A Ku Klux Klan Rally at the Site of Bird's Fort

A Ku Klux Klan rally was held at the former site of Bird's Fort on the evening of June 16, 1979 when the land was in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County jurisdiction. Between 200 and 300 Klansmen attended the rally, which included a cross burning. The event was preceded by two Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper articles about the KKK and upcoming rally, followed by a third article that November. These three Star-Telegram articles are reproduced below.

The Ku Klux Klan: White-Hooded Logic Comes to Hurst

Sun, Jun 3, 1979
By Bill Deener
Star-Telegram Writer

HURST — John Davis speaks with the fervor and zeal of a religious convert.

But instead of sprinkling his conversations with biblical quotations, the young and dedicated man punctuates his sentences with racial slurs.

This Fort Worth native, now living in Hurst, has embraced the Ku Klux Klan's notions of racial purity firmly, wrapping them in white-hooded logic.

Davis, an assumed name, organized the Hurst Klan chapter, or den, last October. He is den commander, holding the Klan rank of Province Giant 3. His province, one of three in the state, includes the Fort Worth area. Davis also oversees the other dens in the province.

Born out of the bleak days of Southern Reconstruction, the Klan claims to have preserved the white South, or as Klan propaganda puts it, “From this era, this abyss of human misery and despair, there arose like the morning sun the Ku Klux Klan."

And as yet the sun hasn't set on the Klan. It keeps its strength secret, but it has been estimated that there are more than 5,000 Klansmen in Texas. Davis won't say how many members are in the Hurst chapter, but he does say: "It's growing geometrically.”

The Klan blames virtually every social ill on minority races and attributes all of society's accomplishments to whites.

"We enjoy a very high standard of living in the United States as a result of this creative genius of the white race," Davis said during a recent interview. "All the great works of art, literature and technology are the products of whites from Northern Europe."

Davis believes society's future advances are endangered because, he says, there is a trend toward smaller white families and larger non-white families.

"All the birth control programs are aimed at the white middle class, whereas minorities are encouraged to have large families because of the social programs." he said.

"Mexicans multiply faster than rabbits, even faster than niggers, plus you have a steady influx of aliens from across the border that no one seems interested in curbing." he said.

Davis, who studied business administration at Texas A&M, cites biased media coverage for the Klan's poor image.

He said the Klan is a non-violent political movement, but he applauded Louis Beam, the Klansman who tried to attack China's Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsiao-ping) in Houston. Beam is the Great Titan, the top Klan leader in Texas.

"I believe the majority of whites are in basic agreement with us. I think a lot of them have been so brainwashed by the media that when they have a racist thought, they feel guilty and want to suppress it. They think they are a small minority. I don't believe this to be the case." Davis said.

Although the Klan professes non-violence, Klansmen are adept at using firearms.

In a recent edition of "Crusader," a Klan publication, three white-robed and hooded Klansmen were pictured cradling shotguns. The caption read. "With Communists attacking Klansmen in the streets and conspiring to murder them self-defense and training in firearms is an important part of the Texas Klan program.” One of those pictured was identified as John Davis of Hurst.

Davis describes the Klan as an ultra-conservative organization that wants "to wake up the white race."

He said the Klan is working to get Klansmen elected to Congress and to state legislatures.

Specifically, the Klan supports abolishment of affirmative action programs, increases in defense expenditures and voluntary separation of the races.

"We are becoming so weak we might wake up some morning and find Western Europe annexed by the Soviets, and there'll be nothing we can do about it." Davis said.

Davis said he doesn't hate blacks. Instead, he said, he has pride in his white race, its heritage and accomplishments.

“I don't feel guilty about being white: I don't feel l owe the black man anything,” he said. "I freed all my slaves 10 years ago.”

Racial prejudice runs deep among Klansmen, as does anti-Semitism.

"I think it would be just marvelous if all the blacks decided to migrate to Africa and the Jews decided to migrate to Israel," he said. "But I don't want it to look like we are Nazis, or like we agree with Hitler's Final Solution to the race problem. While we are in agreement with Nazis on a few principles, we don't agree with their methods."

Davis said he became interested in the Klan during the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. He said he felt the national media gave only one side of the issue.

After hearing a speech by Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, the national leader of the Klan, Davis said he decided to join.

When he joined, he said, he didn’t "just want to carry a card around," so he started his own unit in Hurst.

Meetings are conducted at least once a month at members’ homes, he said. At these meetings other activities for the month are planned and ways "to spread the word" are discussed. New members are sworn in, or "naturalized," at the meetings.

To become a Klansman, a prospective member must believe in white supremacy and must undergo a background investigation by Klansmen.

"We can't allow just anyone in. Mainly we try to screen out the kooks and crazies. We don't want someone who would get his membership card and think it gave him carte blanche to go to Stop Six with a shotgun,” he said.

He said the Klan has contacts within law enforcement agencies who have access to FBI computers to check an applicant's background.

Because of the growing inquiries about the Klan, Davis said, the Klan will have its first rally in this area June 16 just south of Euless. The rally will feature a cross burning and speeches by both Duke and Beam. Davis has no idea how many Klansmen will attend.

Men and women from throughout Northeast Texas attend meetings at the growing Hurst Den, Davis said.

“I’m very optimistic about our future. Not only are we growing locally and nationally, but the Klan is emerging in Canada, Australia and England. It’s becoming international in scope,” he said.

But Klan strength is kept secret. In fact, Klan leader Robert Shelton went to prison rather than reveal information of this nature.

“One of our strengths lies in our secrecy. Your next door neighbor could be a Klansmen and you wouldn’t know it,” Davis said.

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Law to Monitor County Klan Rally

Fri, Jun 15, 1979
By Bill Deener
Star-Telegram Mid-Cities Bureau

EULESS - Area law enforcement agencies will be closely monitoring Saturday’s Ku Klux Klan rally here, but none plans to stake out any officers at the rally site. The rally will begin at 7:30 p.m. and be held in a field two miles south of Texas 183 just outside the Euless city limits. Because the site isn't within the Euless or the Fort Worth city limits, Tarrant County Sheriff's deputies have primary responsibility for the area.

Sheriff Lon Evans said deputies would certainly respond if any violence erupted, but he isn't planning any increase in patrol forces. Six patrol cars, representing 12 to 14 deputies, routinely patrol east Tarrant County, he said.

Neither Klan officials nor lawmen are guessing how many people will attend the rally. Klan leader John Davis of Hurst said with Grand Wizard David Duke speaking at the rally he expects a good crowd. The Texas head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Louis Beam, also will speak at the rally.

The Klan will post two armed guards at a gate at the entrance to the field. They will be collecting the $1 entrance fee, Davis said.

Davis said many of the Klansmen will be wearing their white hoods and there will be a cross burning.

Sheriff Evans said his deputies have been briefed as to where the rally is being held and what to do if trouble breaks out. Evans said Euless, Hurst and Fort Worth police could be called, plus the Texas Rangers and highway patrol.

"But I don't think there will be any trouble," he said. "They are within the law. And we'll stay out of it unless they start causing trouble or if someone tries to violate their right to assemble," he said.

Evans said all area police agencies have been alerted that the rally is being held, the first one in this area in more than two decades, Davis said.

Recent rallies in Decatur, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark., were for the most part free of violence, thanks to the visible presence of lawmen.

In Decatur, Ala., about 250 Klansmen, more than half of them wearing robes, recently marched to a rally at City Hall, where Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson promised them "victory over the race-mixers, Communists and liberals."

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference responded by holding its own march on City Hall and drew 1,500 demonstrators. Both marches were peaceful, although heavily guarded by about 500 lawmen, including state troopers in full riot gear.

Arkansas Public Safety Director Tommy Robinson said the "mere presence of the troopers was a psychological deterrent" to violence.

Trouble was limited to six arrests in a brief skirmish. A threatened takeover of the rally by the Committee Against Racism didn't materialize.

The Klan held a rally at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock to recruit members and were greeted by signs reading "Death to the Klan" and calling the Klansmen the "scum of the earth."

It is unknown whether any black groups plan to protest Saturday's rally here. However, one black woman did notify the Star-Telegram that she had heard rumors that some blacks would protest the rally.

Plans to combat KKK to be discussed

Ku Klux Klan activity in the Fort Worth-Dallas area will be discussed Tuesday during a meeting of the Fort Worth Human Relations Commission.

The commission's executive committee requested commission support for developing a plan to combat KKK activity.

Klan activity was revealed recently by the Star-Telegram.

The commission will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the precouncil chambers at City Hall.

Former State Rep. Chris Miller is among several persons recommended for appointment to fill vacancies on the commission.

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The Klan Has No Color, but Many Shades

Sun, Nov 11, 1979
By Bill Deener
Star-Telegram Writer

Ku Klux Klansmen call themselves a brotherhood.

But like squabbling siblings, they are beset by factionalism, jealousy and suspicion.

The recent Klan parade in Dallas illustrated this lack of accord. The parade, billed as the "March of Christian Soldiers," drew only 35 to 40 Klansmen. By contrast, 200 to 300 Klansmen rallied near Euless last summer.

Why the difference?

The Dallas parade was organized by a 73-year-old grandmother named Addie Barlow Frazier, who represents a Klan faction known as the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The National Knights are led by James Venable of Stone Mountain, Ga. While this group calls itself the "one true Klan," its importance has been dwindling since the 1960s, Klansmen admit.

The Euless rally, on the other hand, was organized by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a faction that has been gaining strength within the past two years. David Duke, 29, of Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans, is the grand wizard, or national leader of this faction.

Mrs. Frazier said she asked Klan leaders throughout the United States to attend her parade, but almost none did. Some members of Duke's group did attend the parade, but only to save Mrs. Frazier from embarrassment after they found out only a handful of National Knights planned to attend, one Klansmen told the Star-Telegram.

For these reasons, Klan observers are reluctant to judge the strength of the Klan in Texas by the turnout at the Dallas parade.

Indeed, many with anti-Klan feelings believe the organized opposition march not only was unnecessary, but may have given the Klan more credibility than it deserved.

"The coalition that marched just overreacted to this parade," said Mark Briskman, an official of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in Dallas.

"If they had just ignored it, probably just one elderly woman would have marched, and that would have been the end of it," he said. "There was a strong reaction from minorities when they heard the word Klan. They got two weeks of publicity, and I would call the parade a public relations victory for the Klan because of overreaction on the part of the coalition."

Briskman said the ADL tried to persuade the Coalition for Human Dignity the group that organized the anti-Klan march, to reconsider because such opposition automatically made the parade a "media event."

Briskman and others are concerned that what looked to be a small band of Klansmen being taunted by the hundreds of anti-Klan protesters probably helped the Klan cause.

That cause is to advance racism of the highest order, Klansmen said, and to promote a fierce brand of anti-Semitism.

Most Klan leaders contend the various factions of Klansmen in no way reflect divisiveness among their ranks. All are marching to the same drum beat, they say, and some Klan leaders say one day all the factions will join.

Other Klan leaders say that's not likely to happen.

The "white supremacy" belief embraced by all Klansmen may be the tie that binds the factions, but the means to that end is what disrupts.

Duke of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan said he hopes to achieve his goals through the political process. Other Klan leaders, such as Bill Wilkinson, 38, of Denham Springs, La., advocate violence. Wilkinson is the national leader of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. His title is imperial wizard.

Duke's group, on the surface at least, seems to be the least radical of the factions. Indeed, he plans to run for president of the United States in 1980.

Duke is critical of some of the other Klan factions.

"We can only help those other groups because of our image, but they only hurt us," Duke said from his national office in Metairie.

"I don't think it is necessary that all of us join," Duke said. "If we did we wouldn't be able to control it. I can't help what those other groups do. We are basically independent."

Duke said that some of the old guard Klansmen are jealous because his faction is growing.

"I don't know why they feel the way they do. Maybe it is my youth, the length of my hair. I just don't know."

Duke's Knights seem to grab most of the thunder from the other Kian factions. Briskman of the ADL said Duke's "college boy" image draws the media attention.

The ADL closely monitors Klan activities throughout the nation, and it estimates that Duke has a following of about 1,000 Klansmen. Briskman said Duke's faction seems to be the fastest growing, but it is not the largest group of Klansmen.

Robert Shelton's United Klans of America, based in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the major Klan organization of 10 years ago, is still the largest. Briskman said that group numbers about 4,000. It has its greatest strength in central Florida, Alabama and Kentucky.

Probably the secood largest group of Klansmen in the United States is Wilkinson's group, which Briskman estimates at 1,300 to 1,400 members.

Although Shelton currently has the largest following, the emerging leaders seem to be Wilkinson and Duke. These two men probably best symbolize the differences in the Klan.

"I feel at this point in time trying to change the system politically is a waste of time,” Wilkinson said. "We plan to put pressure on the government through marches, protests and demonstrations.”

Wilkinson often surrounds himself at rallies with guards toting semi-automatic weapons. He said the recent shootings in Greensboro, N.C. may be the beginning of a race war. Several carloads of white men sprayed bullets into an anti-Klan rally staged by a Communist organization last week, killing five persons and wounding nine others.

While Klan leaders say the Klan wasn't responsible for the killings, they generally support what happened.

“From all reports I've received, these men accused of murder were trying to defend themseives after they had been attacked. You can rest assured I would have done the same thing under the circumstances," Wilkinson said.

Duke's approach ultimately may draw the greater following, because of its less violent tone, Briskman said.

But the potential for violence, even in Duke's faction, shouldn’t be downplayed, Briskman said. Duke's "right-hand" man in Texas, Lewis Beam of Houston, is a fiery speaker, who tried to attack China's Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-ping when he visited Houston.

Beam praised the men who killed the five Communists in Greensboro.

"I see absolutely nothing wrong with what they did," Beam said. I killed 51 Communists in Vietnam. Those people killed in Greensboro were our enemies advocating death to the Klan. I think the men arrested were patriots, and personally I think it's time something like this happened."

Beam recently was promoted to grand dragon of Texas, meaning he is the leader of all the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in this state. Beam is a much more volatile person than Duke, but he said he does abide by the dictates of the national office.

"Duke has done more to create a good image of the Klan than anyone else has in the last five years," Beam said, " and I do support him totally."

But in the same breath Beam said he is organizing a military reserve of sorts to defend Texas.

"We are organizing an all-Klan military body at the state level for the defense of this state," Beam said.

The unit will be called the Texas Emergency Reserve, Beam said. A reserve unit will be based in South Texas, probably Houston, and another unit will be based in North Texas, probably in the Fort Worth-Dallas area.

"We are not going to stand by idly and allow this state to go under. The composition of our cities is going from white to non-white," he said. "Some day we may be called upon to take back the state."

Beam said that while there was a poor showing of Klansmen at the Dallas parade, he views it as a victory for the Klan.

"It would have made no difference if we would have had 200 or 300 Klansmen there. We still would have been outnumbered. What the parade did was show everybody in Dallas that there is a resistance: the Klan."

He said it is to the Klan's advantage to have many factions, because "the more Klan groups there are, the more difficult it is for the FBI to infiltrate us."

While Klan leaders are often critical of each other, there is one Klansmen they all hold dear to their hearts. His name is Robert Miles of Cohoctah, Mich., a former grand dragon for the state of Michigan. His prestige seems to go beyond the factionalism and bickering within the ranks.

Klansmen say if there is one man who may one day join all the factions, he is Miles. Beam calls him the spiritual leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Miles spent six years in the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill., for conspiracy to bomb a school bus. He was released from prison Aug. 3. Beam said Miles is "honored and respected by all Klansmen.”

"By his unflinching determination not to compromise, be became a national hero," Beam said. "He always stood up for the Klan in prison and didn't go crying to the parole board for forgiveness." Miles, contacted at his home in Michigan, said it would be a great honor for him to join all the Klan factions, but he doubts that will occur.

"We have always battled among ourselves, but though we march separately, we will one day strike together," Miles said.

He said that one day the governments of the United States and Russia will destroy each other and all the Klans will join and legally take power.