Redstate

By Buckland Posted in User Blogs — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Promoted from the diaries . . .

Often subjects can be seen as right or wrong when sometimes there's an actually a gray area between right and wrong.  That's the case with my Granddad's involvement with the Ku Klux Klan.

My grandfather was a sawmill owner near Sophia, WV from the late 40's through about 1965.  During that time there was lots of demand for lumber, particularly from the coal mines that were opening throughout the area and from the school systems that were expanding to serve the baby boom that was just beginning to overwhelming the school system.Granddad was approached by the local Klan Recruiter to join the Klan.  The recruiter at that time was none other than a young, well-liked politician that would later be known as Senator Robert Byrd.  He was serving in the WV House of Delegates at that time and was already seen by many as an aggressive politician with a future.

At first Granddad told him to get lost.  Granddad was very apolitical, but more importantly he employed a number of Blacks in his mills and as loggers.  These were all very dangerous jobs, and dissention in the workplace was dangerous for all involved.

However strange things started happening in his business relations after refusing Byrd's overtures to join the KKK.  School contracts vanished.  Local unions refused to allow granddads trucks access to rail facilities.  Mine surveyors started grading his logs as substandard for mine materials.

Soon he got the picture.  The Klan took care of its own and the only way to stay in business was to join up.  So he did.  He paid the joining fee ($25) and attended a couple of "Halloween Parties" as he called them.  Just a bunch of guys in sheets drinking beer and discussing business.  Kind of like a Rotary Club in hoods.

After joining his business got much better.  School contracts were suddenly available.  No more union issues, and loads of mine headers that had been rejected last week were suddenly acceptable.

I guess the different KKK local chapters had their own local character and local issues, because Granddad's group never really talked much about suppressing Blacks.  Their pet project was Italians.  Italian immigrants had come to WV in the 1920's as coal mine strike breakers and memories were still fresh to a lot of people.  The closest they came to violence was petty vandalism.  They would drive around in cars wearing robes and bash mailboxes where the name ended in a vowel.  Other times they would paint KKK graffiti on highway signs.

Byrd encouraged these outings, but NEVER particiapted.  He was management, the mailbox bashers were workers.  He never wanted to be part of the latter.

Robert Byrd was elected to the US house in 1952.  After he moved to Washington the local Klan lost it's vigor.  They still had meetings for a few years, but gradually died off.  Granddad quit going to meetings in 1953, and quit sending donations the next year when it was obvious that it no longer had any commercial power.

Granddad was never proud of his time in the Klan and saw them as more of a nuisance than a violent organization.  His opinion of Byrd was that he used the Klan as a path to power and probably didn't believe a word of the claptrap that he spouted at meetings.

I'm sure that some readers will think that joining an organization like the KKK is wrong, no exceptions.  However by joining them Granndad was able to keep the business going during this time.  That gave jobs to about 200 men, including a large number of Blacks and Italians.  Would it have been better if he had "the courage of his convictions" and shut down the business rather than give into blackmail?  Maybe.  But it's hard to say the the employees would have been better off on the street than working for somebody with loose ties to the local Klukkers.