1
THE CONCLAVE
“White Power!
WHITE POWER!
WHITE POWER!” shouted the 43 white-robed and hooded men in cadence, as the final throes of dim sunlight closed about them and gave way to still darkness. Their united mutinous voices rumbled throughout the Belle Chasse, Louisiana, clearing in the cotton field where they gathered under a moonlit sky, on a hot and humid Monday night. Not more than 50 yards away, shrouded in shimmering darkness and teased by fire bursts from the a tall flaming cross in the group’s midst, stood ruins of a long row of weather beaten, whitewashed slave cabins that stood sinisterly quiet and deserted under the overhanging trees, the homes of those who worked these fields years ago.
The night was still…too still- as though the creatures of the night were too frightened to raise their voices in the usual summer night chorus. The ghostly garbed men stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a semicircle, talking excitedly in low tones while facing an empty makeshift platform. Their forms were expectant, thrilled to attention by their outbursts, awaiting a crescendo from their leader. From behind the tall burning cross, strode their mouthpiece. As the twilight came, he lifted his robe hem to free his muddy boots while stepping up onto the stage, and then he appeared to study the members from the hollow of his white hood. He raised his arms in batwing-like sleeves and a hush descended over the assemblage. Blazing with emotions, he began his speech.
“Long live the Ku Klux Klan!” he intoned.
“We hate niggers!. We hate Jews!” he continued in a forceful voice. “White people in America need to wake up to the niggers and Jews who are ruin’n this country…a country that the white man built. There’s talk of someday put’n all races and creed of this nation into one great melt’n pot of social change – and create’n what they call integration. But what that would really create … is the extinction of the White race!” he knotted his right hand into a fist and smash the open palm of his left hand.
“Yeah!” “Ain’t gonna happen!” “That’s right!” the crowd enthused.
“When you mix White blood with nigger blood, or Jew blood, you end up with a mix of inferior humans. Half-breeds. Mongrels. Once you lay down with the scum of the earth, you’re kill’n off the White race!” His powerful shoulders propelled a punch into the stagnant air to emphasize his point. His voice raise to a high pitch demonstrated his level of devotion to the cause electrified the crowd. “The offspring created from such an unholy union is defected-cursed by the hand of God!”
June’s night-flying insects swarmed wildly around the crackling cross and into the warm darkness. The fire at his back threw his shadow long and large on the upturned faces of the men.
“We are at war, and what is at stake is preserve’n the quality of life and dominant status for the White man. Create’n the opportunity that comes with our rightful role of dominance and superiority for our children.” He leaned toward the group and pointed at them with his right arm extended, “Do you want niggers invade’n your neighborhood?
“No!” came the chorus.
“Do you want your children go’n to school with dumb niggers?”
“No!
“Then, let’s unite in our righteous cause and we’ll send those niggers back to where they came from – back to the jungle!” He raised his fist heavenward.
“White Power!
WHITE POWER!
WHITE POWER!” chanted the men, their utterances resounding like metered clangs of an iron bell. Their united hatred of stated enemies flowed freely, punctuated by defiant body gestures. The Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan stood on the platform next to the speaker, he found the speech intoxicating. The chorus of the audience high silver notes “White Power” chants soared out thrillingly under a dim star-studded sky, causing goose bumps to break out on his arms and cold chills of deeply felt emotions to fly down his spine.
As the vent of anger abated, the speaker continued, “Alright men, we have an honored guest here tonight. I want you to welcome the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan’s Louisiana’s Chapter.” A red-robed and hooded figure joined the spokesperson on the platform while applauses greeted his appearance. The gatherers quiet again as he raised his voice. “The Grand Wizard will do the honor of swear’n in the newest members of our new and growing Belle Chasse Chapter.” He stepped back in deference to the Grand Wizard, who was standing beside him. There was a deep, almost fanatic glow in his pale blue eyes that stared behind the holes bored out in the eye cloth, they seemed snake like.
“Thank you, brother.” The Grand Wizard acknowledged the introduction with a hooded nod in the spokesman’s direction.
A sudden hush fell on the crowd as he began to swear in the newest members. His base voice overlaid with a slow southern drawl, shattering the stillness of the night air. The firelight glimmered on the red silk of his attire.
Those attending were waiting with bated breath for the Grand Wizard to address the gathering as though they were waiting to breathe. “We champion and defend the purity of white American womanhood. We are the defenders of God, race and nation, and the champion of Christian morals. All those want’n to become Klan members – to follow the strict doctrine as set forth in the Ku Klux Klan charter, please step forward if you accept the eternal light of the Klan.”
His invitation was phrased and spoken as if a gold gilt door was to be swung open to Heaven. In the distance, katydids swelled a resonance of excitement. The burning cross waned its fury as it became thinner and more ominous.
Nine blindfolded inductees in hoodless white robes were escorted to the front of the stage and arranged in a row. Klan attendants removed the eye cloths. The soon-to-be members squinted up in awe at the crimson shrouded Grand Wizard.
The Grand Wizard nodded approvingly at the plentiful number of inductees, stepped down from the platform, and strode along their row, shaking hands with each one of them. He stepped back to the center of the foot of the stage and scanned the row of recruits. Grand Wizard addressed the, in a revival preacher’s tone, “All you that stand before me are the children of God.
Please kneel to the sacred oath of allegiance of the religious hooded order and face the burn’n cross.”
Like strands of broken pearls, the men fell to their knees in an uneven row. Jewels of sweat sparked on their upturned faces as they assumed the totemic position of initiation. Gasping plumes of flame from the ebbing cross licked the eternal sky like a serpent’s forked tongue, as the fling embers glittered faintly like fireflies and descended slowly, lazily before vanishing into the darkness.
“Are you a White, non-Jewish, American citizen?” Grand Wizard interrogated.
“Yes!” barked the respondents in one utterance.
“Are you in favor of a government of the White man, by the White man and for the White man?”
“Yes!”
“Do you believe, as stated in the Bible, in racial separation?”
“Yes!”
“Accordingly, by the authority invested in me as Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and the invisible order of the Klan, I now declare and proclaim you to be members of the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” He paused before raising his voice in the final announcement. “I invest you with the title of Klansmen … an honorable title amongst the brotherhood of White men!” the new inductees stood before him in solemn, their glairing eyes still look, like the eyes of vital young animals, spirited and dangerous.
Behind the stage, the left arm of the cross fell to the ground in a sizzling thump with accompanying sparks of a mini fire show. The new members were surrounded by congratulations and backslapping as the ceremony concluded. Hoods were removed and used to mop sweat from the wearers’ face and necks with the exception of a few attendees who remained costumed as they disappeared into the darkness.
The Grand Wizard, Glenn Hanson, a charismatic man, exchanged pleasantries with the men that sidled over to tall beefy Clifford Stevenson. “A fine turnout and a fine speach Clifford.
Nine new members. That’s impressive!”
Stevenson flashed a proud smile. His plumpish oval face and double chins glistened,
“Thanks, Glenn.”
Hanson put his hand on Clifford’s shoulder and guided him away from the lingering group in a gesture of confidentiality. He stopped, lit up a Camel with a silver Zippo and inhaled.
The light of the burning cross died out behind them. Glenn shook the pack in Stevenson’s direction, then lit his. “I hear you’ll be the next sheriff after your uncle retires.”
Clifford grinned, glad the word was out.
Glenn exhaled twin funnels of smoke from his nostrils. “That’s good. The Klan can always use more members in public office – especially in law enforcement. It gives us free reign in keep’n those niggers in their place. Your uncle’s been a long-time member of the Klan but he never actively participated in the fraternal’s recruitment. I once told him there’s power in hatred.
Other than love, it’s the most over power’n feel’n in man. ‘Cause if you can control the hatred, you can control a man’s actions.”
Clifford nodded, “You got that right!” He watched the Grand Wizard stub the life out of his cigarette with sharp kicks from the toe of his boot in the soft dirt.