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    The Klan Unmasked: With a New Introduction by David Pilgrim and a New Author's Note
    The Klan Unmasked: With a New Introduction by David Pilgrim and a New Author's Note
    The Klan Unmasked: With a New Introduction by David Pilgrim and a New Author's Note
    Ebook385 pages7 hours

    The Klan Unmasked: With a New Introduction by David Pilgrim and a New Author's Note

    By Stetson Kennedy and David Pilgrim

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    About this ebook

    Stetson Kennedy’s infiltration and exposure of the KKK.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity Alabama Press
    Release dateDec 16, 2010
    ISBN9780817385750
    The Klan Unmasked: With a New Introduction by David Pilgrim and a New Author's Note

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    • 4/5
      Excellent read. Even if Kennedy did incorporate others' stories into his own narrative it seems to me that the purpose and aim remains unaltered and maybe reinforced by this. (reference to Kennedy's own claim that other undercover Klansmen preferred to remain nameless and alive). Reading this is an eye-opener - people from any part of the world can find disturbing parallels around themselves. (And if they don't, they can congratulate their homeland as being unusually safe).

    Book preview

    The Klan Unmasked - Stetson Kennedy

    too.

    CHAPTER ONE

    THE FIERY SUMMONS

    I AWOKE with a start, my hand already instinctively reaching for the .32 automatic I kept under my pillow. No sooner did I have the comforting cool steel in hand than I became aware that the ringing of a bell had awakened me. It was dark, and my first thought was that the alarm clock must have gone off ahead of schedule. Cursing under my breath, I flicked on the bed light. It was 2 a.m. Then I realized that the bell had stopped ringing, and I knew it was the telephone.

    Trouble, I thought. But I knew that failure to answer it might mean worse trouble, so I stumbled out into the hall and picked up the receiver.

    Who is this? asked the caller. I recognized the voice—rather like a cement-mixer running at half speed—as that of Cliff Carter, Chief Ass-Tearer of the hooded Ku Klux Klan's Klavalier Klub murder squad.

    John Perkins, I replied, giving him the alias under which I had lived ever since I joined the Klan as a secret undercover agent to gather evidence against it.

    What's your number, Perkins? asked the voice bluntly.

    Seventy-three, I replied, this being the number on my Klavalier Klub membership Kard.

    White— he said, giving me the first half of the Klan's current secret password.

    —man, I replied, returning the countersign.

    Native— he continued.

    —born, I concluded.

    Satisfied that I was indeed his Brother Klansman and Klavalier, Carter dropped the recognition ritual we Klavaliers always used for telephonic conversations.

    This is Clearwater, he said solemnly, giving the code name by which he as Chieftain was known to us. "And this is a Fiery Summons! Remember your oath to be ready when called! The call is imperative! Bring your robe and come prepared—to Black Rock!"

    Wide awake now, I was thinking hard. When Carter said come prepared, I knew he meant for me to bring whatever deadly weapon I had available. Black Rock was our secret code name for the Atlanta suburb known as Buckhead—one of the key mobilization points which the Klavaliers had designated throughout the city. Someone—Negro, Jew, Catholic, or labour unionist—had been tagged for a KKK flogging or worse that night. Or perhaps I was literally being invited to my own funeral—which was always a possibility when I attended a Klan function.

    I wondered whether I could rouse Dan Duke—the state's Assistant Attorney-General under whom I worked as an anti-Klan agent—in time to nip the Klavaliers' projected flogging or lynching party in the bud.

    Clearwater, I said weakly, you know I've been very sick with the flu lately. I don't think I would be much good to you tonight.

    Klansman! Carter roared. "You know the oath as well as I do! And I happen to know you are not bedridden! No other excuse is tolerated! You must go!" There was a click as he hung up.

    I knew there was no way out—that I myself would be subject to banishment as a citizen of the Klan's Invisible Empire if I failed to respond to the summons. Herein fail ye not! By mandate of His Lordship, the Imperial Wizard is the way the little printed cards read in red ink, when a Fiery Summons is sent by mail. All action undertaken by the Klavalier Klub, which serves as the Military Department of the KKK, has the approval of the Wizard or Grand Dragon. All Klansmen are sworn not only to obey the edicts of the hierarchy but to enforce obedience upon any Brothers who fail to live up to this oath. I had seen one Klansman, who chose punishment to banishment, forced to run nude through a gauntlet of Klan belts. I had no desire to let myself in for the same

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