. . .law-assuming organization were reluctant to yield their mysterious power.

The wizard's order went into effect. Klan property was burned.

NEW BANDS SPRING UP

But immediately in southern states, as far west as Arkansas, there sprang up disguised bands, some of them [12]neighborhood groups only, some of them bands of ruffians who traveled in the night to win personal ends, still others new orders founded in imitation of the Ku-Klux and using similar methods.

Of the last, the Knights of the White Camellia was the largest. In some private notebooks of the south its membership was said to be even larger than the parent Klan.

From New Orleans early in 1868, it spread across to Texas and back to the Carolinas. Racial supremacy was its purpose.

Only white men 18 years or older were invited to the secrets of its initiation, and in their oath they promised not only to be obedient and secret, but to "maintain and defend the s. . . Read More