OPINION - Guest writer

MICHAEL B. DOUGAN: Cast off the star

It serves as a symbol of hate

The discussion over the Klan star high above the others on our state flag is not likely to end soon, but its full meaning has not been thoroughly explored.

The first Klan came after the "War Between the States" as the paramilitary arm of the white Democrats. It was led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, for whom the town of Forrest City was named. However, that Klan officially disbanded in 1869, and Forrest was honored instead for finishing the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad.

The second Klan was the offspring of that infamous inflammatory and racist motion picture, The Birth of a Nation. Founder William Simmons envisioned it as a 100 percent American group, but Simmons lost control and it turned into a pyramid scheme to sell memberships and regalia. Whereas the first Klan went around in black so as to be unseen in their "night-riding," the second Klan wore white so as to be seen. In most small towns of Arkansas initially it was like another new club, Rotary, except that it met at night.

In Monticello, where the Exalted Cyclops was the pastor of the town's Methodist church, the college president, his son, and 10 other faculty as well as seven students were members. Thirteen ministers of the Gospel were enrolled, as were the eight physicians, five realtors, three teachers and 23 merchants and farmers from the county.

Jonesboro's Klan No. 72 included city government and utility heads as well as members of the Chamber of Commerce, including bank presidents and department store owners. The Hendrix College yearbook in 1923 featured a picture of their student Klan.

Black oppression was not paramount. Following the disastrous Elaine Race Riot, African Americans were leaving the state in hordes. Planters wanted to keep farm labor, not drive it out.

Instead, the Arkansas Klans focused on continuing a war that had started in 1850 when prominent Little Rock lawyer David W. Carroll ran for a seat in the state Legislature. Even though this Maryland native was a direct descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the earliest signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the man for whom Carroll County was named, Protestants argued that Catholics should not be permitted to hold office.

Two Presbyterian ministers led the fray. Rev. James Wilson Moore, the father of Presbyterianism in Arkansas, and Rev. Joshua Fry Green both authored anti-Catholic tracts. Arkansas Gazette editor William E. Woodruff refused to publish Green's in his newspaper: "These columns are not designed, and we trust never will be perverted, to the persecution of any class of our countrymen, who hold different tenets of religious faith."

Carroll served one term in the House, but in 1864 was elected to the Confederate Congress and became the only member of Congress to see the 20th century.

Meanwhile, Green took his crusade on the road. Editor William Minor Quesenbury reported from Fayetteville: "He tore, pummeled, and demolished the Catholics in the most approved style. Every hearer was satisfied that the woman described in the 17th chapter of Revelation as having 'mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth' written upon her forehead, was Papal Rome."

In 1915 Arkansas passed the Convent Inspection or Posey Act, sometimes called the Protestant Panty Raid Act. Under it virtually anyone could get permission to invade Catholic premises. For years, prior to its repeal in 1937, the Logan County sheriff showed up at the Benedictines' Subiaco Abbey.

When the new Klan took shape, Catholics and Jews were the main targets. In Jonesboro the Klan launched a boycott on their businesses. Fred Troutt at the Jonesboro Evening Sun asked readers what kind of town would left if one bank, the basket factory, the handle factory, several lumber mills, and a dozen stores on Main Street left town.

At Forrest City, the Klan's attempt to take over the Chamber of Commerce resulted in starting a boycott against the Times and Herald, whose publisher, Col. Edward Landvoight, was among the oldest living Arkansas Confederates. The newspaper then printed the names of the boycotters and ran a column from a Northern Klan newspaper that claimed Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were agents of the Pope.

The most active state voice, Brother Ben Bogard, leader of the Missionary Baptists, preached "100 percent American" or "strictly American," called for his followers to "patronize our own," and called on all Catholics to leave the country.

In short, the Klan star stands not just only as a memorial to the Confederacy but also as a wide-ranging symbol of hate. Its removal would erase a stain on Arkansas, while its continued presence stands as reminder of the real and not the imagined world of our past.

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Michael B. Dougan, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Arkansas State University, recently spoke on the history of the Know-Nothing or American Party in Helena at the Delta Cultural Center.

Editorial on 04/25/2019

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