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Se Schoenberger, absent; Rep. DeWitt, here; Rep. Adams, absent; Rep. Richardson, here, Five members present and we have u quorum. BY SEN. KNOWLES: Gentlemen, this meeting is culled particularly for a hearing on the “Ku Klux Klan.” Will you proceed, Mr. Rogers? BY MR. ROGERS: Let the record show that Sen. Mitchell entered the hearing rvom at this point. see ee ee THE WITNESS, JACK N. ROGERS, ESQ., AFTER FIRST HAVING BEEN DULY SWORN TO TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP HIM GOD, TESTIFIED AS FOLLOWS: BY MR. ROGERS: Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Committee, this investiga- tion at the request of the Committee hus been made into the current operations of the so-called “Ku Klux Klan” in Louisiana. 1 want to make the point clearly for the Committee, that we have stricty limited this investigation solely to those Klan groups active in Lou- igiana at thia time. We have made no effort to go into the good or bad reports concerning the two previous manifestations of the Ku Klux Klan, or into the present Klans of any other State. There ure significant reasons for this. First, the two earlier Klans which existed in the United States and in the State of Louisiana have been long since totally and completely disbanded, and are not in any way alive toduy, other than through the ritual connected with the great bulk of the Kian operations in the State of Louisiana. | will discuss this point later in the Hearing with further information. Just purely for background information, us you gentlemen un- doubtedly know, the Ku Klux Klan was originally organized in 1866, and was officially disbanded in 1869, although the reconstruction period and scattered Klan activities did continue in sqme areas of the South for an additional five or six years after that. After the original Klan was disbanded there were no further large scale open manifestations of the Ku Klux Klan in the South until about 1915. During that year a Rev. William J. Simmons 12 RRO -of Georgia set up an organization culled “The Ku Klux Klan, Inc.,." which was chartered by the State of Georgia as a fraternal and philanthropic organization. 1t employed the general regalia of robe und peaked hood of the origina! Ku Klux Klan, and some of the officer-titles und portions of the ritual of the old Klan, as was preserved at that time in memory of some of the older men who jad been in the first Klan. The 1915 Klan probably hit its high point of public acceptance in the year, 1925. During that year about 25,000 robed and hooded Klansmen paraded on foot and in cars in Washington, D. “. The Klan at that time waa broadly spread acrosa the United States, and was not limited to the South at all. The largest single delegations, for instance, in the Washington parade that year, were from New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, and the Virginias. The Klan had become, dur- ing thoue years, a very substantial political force and power in this country,-and remained so until about 1928 when its power began to wane, and eventually it died out prior to World War II. In the early part of World War Il, to some minor degree, the Klan came back through some isolated organizations, primarily in the State of New Jersey, where certain meetings were held jointly by the Klan and the “German-American Bund.” L have here a picture in a book entitled, “Undercover,” by John Roy Carlson, showing & photograph taken on August 18, 1940 at a camp of the German-American Bund, depicting a joint meeting between the Ka Klux Klan of that day, and the Bund. This is the uly picture which I have been able to locate of the actual meeting itself. 1 offer it for the Committee's examination. This particular Klan Organization, which waa in operation in New Jersey at that time, was not in any way connected with any of the Klan Organizations which are operating in Louisiana today. However, that particular incident in 1940, and some others of the same period, were the original reasons for the Ku Klux Klan being placed upon the “gubversive list’ of the Attorney General of the United States, as a subversive organization. 1 have here a copy of that list and there are four organiza- tions with Klan names, or Klan backgrounds, on the list. They are: “Ku Klux Klan;" “Aagsociated Klang of America;” “Associaties of Georgia Klans;” and “Knights of the White Camelia.” The Attorney General of the United States has determined, and officially held as an administrative determination, that these organi- 18