United Klans of America
Encyclopedia
United Klans of America Inc. was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan
organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton
, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama
. They were linked to the murder of teenager Michael Donald
, the 16th Street Baptist Church
bombing in Birmingham, Alabama
, that killed four young girls, and the murder of Viola Liuzzo
in 1965. In addition to Robert Shelton, some of the UKA’s most well known members include Thomas Blanton, Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry
, Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, Bennie Hays, Henry Hays
, and James Knowles. Robert Shelton died at the age of 73 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
, from a heart attack in 2003. Many former members of the group now purportedly belong to other Ku Klux Klan
organizations such as The True Ku Klux Klan.
in the United States
South, members of the United States Klan and the KKK joined forces in 1960 to suppress change. In July of 1961, Robert Shelton
, the son of a member of the KKK, went to Alabama after his discharge from the Air Force
, and became the dominant figure, or the Imperial Wizard, of the UKA after Shelton's "Alabama Knights" merged with "Invisible Empire, United Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, Inc.", Georgia Knights, and Carolina Units.
Eventually the UKA peaked with active members and sympathetic support, and reached numbers from around 26,000 to 33,000 throughout the South in 1965, making it the largest Klan faction in the world. The organization disseminated its messages through a newsletter known as The Fiery Cross
, which was printed in Swartz, Louisiana
. But, membership began to slip once the group was linked to criminal activity, and after Shelton served a one-year term in prison for contempt of the United States Congress
in 1969. In the early decade of the 1970s, UKA membership dropped from tens of thousands to somewhere between 3500 and 4000, but that did not keep violent acts from continuing. By the 1980s, membership dropped to somewhere around 900.
in Birmingham, Alabama was a place for many people involved in the Civil Rights Movement
to meet up with each other. On a Sunday in September 1963, a bomb exploded in the church, killing four young girls. 11-year-old Denise McNair, 14-year-old Carole Robertson, 14-year-old Cynthia Wesley, and 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins were killed in the blast, and more than 20 others were injured. Addie Mae Collin’s sister lost one of her eyes in the bombing. Witnesses said they saw a white man put a box underneath the Church steps after getting out of his Chevrolet car. The police arrested Robert Chambliss, a member of the UKA, after he was identified by a witness, charged him with murder, in addition to "…possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit." The trial took place in October, but Chambliss was not convicted of murder. He did receive a fine of one hundred dollars and six months in jail for possession of the dynamite. He was tried again when Bill Baxley
, the attorney general of Alabama, realized that much of the evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) had against Chambliss was not used in his original trial. It was not until 1977 that he was convicted with the murder of the four girls, and he received life in prison at 73 years old, where he eventually died. Chambliss never confessed to the bombing. On May 16, 2000, the remaining indictments were handed to suspects, and the court found that UKA members Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton
, and Bobby Frank Cherry
were the ones who planted 19 sticks of dynamite in the bombing of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church. In 2001, Thomas Blanton, Jr. was sentenced to life in prison following his trial where he was charged with murder. The next year, in 2002, Bobby Frank Cherry
also was tried for murder and he, too, received life in prison.
, a white woman from the North, decided to go help support racial equality in the South. She drove down to Alabama and assisted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) in driving civil rights marchers back and forth, from Montgomery, Alabama
to Selma, Alabama
, where the marches were taking place. On March 25, 1965, as she was making her last trip to Montgomery with 19-year-old African American Leroy Moton to go pick up the marchers, four members of the UKA saw Liuzzo sitting at a red light with Leroy in the car with her. They followed her in their car, eventually driving up beside her, and shot at the car. Leroy survived the shots after pretending to be dead, but Liuzzo did not make it. Collie Wilkins, William Orville Eaton, Eugene Thomas, and Gary Thomas Rowe were taken into custody the next day. Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas each received 10-year prison sentences, while Rowe turned out to be an undercover agent for the FBI
, a 19-year-old black male, on March 21. After Josephus Andersonan, a black man in Mobile, Alabama
, was charged with the murder of a white police officer, UKA member Bennie Hays blamed the jury when they failed to convict Andersonan. Hays claimed that it was because there were African-American jury members. Hays’ opinion was that he should be allowed to kill a black man since Andersonan killed a white man with no consequence. On March 21, the son of Bennie Hays, Henry Hays
, and another member of the UKA, James Knowles, decided to take action and went driving around to find a black man to kill. They found Michael Donald
walking along the street and made him get into their car. After kidnapping him, they drove out to a bordering county, where Hays and Knowles hanged him from a tree.
During the investigation, the police concluded that the murder had to do with drugs, but Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, knowing that her son was not involved with drugs, decided to take action. She eventually talked to Jesse Jackson
, but it was Thomas Figures who ended up helping out. Figures was Mobile's U.S. Attorney, and he contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) to take on the case. Knowles quickly confessed to the lynching. In 1983, James Knowles of the UKA's Klavern 900 in Mobile, was convicted for 1981 for the murder of Michael Donald
. His conviction resulted in life in prison. At trial Knowles said he and Henry Hays killed Donald "in order to show Klan strength in Alabama
."
In 1987, the Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC) brought a civil case on behalf of the victim's family against the United Klans of America for being responsible in the lynching of Donald. Unable to come up the $7 million dollars awarded by the jury, the UKA were forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother who then sold it. This lawsuit resulted in the bankruptcy of the UKA, along with its official split in 1987.
During the civil trial Knowles said he was "carrying out the orders" of Bennie Jack Hays, Henry Hays's father, and a long time Shelton lieutenant. The trial ended with a guilty verdict, and Knowles, charged with “…violating Donald’s civil rights…”, received a sentence for life in prison. Hays was charged a few months later with the murder of Donald, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death. Hays was finally executed in June 1997. More than 80 years had passed since a white man had been executed, “…for a crime against an African American…”.
for violent racial episodes in Talladega County, Alabama
. Three members pled guilty, while 10 others were found guilty. One of the violent racial episodes included, “…firing into the homes of officers of the NAACP.”
In 1998, a complaint was filed against Roy E. Frankhouser
, Grand Dragon of the UKA in Pennsylvania. Frankhouser had been harassing Bonnie Jouhari, who was a white woman that worked at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council in the state of Pennsylvania. Her job was helping out people who had been targeted and discriminated against. Frankhouser threatened her and her daughter, Pilar D. Horton, and after many unsuccessful attempts to have a lawsuit brought against Frankhouser, the SPLC decided to represent Jouhari. The case ended with Frankhouser having to complete community service, making a public apology to Jouhari and her daughter, and completing a certain amount of hours in sensitivity training.
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...
organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton
Robert Shelton (klan member)
Robert M. Shelton was a former car-tire salesman who became nationally famous as the Grand Wizard of United Klans of America , a Ku Klux Klan group....
, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
. They were linked to the murder of teenager Michael Donald
Michael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
, the 16th Street Baptist Church
16th Street Baptist Church
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama which is frequented predominately by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights...
bombing in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, that killed four young girls, and the murder of Viola Liuzzo
Viola Liuzzo
Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo was a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist from Michigan, who was murdered by Ku Klux Klan members after the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama...
in 1965. In addition to Robert Shelton, some of the UKA’s most well known members include Thomas Blanton, Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry was an American white supremacist and Klansman who was convicted of murder in 2002 for his role in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963...
, Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, Bennie Hays, Henry Hays
Henry Francis Hays
Henry Francis Hays was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 1981 lynching-style murder of 19-year old African-American Michael Donald....
, and James Knowles. Robert Shelton died at the age of 73 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
, from a heart attack in 2003. Many former members of the group now purportedly belong to other 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...
organizations such as The True Ku Klux Klan.
History
During the African American Civil Rights MovementCivil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
South, members of the United States Klan and the KKK joined forces in 1960 to suppress change. In July of 1961, Robert Shelton
Robert Shelton
Robert Shelton was a music and film critic.Shelton's most enduring claim to fame was that he helped launch the career of a then unknown 20-year-old folk singer named Bob Dylan...
, the son of a member of the KKK, went to Alabama after his discharge from the Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, and became the dominant figure, or the Imperial Wizard, of the UKA after Shelton's "Alabama Knights" merged with "Invisible Empire, United Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, Inc.", Georgia Knights, and Carolina Units.
Eventually the UKA peaked with active members and sympathetic support, and reached numbers from around 26,000 to 33,000 throughout the South in 1965, making it the largest Klan faction in the world. The organization disseminated its messages through a newsletter known as The Fiery Cross
The Fiery Cross (newsletter)
The Fiery Cross was published by the United Klans of America, a white-supremacist group headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama....
, which was printed in Swartz, Louisiana
Swartz, Louisiana
Swartz is a census-designated place in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,247 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Swartz is located at ....
. But, membership began to slip once the group was linked to criminal activity, and after Shelton served a one-year term in prison for contempt of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in 1969. In the early decade of the 1970s, UKA membership dropped from tens of thousands to somewhere between 3500 and 4000, but that did not keep violent acts from continuing. By the 1980s, membership dropped to somewhere around 900.
The 16th Street Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church16th Street Baptist Church
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama which is frequented predominately by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights...
in Birmingham, Alabama was a place for many people involved in the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
to meet up with each other. On a Sunday in September 1963, a bomb exploded in the church, killing four young girls. 11-year-old Denise McNair, 14-year-old Carole Robertson, 14-year-old Cynthia Wesley, and 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins were killed in the blast, and more than 20 others were injured. Addie Mae Collin’s sister lost one of her eyes in the bombing. Witnesses said they saw a white man put a box underneath the Church steps after getting out of his Chevrolet car. The police arrested Robert Chambliss, a member of the UKA, after he was identified by a witness, charged him with murder, in addition to "…possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit." The trial took place in October, but Chambliss was not convicted of murder. He did receive a fine of one hundred dollars and six months in jail for possession of the dynamite. He was tried again when Bill Baxley
Bill Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II is an American Democratic politician and attorney.He was born in Dothan, Alabama and attended law school at the University of Alabama, graduating in 1964. He served two terms as Attorney General of Alabama, from 1971–1979; at the age of 27, he was the youngest to hold that...
, the attorney general of Alabama, realized that much of the evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) had against Chambliss was not used in his original trial. It was not until 1977 that he was convicted with the murder of the four girls, and he received life in prison at 73 years old, where he eventually died. Chambliss never confessed to the bombing. On May 16, 2000, the remaining indictments were handed to suspects, and the court found that UKA members Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton
Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr.
Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. was convicted in 2001 of murder for his role as conspirator in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. The bombing killed four young African-American girls . Blanton was twenty-five years old at the time of the bombing.He is housed at St...
, and Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry was an American white supremacist and Klansman who was convicted of murder in 2002 for his role in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963...
were the ones who planted 19 sticks of dynamite in the bombing of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church. In 2001, Thomas Blanton, Jr. was sentenced to life in prison following his trial where he was charged with murder. The next year, in 2002, Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry
Bobby Frank Cherry was an American white supremacist and Klansman who was convicted of murder in 2002 for his role in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963...
also was tried for murder and he, too, received life in prison.
The murder of Viola Liuzzo
In 1965, 39-year-old Viola LiuzzoViola Liuzzo
Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo was a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist from Michigan, who was murdered by Ku Klux Klan members after the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama...
, a white woman from the North, decided to go help support racial equality in the South. She drove down to Alabama and assisted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC) in driving civil rights marchers back and forth, from Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
to Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, where the marches were taking place. On March 25, 1965, as she was making her last trip to Montgomery with 19-year-old African American Leroy Moton to go pick up the marchers, four members of the UKA saw Liuzzo sitting at a red light with Leroy in the car with her. They followed her in their car, eventually driving up beside her, and shot at the car. Leroy survived the shots after pretending to be dead, but Liuzzo did not make it. Collie Wilkins, William Orville Eaton, Eugene Thomas, and Gary Thomas Rowe were taken into custody the next day. Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas each received 10-year prison sentences, while Rowe turned out to be an undercover agent for the FBI
The lynching of Michael Donald
The trial of a black man in Alabama in 1981 was the reason for the lynching of Michael DonaldMichael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
, a 19-year-old black male, on March 21. After Josephus Andersonan, a black man in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, was charged with the murder of a white police officer, UKA member Bennie Hays blamed the jury when they failed to convict Andersonan. Hays claimed that it was because there were African-American jury members. Hays’ opinion was that he should be allowed to kill a black man since Andersonan killed a white man with no consequence. On March 21, the son of Bennie Hays, Henry Hays
Henry Francis Hays
Henry Francis Hays was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 1981 lynching-style murder of 19-year old African-American Michael Donald....
, and another member of the UKA, James Knowles, decided to take action and went driving around to find a black man to kill. They found Michael Donald
Michael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
walking along the street and made him get into their car. After kidnapping him, they drove out to a bordering county, where Hays and Knowles hanged him from a tree.
During the investigation, the police concluded that the murder had to do with drugs, but Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, knowing that her son was not involved with drugs, decided to take action. She eventually talked to Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, but it was Thomas Figures who ended up helping out. Figures was Mobile's U.S. Attorney, and he contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) to take on the case. Knowles quickly confessed to the lynching. In 1983, James Knowles of the UKA's Klavern 900 in Mobile, was convicted for 1981 for the murder of Michael Donald
Michael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
. His conviction resulted in life in prison. At trial Knowles said he and Henry Hays killed Donald "in order to show Klan strength in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
."
In 1987, the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
(SPLC) brought a civil case on behalf of the victim's family against the United Klans of America for being responsible in the lynching of Donald. Unable to come up the $7 million dollars awarded by the jury, the UKA were forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother who then sold it. This lawsuit resulted in the bankruptcy of the UKA, along with its official split in 1987.
During the civil trial Knowles said he was "carrying out the orders" of Bennie Jack Hays, Henry Hays's father, and a long time Shelton lieutenant. The trial ended with a guilty verdict, and Knowles, charged with “…violating Donald’s civil rights…”, received a sentence for life in prison. Hays was charged a few months later with the murder of Donald, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death. Hays was finally executed in June 1997. More than 80 years had passed since a white man had been executed, “…for a crime against an African American…”.
Other activity
In the spring of 1979, 20 UKA members were indicted in Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
for violent racial episodes in Talladega County, Alabama
Talladega County, Alabama
Talladega County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Talladega is a Muscogee Native American word derived from TVLVTEKE, which means "border town." As of 2010, the population was 82,291...
. Three members pled guilty, while 10 others were found guilty. One of the violent racial episodes included, “…firing into the homes of officers of the NAACP.”
In 1998, a complaint was filed against Roy E. Frankhouser
Roy Frankhouser
Roy Everett Frankhouser, Jr. , was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a member of the American Nazi Party, a government informant, and a security consultant to Lyndon LaRouche. Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times...
, Grand Dragon of the UKA in Pennsylvania. Frankhouser had been harassing Bonnie Jouhari, who was a white woman that worked at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council in the state of Pennsylvania. Her job was helping out people who had been targeted and discriminated against. Frankhouser threatened her and her daughter, Pilar D. Horton, and after many unsuccessful attempts to have a lawsuit brought against Frankhouser, the SPLC decided to represent Jouhari. The case ended with Frankhouser having to complete community service, making a public apology to Jouhari and her daughter, and completing a certain amount of hours in sensitivity training.