query and update

[bronze_ribbons]

My search skillz having failed me, I turn to the all-knowing readership: rumor has it that one of the co-founders of the KKK was a Unitarian. What was his name? (And, as long as I'm asking, what's your source? This detail is apparently a longstanding item of UU lore in some circles, and I'd like to verify whether it's actually true before I go repeating it.)

Update:
* Still the crud. It's apparently only bronchitis (went in for x-rays yesterday to confirm), but it's literally tiresome and I'm hoping this new batch of meds gets it gone.
* Also insomnia, but as a result, this Sunday's sermon is nearly finished. Go me!
* Claire Huchet Bishop's Twenty and Ten (1952). 76 pages, ages 8-12. Twenty French children help ten Jewish ones hide from the Nazis. Surprisingly fitting for this season.
* Asparagus on sale! Roasted the spears and made soup out of the snap-offs.
* Finished a gift I'd been meaning to pull together since July.
* Hundreds of pages to go before I sleep. Onwards...

Comments

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I emailed my husband to ask him if we have any books at home on the history of the KKK. (We do have a lot on the history of racism and the civil rights movement, nearly all of them his.) He might know the answer to your question off the top of his head. He's been doing original research into the FOIA released Sovereignty Commission files for Mississippi.

I am dismayed that you are getting recurrent bronchitis. Do you also have asthma? I had a bunch of alternative medicine methods to reduce mine. But, if you already have the infection, antibiotics are the way to go. :( Thyme tea will stop a cough, though it tastes pretty vile--if you are desperate to just stop coughing already!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Husband asks immediately:

When you say founder of the KKK, do you mean the original turn of the century KKK or of the new KKK groups that were founded in response to Freedom Summer? There is some overlap, which makes things confusing, but the White Knights of MS, for example, which is the group that murdered Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, was founded in 1964. And there were different Klan groups in different states even before that. Anyway, you get my drift: to research the claim we first have to establish which Klan group and which period we are talking about.

(aside: he didn't use to be so savvy about history! He's like a real historian now! Squee!)

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

(Also, and he doesn't mention this, there was a revival of the KKK in the 1920s in response to the movie Birth of a Nation, and that revival might have had a Unitarian or two in it. So we're talking about waves of activity, and "founder" might not help you figure it out.)

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

What an awesome question (not that there were multiple instances, but that he can point out those distinctions to me). Unfortunately, I've no idea, since all I've got to go on right now are some stray mentions in other people's blog comments and sermons.

BTW, please don't feel he/you have to chase after this (unless you/he just feel like it for the fun of it) -- at this point, it's just one of those idle questions in the corner of my brain (akin to who the Brasington of Brasington's Ninth Law happens to be, why Mike Gwilym stopped acting, etc.) that I don't really have time to chase down properly. I might just ask my choir director next time I see him, come to think of it...

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Whoops, deleted my comment because I accidentally used my husband's first name. Sorry.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

No asthma, but a gadzillion allergies. This round of meds is definitely helping, but I'll definitely keep the thyme tea in mind -- it can't taste any worse than echinacea...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_saint_cecilia_/]

There is a chapter on the KKK in that popular book "Freakonomics."
I think the history was mentioned there, and (since the book itself may not be the greatest source) it has a bibliography.
Hope this helps!

[busaikko]

The first thing I did when I saw this post was reach for Freakonomics. *bonds with you across vast distances*

In the Notes, they cite books like The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America and Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Kalan 1865-1965.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Thank you both! *moves book higher on To Read Someday list*

[catrinella.livejournal.com]

Agree with everything schemingreader has said. I can send you the biblio for my dissertation, if you like - it's not Klan-focused, but I did a ton of research to disprove my original theories that the Klan was involved in the decline of Southern Catholic colleges....

The Wikipedia KKK page is actually quite good for its brevity. The Trelease book cited in the references is hugely based on primary docs, though a lot of the other sources are first-hands or aimed at a popular audience. David Chalmers's Hooded Americanism is where I'd probably go first, then the Trelease book.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Thank you, sweetheart -- I'll pass on the dissertation biblio for now (see explanation to schemingreader above re: idleosity of question), but I appreciate the offer. (Have 80+ hours of work to cram into the next seven days + 2 parties + 1 service + 1 benefit, so library time is just not in the cards. :-(

(And, speaking of work, mega-sympathies on the Access nightmare. Anything having to do with that program makes me want to blow things up, never mind the other tsuris you mentioned.)

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Oooh, but I might want that bibliography! I didn't realize you wrote on the Klan. My mom wrote her MA on Klan activity in Ohio (which is surprising, if you meet her now!)

[arionrhod.livejournal.com]

I don't have documentation at hand, but I believe the person you are looking for is General Nathan Bedford Forrest. I'll see if any of my history books have some references.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I did wonder if Forrest might be the guy, but the nets didn't yield whether he was Unitarian, so I'll have to go digging... I appreciate the lead!