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

Preface: KKK Book Stands Up to Claim of Falsehood

Stetson Kennedy after being released by Capitol police following his unsuccessful attempt in 1946 to interest the House Un-American Activities Committee in his evidence against the Ku Klux Klan. Photo courtesy AP/ Wide World. THE KLAN UNMASKED Stetson Kennedy University ofAlabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama Copyright © 1990 by Stetson Kennedy The University ofAlabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica 00 The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kennedy, Stetson. [I rode with the Ku Klux Klan] The Klan unmasked / Stetson Kennedy. p.cm. Originally published under title: I rode with the Ku Klux Klan. London: Arco Publishers, 1954. With new introd. ISBN 978-0-8173-5674-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-08173 -8575-0 (electronic) 1. Ku Klux Klan (1915-) I. Title. HS2330.K64K38 2011 322.4'20973-dc22 2010038465 To all those who ever have or ever will stand up to and struggle against the Ku Klux Klan and the bigotry for which it stands; and also to all those who shared with me the risk, anxiety, deprivation, and work which went into this investigation and book. Americans of many races, creeds, and faiths are joined in the continuing struggle against Ku Kluxery recorded in these pages. In the preparation of this book, however, special contributions have been made by my fellow anti-Klan agent " Bob" who has risked his life many times, Edith Ogden and my son Loren who lived through the investigations, Patricia Hemberow who believed in the material enough to put it in order, and Marika Hellstrom who made possible the writing. Stetson Kennedy. CONTENTS Preface: KKK Book Stands Up to Claim ofFalsehood ix by Charlie Patton Introduction: Superman Busts the KKK 1 by David Pilgrim Stetson's Side ofthe Story 7 by Stetson Kennedy 1 The Fiery Summons 9 2 Why I Joined the Klan 17 3 Before the Altar ofHate 35 4 The Way ofthe Klavern 53 5 Operation Anti-Klan 74 6 I Work My Way Into the Flog Squad 95 7 The Klavaliers Ride to a Fall 106 8 Juvenile Delinquents ofthe KKK 120 9 Assorted Nuts 129 10 In Daniel's Den 143 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Dynamite 148 The Wool-Hat Putsch 161 Bigotry Before the Bar 173 Tri-K Round-Up 184 Meeting in Macon 207 Terror in Miami 219 Night Ride in Sunny Florida 234 Investigating the Investigators 245 Fire! 264 Kluxed Again? (1990) 273 How to Kan the Klan: A Handbook 277 for Counterterrorist Action (1990) The author in his uniform of the Columbian brownshirt terrorists, sometimes called the "juvenile delinquents of the KKK." KKK BOOK STANDS UP TO CLAIM OF FALSEHOOD By Charlie Patton Originally published in the Times-Union, Sunday,January 29,2006 At ninety-three, his health failing, most of his old friends and lovers long gone, Stetson Kennedy occasionally complains that he has lived too long. But it could be argued he has lived just long enough. Long enough to have passed from pariah to hero, from obscurity to fame. Once "the most hated man in North Florida," to quote what a Florida professor told the St. Petersburg Times, Kennedy has become one ofthe most honored. Like a figure out ofthe folklore he once studied and wrote about, his legend has grown, partly because he neglected to set the record absolutely straight. But on the eve of yet another tribute, the January 30, 2006, gala fundraiser for the Stetson Kennedy Foundation, there was a shadow over Beluthahatchee, the little lakeside cabin in northern St. Johns County where Kennedy has lived since 1972. On January 8, 2006, journalist Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven D. Leavitt, authors of the best-selling book Freakonomics, wrote a column about Kennedy in the New York Times Magazine. The authors, who lionized Kennedy in their book, now attacked him. Under the headline "Hoodwinked," they questioned whether Kennedy had ever personally infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, an experience he wrote about in his book The Klan Unmasked. "The hero of the Klan story was Stetson Kennedy, a lifelong human-rights agitator...