Samuel Green (Ku Klux Klan)

For other people named Samuel Green, see Samuel Green (disambiguation).

Samuel Green (1890 – 18 August 1949) was an Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan leader in the late 1940s, organizing its brief reformation.

Contents

Early life

Green was born in 1890 in Atlanta, Georgia. He became an obstetrician and joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1922.[1]

Starting from the late 1920s, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a problem with declining membership. In 1939, Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans sold the organisation to two Klan members, Green and James A. Colescott. While Colescott was forced to dissolve the organization in 1944, Green began to reform the Association of Georgia Klans with its focus on white supremacy and anti-communism.[2] On October 1945, his group announced their return to the public with a cross burning.[1] In 1946, Green reformed the group in Atlanta, Georgia.

He was elected Imperial Wizard two weeks before his death from a heart attack in Atlanta.[3] Following Green's death, while the Klan split into independent groups, his position was replaced by Samuel Roper.[4]

Involvement

1949 Exhibition Baseball Games

After the Dodgers announced in January that their exhibition games would be in Macon and Atlanta, Green stated "there is no law against the game. But we have an unwritten law in the South – the Jim Crow law. " His statements were against the black players on a white team.[5] During the exhibition games, Green using the influence of Herman Talmadge tried to ban Brooklyn Dodgers players, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.[6]

Organizations

During his command, the Ku Klux Klan infiltrated and controlled the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.[7] Green's successor Samuel Roper was the second director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Green also made alliances with the Atlanta Police Department and Atlanta taxi drivers.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Newton, Michael (2010). The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi : a history ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.. pp. 252. ISBN 9780786446537. 
  2. ^ Lay, Shawn. "Post–World War II Klan". Ku Klux Klan in the Twentieth Century. The New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2730. Retrieved 4 June 2011. 
  3. ^ "Green, Klan Chief, Dies At His Home. Atlantan Was Head Of Force Which Led New Movement Of The Hooded Groups". New York Times. August 19, 1949. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F1FF73B59157A93CBA81783D85F4D8485F9. Retrieved 2011-04-27. "Dr. Samuel Green, imperial wizard of the Associated Klans of Georgia, died at his home tonight of a heart attack at the age of 59. He had been promoted from grand dragon to the wizard post at a "Konklave" two weeks ago. ... He was the driving force behind the revitalized movement of their hooded order that followed World War II. The old Klan was by Federal tax suits, ..." 
  4. ^ a b Wade, Wyn Craog (1998). The Fiery Cross : the Ku Klux Klan in America (New edition. ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 526. ISBN 9780195123579. 
  5. ^ S., Tanya (29). "Money Motivates". http://en.oboulo.com/money-motivates-37903.html. Retrieved 11 June 2011. 
  6. ^ Tuck, Stephen G.N. (2003). Beyond Atlanta : the struggle for racial equality in Georgia, 1940-1980. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. pp. 376. ISBN 9780820325286. 
  7. ^ Newton, Michael (2009). The encyclopedia of unsolved crimes (2nd ed. ed.). New York: Facts on File. pp. 364. ISBN 1438119143. 
Preceded by
James A. Colescott		 Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
1946–1949		 Succeeded by
Samuel Roper