Kkk In West Virginia (Wheeling, War: schools, college, wages)

[David Kennedy]

Other similar groups have existed in the USA...Pancho Villa...Texas Rangers in the early days...San Francisco had a vigilante group...cant remember what it was called. I think the clan filled the vacuum in Wv after the Civil War...and it migrated to the coal fields to protect people...white people.
Secret groups have always existed...militant, social...altruistic...some display hatred and ignorance...
some do the opposite. When I was in the Marines, a friend who had used the Masonic hospital services as a kid would take me in full regalia to the large children's hospital in San Fransicso. We would have a great time with those kids...I never joined the Lodge and was offered the vote 3 times...just wasn't me. But I've always respected the good they do...and I see thousands of their graves in Shinnston as I drive by the great cemetery there...some fabulous tombstones there...statuary...everything imaginable..
I think it all boils down to 'Power' and what a group will do with it...control and ferment fear...Why? or do good and help a brother....peace keeps the blood pressure down...I vote for peace..
Those clan members in the 1900's were doing what they deemed right...misguided in our time, for sure...

[appalachiangirl]

The Klans in the Deep South were quite vicious--lynching, and even murdering of blacks. It was before my time but my parents remember hearing about the killings of the 3 civil rights workers who came to Mississippi and the killers were let off with hardly any punishment. Then (I don't know if this was Klan related) there was the event where a young boy from Chicago was killed supposedly for saying something or whistling at a white woman. I don't understand how human beings can be so cruel to each other,but sadly 9-11 reminds us all of this.

[David Kennedy]

Laws were not established to prevent lynching until the late 50's I think...I'm vague on this one and know the answer. See what Wikipedia has to say on lynching...it will startle you...We've come a long way in a hurry....or have we?

[Georgia]

Reference of the Klan in WV.

Read the West Virginia Blue Books, not only the Klan in WV, you can receive plenty of West Virginia history there.

Feel free to write Senator Byrd, who was the Grand Cyclop in 1954, just before winning the seat as a lifelong beaucrat.

[harborlady]

My granny from parkersburg WV told me a story of how a man was beating on his wife and the town knew it, so they got together one morning on his doorstep- ALL of them, and let him know he hits her again he won't be getting service from the barber, or the waitress, or the fireman et al., and the policeman promised he wouldn't see anything if this man got a whooping of his own. There would be no witness. He couldn't change his ways, and fearing the town, he left. They made sure she was given a job to support the kids through the pastors office, and life went on peacefully without a lazy drunken wife beater in their town.
Mob rules aren't really supposed to be the american way, but I guess solidarity of community and swiftness of justice get lost in the translation of law nowadays. Lawyers ignore the truth and see the world as win or lose, even when civilization loses when they win, or the spirit of the law is trampled underfoot in the process.
As for the Klan and what it's represented in my lifetime, I think the only sway they hold is if they were offering 50 cent draft nights at a tavern. It's been my experience that people vested in hatred have little talent for actually building anything themselves, and so resort to destructive behaviors to compensate for their own lack of esteem. Weak people need scapegoats to fixate on lest they be forced to self actualize by truly controlling their own lives. This kind of nonsense didn't start or end with Klan. Certain elements of mankind have thrived on ignorance, poverty, and oppression before language even existed. Takes a strong mind to turn that corner and fully embrace adulthood... lets hope they choose it one day.

As for your grandfather DK, sounds like the Klan meant something else back in the day, but went a direction that wasn't in keeping with his heart. My dads father found himself in a bewildering place prior to WW2, native to germany, and heartsick at the direction she was headed. He earned passage on a ship as a cook and when they landed in america, he fled, changed his name to something other-than-german, and lived as an illegal alien, commited to peace and faith his whole life. I'm grateful he did, even if his children saw him as something lesser for it, or perhaps some sense of shame he carried on his own. His heart made him 4f to fight against hitler, and his heart was what gave out on him in the end, but to his heart, he was always true. My respect for him will never waiver no matter how the tale is spun by family or historians.

[David Kennedy]

My lady's GF fled the soviets in the early 1900's. Was placed on a ship at the age of 11.
Changed his name to protect himself and others...We will never know just who he was or what his real name was...perhaps dna will forge a connection in the future..

As for my grandfathers...both were as different as night and day...the union fireboss and klansman on the one side...and I see the abusive side of him in his descendants even now...but he was good to me and kind...and

and the father of my father...kind and laughing...giving so much to my grandmother as she managed the farm and carried the responsibliity for so much of their sustinance and education. (his 40 years of work was away from the farm)
WE are a product of these people and have the opportunity to make changes in behavior.

As a young married man 3 decades ago, discussions were had in the middle of the night as to what rules would be followed. We decided to change unwanted behaviour that was existing. Cussing was never done...hard work and honesty was the rule and respect was given to the children..
Cigarettes were not used (we watched my mother die from them at 51) booze was put away. That GF, the klansman had a real problem with that substance (and I feel it was a root of several problems).
Our house did not smell like my parents home and I liked that..

WE can choose and change the future path...it takes discipline. That's a great power.. having the capacity to do that.
I see that commonality in the posters of this medium...

[citybilly]

"In it's day, it was an essential element of social life to be a member. I would think that for the job of keeping the local citizenry in-line as DK mentioned, it wouldn't be too bad. If you look back at the debate we had on drugs in WV, wouldn't something similar be useful in combating the unsavory element that comes with the drug culture? Sort of like the local Big Brother."

The above comment by HB reminds me that, in today's world, there are many places where street gangs fill this role. Instead of combatting the unsavory element, they promote it and profit from it. It's not readily apparent to those of us living in suburbia, but the fact is, it's spreading like wildfire. Our mainstream culture is saturated with the influences. Middle class suburban white kids, packin' heat and talkin' street. Remember when a barbed wire tattoo meant you did prison time? Now high school girls have them. That says a lot about what America really is, as opposed to what I like to romanticise that it is.

[David Kennedy]

Very well said, citybilly...I feel it was a situation of 'being for it...or the implication fo being against it"

and very much like the 'gangs of today, who are family to the members. We intately seek love from the tribe...If it cannot be found in positive role models, it will be found elsewhere.
It reaches to the top levels too...Viet Cong, Sandanistia's...PLO and the Irish Republican Army...one of my favorite examples of a terrorist organization who ran the gamut and is now a bonifide political party in Parliment...enacting laws in a legal manner.
It's a cycle where anarchy transforms into the establishment and creates GWB's of their own..

[ArizonaBear]

Old thread but I wanted to chime in here:

My father is an immigrant from Hungary; came here legally in 1951 via a sponsor, etc.

Upshot is my birth name is extremely ethnic------to the point that I have been asked to show ID because I do not look at all like a stereotypical Hungarian. If anything; I look Scandinavian-------I am 'White-white'.

As for the Klan thing; apparently my bio mother, who grew up in Charleston, had a bunch of relatives back in Orange, Va. who were KKK. Remember, this was before she was born (1930) back in the 1920's when everybody and his brother joined because it was the 'thing' to do for a Protestant White male.

The biggest draw for Klan membership back (and now today supposedly) was due to the anger against immigrants (legal back then, at least) coming from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Side note: I had my DNA tested-------I am 100% 'White'-----which startled me. I thought there was American Indian or even Black in my family tree.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by David Kennedy

Very well said, citybilly...I feel it was a situation of 'being for it...or the implication fo being against it"

and very much like the 'gangs of today, who are family to the members. We intately seek love from the tribe...If it cannot be found in positive role models, it will be found elsewhere.
It reaches to the top levels too...Viet Cong, Sandanistia's...PLO and the Irish Republican Army...one of my favorite examples of a terrorist organization who ran the gamut and is now a bonifide political party in Parliment...enacting laws in a legal manner.
It's a cycle where anarchy transforms into the establishment and creates GWB's of their own..

And; there are other organizations that would qualify as 'gangs' if they were destructive.

Fraternities/sororities, Scouts, sports teams, hobby clubs, etc.

With numbers of people; there is power-------whether good or evil. It depends on how it is used.