white supremacist toolkit of threats included complete banishment from all economic relationships—in effect, a racial boycott: “There were threats made against persons of Republicans, and also against threats that every man who voted the Republican ticket would be turned off and left to starve.”