| William Joseph Simmons | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 6, 1880 Harpersville, Alabama |
| Died | May 18, 1945 (aged 65) Atlanta, Georgia |
| Known for | Ku Klux Klan |
William Joseph Simmons (May 6, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was the founder of the second Ku Klux Klan on Thanksgiving Night of 1915.[1]
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Simmons was born in Harpersville, Alabama, to Calvin Henry Simmons, a physician; and Lavonia David. He served in the Spanish-American War and later claimed to have studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He became a preacher for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South but was suspended by the church in 1912 for inefficiency.
Simmons later became a member of two churches and twelve different fraternal organizations. He was known as "Joe", "Doc" (in reference to his medical training) or "Colonel" (referring to his rank in the Woodmen of the World).[2]
Convalescing after being hit by an automobile in 1915, Simmons concerned himself with rebuilding the Klan, which he had seen depicted in the newly released film The Birth of a Nation. He obtained a copy of the Reconstruction Klan's "Prescript," and used it to write his own prospectus for a reincarnation of the organization. He delayed his plans until the media-inspired lynching of Leo Frank, the accused murderer of Mary Phagan. This incident became a flash point for anti-Semitic feeling in Georgia. Frank was taken from prison and hanged by a mob who lynched him on August 16, 1915. The lynch mob called themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan, and on October 16, 1915 they climbed Stone Mountain and burned a giant cross that was visible throughout the city. The imagery of the burning cross, which had not existed in the original Klan, had been introduced via The Birth of a Nation. The film, in turn, had obtained the image from the works of Thomas Dixon, Jr. He had taken his inspiration from Scottish clans, who had burned crosses as a method of signalling from one hilltop to the next. The image also occurs in Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott.
As the nucleus of his revived Klan, Simmons organized a group of men including many of the Knights of Mary Phagan, in addition to two elderly men who had been members of the original Klan. Fifteen of them went to the Stone Mountain with Simmons on Thanksgiving Night of 1915 to burn a cross and inaugurate the new Klan.[2] Simmons' later account of the founding included a dramatic account of "a temperature far below freezing," although weather records showed that the temperature had never fallen below 45 degrees that night on Stone Mountain. Simmons declared himself the Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
In the first years of the new Klan just several thousand members enrolled but eventually it became more popular and hundreds of thousands of new members pledged allegiance. The Klan's enemies were Blacks, Jews, Roman Catholics or anybody else who was not a native-born Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Protestant.[2]
When the New York World exposed violent affairs conducted by the Ku Klux Klan, Simmons was called to testify in front of the U.S. House Committee on Rules. Hearings began in October 1921 and lasted for over a week. Simmons distanced himself from violent events and stressed the Klan's fraternal nature. Congressional hearings ended with no direct consequences for the Klan, though Simmons lost his influence.
Hiram Wesley Evans succeeded Simmons in the position of the Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Simmons was at the same time elected Emperor for life.[3]
He died in Atlanta on May 18, 1945.
| Preceded by - |
Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan 1915-1922 |
Succeeded by Hiram Wesley Evans |