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

9. Assorted Nuts

122 THE KLAN UNMASKED " I'd be glad to present you folks with a complimentary subscription," I offered. " Wonderful," Loomis replied. "In return we can issue you a complimentary membership in the Columbians, if you'd care to join our ranks. There are just three requirements : Number one: Do you hate niggers? Number two: Do you hate Jews? And three: Have you got three dollars? We can pass over the last one in your case." " It's a deal," I said. "But I'll have to ask you to keep my name secret, because of my business connections." " Don't worry," Loomis assured me. "What's it all about?" I asked as he typed out my membership card. " Briefly, the mission of the Columbians is to separate the white man from the nigger, and the Jew from his money," Loomis snickered. This guy is just slick enough in his perverse way to be dangerous, I thought. He handed my Columbian card over to me, emblazoned with a thunderbolt. " I see I've got card number 5IOI--dO you really have that many members? " I asked. "No," he confessed. "We jumped from card number 15 to 5101 to impress newcomers. Actually you're the sixteenth to join." From his desk drawer Loomis fished out a small news clipping, which had appeared in the Atlanta Journal several days before but had escaped my attention. It was headed: " Group Charteredfor Moral Revival." Needless to say, it put the aims of the Columbians in very different terms from those Loomis had just voiced. A corporate charter as a non-profit, tax-free, charitable and fraternal order had been granted by the State of Georgia to the Columbians Inc., the news story revealed. In this charter, the Columbians declared their purposes to be "To encourage our people to think in terms of Race, Nation and Faith, and to work for a national moral awakening in order to build a progressive white community that is bound together by a deep spiritual consciousness of a common past and determination to share a common future." JUVENILE DELINQ,uENTS OF THE KKK 123 " Isn't it ridiculous for the state to grant us a charter just when it's trying to revoke the Klan's charter, when we're forty times worse than the Klan? " Loomis gloated. " How did you manage it? " I asked. " One of our founding members, Mr. Vester Ownby, is a lawyer and he got it for us," Loomis explained. " I know Ownby well," I said. "For a long time he was Exalted Cyclops of the East Atlanta Klan." " That's right," Loomis admitted with a grin. "A lot of our people are prominent in the Klan. The relations between the two organizations are very good indeed." " I'm pretty well acquainted in Klan circles myself," I said. Little did I realize that my efforts to break up the Columbians were eventually to force me to bow out of the Klan! " Glad to hear it," Loomis countered. "I'm expecting our President, Emory Burke, to come in anytime, and I'd like for you to meet him. He's also a member of the East Atlanta Klan-joined up while Ownby was Cyclops." " I thought Akin said you were the real leader? " I said pointedly. "Oh, that," Loomis laughed, slightly taken aback. "Burke is president, but I sort of look after things as secretary." Pretty soon other Columbians began to arrive in a steady stream. The first to knock was a shapely blonde girl, with a pretty face to match. She also wore a khaki shirt, like the others, with the thunderbolt shoulder patch. She came in swiftly, giving Akin a hug, while Loomis looked on enviously. " Mr. Perkins, this is Miss Betty Penland, who is one of our most valuable members. Betty hails from Texas, and does all our stenographic work." " Nice," I observed. "But how can you afford a secretary with only sixteen members? " "Oh, Betty is a volunteer," Loomis laughed. " She believes in the Columbian cause like the rest of us. Besides, we all live here at headquarters-got some cots and a small kerosene cooking stove in the next room-so we don't need much money." 124 THE KLAN UNMASKED "Sounds cosy," I said, wondering whether Betty slept behind a screen, or what. Betty and Jimmy Akin went out shopping, arm in arm, for some crackers, canned beans and...