The Good Citizen was a sixteen-page monthly political periodical edited by Bishop Alma White and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke

Branford Clarke

Branford Clarke was an Evangelical preacher, poet and artist who promoted the Ku Klux Klan through his art which was drawn for the Pillar of Fire Church and their publications.-Biography:...

. The Good Citizen was published from 1913 until 1933 by the Pillar of Fire Church

Pillar of Fire Church

The Pillar of Fire International is a Christian organization founded in Denver, Colorado in 1901 by Alma White, with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey. The Pillar of Fire was originally incorporated as the Pentecostal Union, but changed its name to distance itself from Pentecostalism in 1915...

 at their headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey

Zarephath, New Jersey

Zarephath is an unincorporated area of Franklin Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It was the communal home to the Pillar of Fire Church, and was the worldwide headquarters of Pillar of Fire International and housed the church's college, Somerset Christian College, and radio...

 in the United States. White used the publication to expose "political Romanism in its efforts to gain the ascendancy in the U.S."

In 1915 the publication's anti-Catholic rhetoric aroused the local population in Plainfield, New Jersey

Plainfield, New Jersey

Plainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population increased to a record high of 49,808....

 and a mob formed to threaten the Pillar of Fire Church

Pillar of Fire Church

The Pillar of Fire International is a Christian organization founded in Denver, Colorado in 1901 by Alma White, with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey. The Pillar of Fire was originally incorporated as the Pentecostal Union, but changed its name to distance itself from Pentecostalism in 1915...

. By 1921 the publication was a strong supporter of the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

.

Content

The Good Citizen espoused the political views of Alma White and consisted of essays, speeches and cartoons promoting women's equality, anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...

, antisemitism, nativism

Nativism (politics)

Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....

, white supremacy

White supremacy

White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...

 and the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

. The tract also contained numerous topically provocative illustrations by Reverend Branford Clarke

Branford Clarke

Branford Clarke was an Evangelical preacher, poet and artist who promoted the Ku Klux Klan through his art which was drawn for the Pillar of Fire Church and their publications.-Biography:...

.

Ku Klux Klan and anti-Catholicism

According to Wyn Craig Wade in his 1998 book The Fiery Cross:

[Alma White] was also probably the most active and prolific fundamentalist minister in the 1920s. ... Her value to the Klan, however, came from her viciously anti-Catholic magazine, The Good Citizen, and her easily readable theological tracts that simultaneously found scriptural support for the Invisible Empire [the KKK] and excoriation for the Catholic Church. ... Her books abounded with conspiracy themes: "We hail the K.K.K. in the great movement that is now on foot ... Were it not that the press is throttled by Rome and her Hebrew allies, astounding revelations would be made, showing the public the necessity for the rising of the Heroes of the Fiery Cross

Heroes of the Fiery Cross

Heroes of the Fiery Cross is a book published in 1928 by Protestant Bishop Alma Bridwell White in which she "sounds the alarm about imagined threats to Protestant Americans from Catholics and Jews." In the book she asks rhetorically "Who are the enemies of the Klan? They are the bootleggers,...

."

White supremacy and racism against African Americans

The following is from the text of a speech given by Alma White on December 31, 1922 at the Pillar of Fire Church

Pillar of Fire Church

The Pillar of Fire International is a Christian organization founded in Denver, Colorado in 1901 by Alma White, with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey. The Pillar of Fire was originally incorporated as the Pentecostal Union, but changed its name to distance itself from Pentecostalism in 1915...

 at 123 Sterling Place, Brooklyn, New York and published in the February, 1923 (Vol. 11 No. 2) edition of The Good Citizen. The speech is titled "Ku Klux Klan and Woman's Causes" and the section of the speech which is reprinted below is titled "White Supremacy."

"The Klansmen stand for the supremacy of the white race, which is perfectly legitimate and in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Writ, and anything that has been decreed by the Almighty should not work a hardship on the colored race...It is within the rights of civilization for the white race to hold the supremacy; and no injustice to the colored man to stay in the environment where he was placed by the Creator.”
... When the black man was liberated it was time for women to be enfranchised, without which the colored man with his newly-acquired rank became her political master. Such reflections make one feel that man’s delinquency has been almost unpardonable.”
...The white women bore the sting of humiliation for more than half a century in being placed in an inferior position to the black men in the use of the ballot and the rights of citizenship...
“To whom shall we look to champion the cause and to protect the rights of women? Is there not evidence that the Knights of the Klu [sic] Klux Klan are the prophets of a new and better age?”

Books from The Good Citizen

White published three books that were compendiums of the essays, speaches and cartoons from it entitled The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy

The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy

The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy is a 144 page book written by Bishop Alma Bridwell White in 1925 and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. In the book she uses scripture to rationalize that the Klan is sanctioned by God "through divine illumination and prophetic vision". She also believed that the...

(1925), Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty

Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty

Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty was a book published by the Pillar of Fire Church in 1926 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. She claims that the founding fathers of the United States were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and that Paul Revere made his legendary...

(1926), and Heroes of the Fiery Cross

Heroes of the Fiery Cross

Heroes of the Fiery Cross is a book published in 1928 by Protestant Bishop Alma Bridwell White in which she "sounds the alarm about imagined threats to Protestant Americans from Catholics and Jews." In the book she asks rhetorically "Who are the enemies of the Klan? They are the bootleggers,...

(1928). In 1943 White reprinted her Klan books as a three volume set under the title Guardians of Liberty

Guardians of Liberty

Guardians of Liberty is a three volume set of books published in 1943 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White, author of over 35 books and founder of the Pillar of Fire Church. Guardians of Liberty is primarily devoted to summarizing White’s vehement anti-Catholicism under the guise of patriotism...

.

In 1929, Ray Bridwell White

Ray Bridwell White

Ray Bridwell White was the son of Alma White, the leader of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey...

, White's son and President of Zarephath Bible Institute published The Truth in Satire Concerning Infallible Popes which also was a compendium of his essays that had originally been published in The Good Citizen.

Backlash

In 1918, 500 members of the New York City Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...

 called on the United States Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General

The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...

to exclude The Good Citizen from the US mail.

Existing copies

Copies of The Good Citizen are available in six US libraries:

• Brigham Young University Library (extensive collection)
• Denver Public Library
• University of Texas Libraries - Austin
• Duke University Library
• Syracuse University
• New York Public Library (extensive collection)

External links

• Images published in The Good Citizen on Flickr