Eldon Edwards

Eldon Lee Edwards (June 8, 1909 – August 1, 1960^[1]) was a U.S. Ku Klux Klan leader.

Biography

Edwards was an automobile paint sprayer from Atlanta, Georgia, and rebuilt the Klan beginning in 1953. In his book "The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo", Gary May notes that Edwards became prominent at a time when the Klan was splintered into different local groups. In 1955, Edwards created his own organization - "U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" - and established a 15,000 strong following in nine U.S. states.^[2]

Edwards was interviewed by Mike Wallace on May 5, 1957, as noted in Wallace's 2006 book Between You and Me.^[3]

Edwards, long diagnosed with heart disease, died of a heart attack in Atlanta on August 1, 1960. In his last public appearance, Edwards said, "We have more right to organize than the communists and the NAACP," and added, "We white people are the inheritors of this country. We do not intend to surrender it."^[4]

In August, 2017, a news article announced that the FBI was investigating a mass grave of torture victims uncovered in Jackson, Mississippi and that Edwards was charged with abducting, torturing and murdering three black men in 1944, but was never convicted.<ref name="JacksonTelegraph">{{Cite web|url=http://jacksontelegraph.com/2017/06/30/mass-grave-of-dozens-of-tortured-black-men-found-in-deceased-kkk-leaders-estate/%7Ctitle=Mass Grave Of Dozens Of Tortured Black Men Found In Deceased KKK Leaders

References

External links

• Eldon Edwards on The Mike Wallace Interview