Word: klan
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...have yet to hear a protest by the traditionally liberal voices against the idea of a House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of the Ku Klux Klan. But the use of the legislative power of investigation in the service of "exposure for the sake of exposure" will be no less abhorrent to the principles of a free society when it is directed against the Klan than when it is directed against Communists. Laws forbidding mere membership in the Klan will no more serve the cause of freedom than do the Smith Act and the Subversive Activities Control Act. And since...
During World War II, the Klan slept again. But in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation decision awakened it once more. As in the beginning, the Klan made the Southern Negro-and civil rights "agitators"-its target, and turned to dynamite bombings as its chief form of violence. Much of the Klan's terrorism is handled by goon squads with such picturesque names as "The Holy Terrors" and "The Secret Six." Such groups were held responsible for the mutilation and murder of three civil rights workers who were found in an earthen dam in Mississippi last...
...Mentality. No longer a monolithic organization, the Klan today consists of several ragtag independent groups, the best known of which is the United Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with an ex-tire salesman named Robert Shelton as its Imperial Wizard. Estimates of Klan strength range from 10,000 to 40,000 members, many of whom for some peculiar reason seem to be rural service-station attendants. Most members, in any case, are deluded rednecks whose only skill is sharpshooting. That the FBI has infiltrated deeply into their ranks is indicated...
Crushing the Klan is tougher than infiltrating it. Local Southern juries ordinarily let Klansmen off no matter what the accusation. The only federal charge that can be leveled in most cases-such as in the Liuzzo murder-deals with "denying the civil rights" of the victim, and the maximum penalty for the crime is only ten years in prison. Even though Congress might now enact legislation outlawing the Klan, the deeper problem is that the law alone can never erase the Klan mentality...
...Kleagle, Klabee, Kladd, Klaliff, Klexter, Kligrapp, Klarogo, Klokan and Klokard are officials of various sorts; Klectoken is the initiation fee; Kloran is Klan bible; Klonvokation is the Imperial legislature; Kloncilium is the Klonvokation's advisory group; Klonklave is the Klan's monthly meeting; Klorero is a state meeting; and Kludd is the chaplain...