Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan

The national leader of the Ku Klux Klan is called either a Grand Wizard or an Imperial Wizard, depending on which KKK organization is being described.

Second Ku Klux Klan

  • William Joseph Simmons[1] (1880–1945) was the Imperial Wizard (national leader) of the second Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1922.
  • Hiram Wesley Evans (1881–1966), part of a group that ousted William Joseph Simmons from the position of Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Evans was Imperial Wizard from 1922 to 1939, during which time the Klan's membership peaked.
  • James A. Colescott (1897–1950), Imperial Wizard, 1939-1944. Colescott dissolved the organization after the IRS filed a lien for $685,305 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest from 1920s against the Klan.
  • Samuel Green[2] (1889–1949), briefly Imperial Wizard of a reorganized Klan in 1949, but died of a heart attack within two weeks of his election.

Other Ku Klux Klan movements

References

  1. ^ Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in AmericaArchived 2006-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Samuel Green Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Key Leader Profile: Berry, Jeff". www.tkb.org. Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
  4. ^ "CNN - Former KKK leader convicted of 1966 murder - August 21, 1998". www.cnn.com.
  5. ^ Samuel Bowers Bio Archived 2010-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Martin, Douglas (17 February 2009). "Virgil Lee Griffin, Klan Leader, Dies at 64". The New York Times.
  7. ^ Cunningham, David. Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan. Massachusetts: Oxford Scholarship Online, 2012. Print.