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{{Short description|Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan}}
{{Short description|Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (1880–1945)}}
{{for|the president of Simmons College of Kentucky|William J. Simmons (teacher)}}
{{for|the president of Simmons College of Kentucky|William J. Simmons (teacher)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = William Joseph Simmons
| name = William Joseph Simmons
| order =
| order =
| image =William-joseph-simmons2.jpg
| image =W.J. Simmons (LOC).jpg
| caption =
| caption =
| successor = [[Hiram Wesley Evans]]
| successor = [[Hiram Wesley Evans]]
| title= [[Grand Wizard|Imperial Wizard]] of the <br>[[Ku Klux Klan|Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]]
| title= 2nd [[Grand Wizard|Imperial Wizard]] of the <br>[[Ku Klux Klan|Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]]
| footnotes =
| footnotes =
| signature =
| signature =
Line 39: Line 39:
| boards =
| boards =
| relatives =
| relatives =
| term_start =1915
| term_start = November 25, 1915
| term_end =1922
| term_end = November 1922
| appointed =
| appointed =
}}
}}
'''William Joseph Simmons''' (May 7, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was an American preacher and fraternal organizer who founded and led the second [[Ku Klux Klan]] from [[Thanksgiving]] evening 1915 until being replaced in 1922 by [[Hiram Wesley Evans]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec46det.html |title= The 20th Century Ku Klux Klan in Alabama |publisher= [[Alabama Department of Archives and History]] |access-date= 2008-02-16 |archive-date= 2017-11-15 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171115095834/http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec46det.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>
'''William Joseph Simmons''' (May 7, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was an American preacher and fraternal organizer who founded and led the second [[Ku Klux Klan]] from [[Thanksgiving]] evening 1915 until being ousted in 1922 by [[Hiram Wesley Evans]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec46det.html |title= The 20th Century Ku Klux Klan in Alabama |publisher= [[Alabama Department of Archives and History]] |access-date= 2008-02-16 |archive-date= 2017-11-15 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171115095834/http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec46det.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>


==Early life==
==Early life==
Simmons was born in [[Harpersville, Alabama]], to Calvin Henry Simmons, a physician, and his wife Lavonia Simmons née Davis, daughter of Thomas C. Davis.<ref>Alabama Confederate Pension request dated 6 Dec 1920, completed by Lavonia Davis</ref> In his younger years, he attempted to study medicine at [[Johns Hopkins University]], but unable to afford it, opted to serve in the [[Spanish–American War]] instead. After receiving an honorable discharge, he became a teacher for the [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]] but was suspended by the church in 1912 for inefficiency.
Simmons was born in [[Harpersville, Alabama]], to Calvin Henry Simmons, a physician, and his wife Lavonia Simmons née Davis, daughter of Thomas C. Davis.<ref>Alabama Confederate Pension request dated 6 Dec 1920, completed by Lavonia Davis</ref> In his younger years, he attempted to study medicine at [[Johns Hopkins University]], but unable to afford it, opted to serve in the [[Spanish–American War]] instead. After receiving an honorable discharge, he became a teacher for the [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]], but was suspended by the church in 1912 for inefficiency.


Simmons later joined two churches and twelve different [[fraternal organization]]s, which flourished in the early twentieth century. He was known as "Joe", "Doc" (in reference to his medical training) or "Colonel" (referring to his rank in the [[Woodmen of the World]]).<ref name="time">{{cite magazine |title=The Various Shady Lives of the Ku Klux Klan |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. Simmons, an ascetic-looking man, was a fetishist on fraternal organizations. He was already a "colonel" in the Woodmen of the World, but he decided to build an organization all his own. He was an effective speaker, with an affinity for alliteration; he had preached on "Women, Weddings and Wives," "Red Heads, Dead Heads and No Heads," and the "Kinship of Kourtship and Kissing." On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a "practical fraternity among men," and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. |date=April 9, 1965}}</ref>
Simmons later joined two churches and twelve different [[fraternal organization]]s, which flourished in the early twentieth century. He was known as "Joe", "Doc" (in reference to his medical training) or "Colonel" (referring to his rank in the [[Woodmen of the World]]).<ref name="time">{{cite magazine |title=The Various Shady Lives of the Ku Klux Klan |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. Simmons, an ascetic-looking man, was a fetishist on fraternal organizations. He was already a "colonel" in the Woodmen of the World, but he decided to build an organization all his own. He was an effective speaker, with an affinity for alliteration; he had preached on "Women, Weddings and Wives," "Red Heads, Dead Heads and No Heads," and the "Kinship of Kourtship and Kissing." On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a "practical fraternity among men," and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. |date=April 9, 1965}}</ref>
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While recovering in 1915 after being hit by a car, Simmons decided to rebuild the Klan which he had seen depicted in the newly released film ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' directed by [[D. W. Griffith]]. He obtained a copy of the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] Klan's "Prescript" and used it to write his own prospectus for a reincarnation of the organization.
While recovering in 1915 after being hit by a car, Simmons decided to rebuild the Klan which he had seen depicted in the newly released film ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' directed by [[D. W. Griffith]]. He obtained a copy of the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] Klan's "Prescript" and used it to write his own prospectus for a reincarnation of the organization.


As the nucleus of his revived Klan, Simmons organized a group of friends, in addition to two elderly men who had been members of the original Klan. On Thanksgiving night 1915, they climbed [[Stone Mountain]] to burn a cross and inaugurate the new group, with fifteen [[charter member]]s.<ref name="time"/> Simmons' later account of the founding included a dramatic story of "a temperature far below freezing", although weather records showed that the temperature had never fallen below 45&nbsp;°F (7&nbsp;°C) that night on [[Stone Mountain]].{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} He declared himself the [[Imperial Wizard]] of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
As the nucleus of his revived Klan, Simmons organized a group of friends, in addition to two elderly men who had been members of the original Klan. On Thanksgiving eve, November 25, 1915, they climbed [[Stone Mountain]] to burn a cross and inaugurate the new group, with fifteen [[charter member]]s.<ref name="time"/> Simmons's later account of the founding included a dramatic story of "a temperature far below freezing", although weather records showed that the temperature had never fallen below 45&nbsp;°F (7&nbsp;°C) that night on [[Stone Mountain]].{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} He declared himself the [[Imperial Wizard]] of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.


The imagery of the [[burning cross]], which had not been used by the original Klan, had been introduced by Griffith in ''Birth of a Nation''. The film had derived the image from the works of [[Thomas Dixon, Jr.]], upon which the film was based. Dixon had been inspired by the historical practices of [[Scottish clans]], who had burned crosses as a method of signaling from one hilltop to the next. The image also occurs in ''[[The Lady of the Lake (poem)|Lady of the Lake]]'' (1810), a long poem by <!-- Not a baronet and thus entitled to be called 'Sir' until 1820 -->[[Walter Scott]].<ref>Lehr, Dick. Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America's Civil War. Public Affairs Press, 2014.</ref> The signature white robes of this new Klan also likely come from Dixon via ''Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{cite web|title=A 1905 Silent Movie Revolutionizes American Film—and Radicalizes American Nationalists|publisher=Southern Hollows podcast|url=http://www.southernhollows.com/episodes/birthofanation|access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref>
The imagery of the [[burning cross]], which had not been used by the original Klan, had been introduced by Griffith in ''Birth of a Nation''. The film had derived the image from the works of [[Thomas Dixon, Jr.]], upon which the film was based. Dixon had been inspired by the historical practices of [[Scottish clans]], who had burned crosses as a method of signaling from one hilltop to the next. The image also occurs in ''[[The Lady of the Lake (poem)|Lady of the Lake]]'' (1810), a long poem by <!-- Not a baronet and thus entitled to be called 'Sir' until 1820 -->[[Walter Scott]].<ref>Lehr, Dick. Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America's Civil War. Public Affairs Press, 2014.</ref> The signature white robes of this new Klan also likely come from Dixon via ''Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{cite web|title=A 1905 Silent Movie Revolutionizes American Film—and Radicalizes American Nationalists|publisher=Southern Hollows podcast|url=http://www.southernhollows.com/episodes/birthofanation|access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref>
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In the first years of the new Klan, a few thousand members enrolled, although many more later pledged [[allegiance]], particularly in industrial cities of the Midwest. Initially portraying itself as another fraternal organization, the group was opposed to the new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe—who were mostly [[Jews]] and [[Roman Catholics]]—and anybody else who was not a native-born [[British-American|Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Protestant]].<ref name="time"/>
In the first years of the new Klan, a few thousand members enrolled, although many more later pledged [[allegiance]], particularly in industrial cities of the Midwest. Initially portraying itself as another fraternal organization, the group was opposed to the new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe—who were mostly [[Jews]] and [[Roman Catholics]]—and anybody else who was not a native-born [[British-American|Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Protestant]].<ref name="time"/>


While leading the Klan, Simmons was a "professor of southern history" at the short-lived [[Lanier University]] in Atlanta.<ref>{{cite news |title=KU KLUX KLAN TO BE REORGANIZED THROUGHOUT SOUTH |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97174122/st-landry-clarion/ |access-date=8 March 2022 |work=St. Landry Clarion |date=20 November 1920 |pages=1}}</ref>
While leading the Klan, Simmons was a "professor of southern history" at the short-lived [[Lanier University]] in Atlanta.<ref>{{cite news |title=KU KLUX KLAN TO BE REORGANIZED THROUGHOUT SOUTH |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97174122/st-landry-clarion/ |access-date=8 March 2022 |work=[[St. Landry Clarion]] |date=20 November 1920 |pages=1}}</ref>


Simmons toured with [[Roy Elonzo Davis]] during the 1920s during klan rallies; Davis claimed to be second in command of the Klan under Davis.<ref name = "nsj">{{cite news|title=Denied Use of Auditorium|publisher=Nebraska State Journal|date=January 12, 1923}}</ref> After Simmons was ousted as KKK leader by [[Hiram W. Evans]] in 1923, he and Davis worked together to start a new white supremacist organization called Knights of the Flaming Sword, where Simmons resumed his role as Imperial Wizard. Davis, as a high ranking Klan leader, played a key role in encouraging members to abandoned Evans and remain loyal to Simmons in their new order.<ref>{{cite news|title=Klan Is Tottering|date=February 29, 1924|publisher=Tipton Daily Tribune}}</ref> Traveling across the south, Davis successfully retained the loyalty of at least 60,000 Klan recruits and had secured over $150,000 ($2.3 million in 2021 dollars)<ref>{{cite news|title=Klan Is Renounced By 4,000 at Chattanooga|publisher=The Tennessean|date=October 4, 1924}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simmons Order Growing Rapidly|publisher=Arkansas Gazette|date=October 6, 1924}}</ref><ref name="fsta">{{cite news|title=Flaming Sword Turns Against Col. Simmons|publisher=Muncie Post Democrat|date=May 29, 1925}}</ref><ref name = rpd>{{cite news|title=Proclamation issued by the Royal Ambassador|publisher=Chattanooga Daily Times|date=January 19, 1925|author=Davis, Roy E|page=1|url=https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/knights_of_the_flaming_sword#_b2db330d-752b-4383-9ce6-698fa62feccf_ftn14}}</ref>
Simmons toured with [[Roy Elonzo Davis]] during the 1920s during klan rallies; Davis claimed to be second in command of the Klan under Simmons.<ref name = "nsj">{{cite news|title=Denied Use of Auditorium|publisher=Nebraska State Journal|date=January 12, 1923}}</ref> After Simmons was ousted as KKK leader by [[Hiram W. Evans]] in 1923, he and Davis worked together to start a new white supremacist organization called Knights of the Flaming Sword, where Simmons resumed his role as Imperial Wizard. Davis, as a high ranking Klan leader, played a key role in encouraging members to abandon Evans and remain loyal to Simmons in their new order.<ref>{{cite news|title=Klan Is Tottering|date=February 29, 1924|publisher=Tipton Daily Tribune}}</ref> Traveling across the south, Davis successfully retained the loyalty of at least 60,000 Klan recruits and had secured over $150,000 ($2.3 million in 2021 dollars)<ref>{{cite news|title=Klan Is Renounced By 4,000 at Chattanooga|publisher=The Tennessean|date=October 4, 1924}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simmons Order Growing Rapidly|publisher=Arkansas Gazette|date=October 6, 1924}}</ref><ref name="fsta">{{cite news|title=Flaming Sword Turns Against Col. Simmons|publisher=Muncie Post Democrat|date=May 29, 1925}}</ref><ref name = rpd>{{cite news|title=Proclamation issued by the Royal Ambassador|publisher=Chattanooga Daily Times|date=January 19, 1925|author=Davis, Roy E|page=1|url=https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/knights_of_the_flaming_sword#_b2db330d-752b-4383-9ce6-698fa62feccf_ftn14}}</ref>


==Later life and death==
==Later life and death==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2022}}

When the ''[[New York World]]'' exposed violent affairs conducted by the Ku Klux Klan, Simmons was called to testify in front of the [[United States House Committee on Rules|U.S. House Committee on Rules]]. Hearings began in October 1921 and lasted for over a week. Simmons distanced himself from the events and stressed the Klan's fraternal nature. Congressional hearings ended with no direct consequences for the Klan, although Simmons lost his influence.
When the ''[[New York World]]'' exposed violent affairs conducted by the Ku Klux Klan, Simmons was called to testify in front of the [[United States House Committee on Rules|U.S. House Committee on Rules]]. Hearings began in October 1921 and lasted for over a week. Simmons distanced himself from the events and stressed the Klan's fraternal nature. Congressional hearings ended with no direct consequences for the Klan, although Simmons lost his influence.


Having increased his own network of influence, [[Hiram Wesley Evans]] succeeded Simmons in the position of the Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Simmons was at the same time elected Emperor for life.<ref>{{cite news
Having increased his own network of influence, [[Hiram Wesley Evans]] succeeded Simmons in the position of the Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Simmons was at the same time elected Emperor for life.<ref>{{cite news| title = Klan Makes Simmons Emperor For Life; Dr. H.W. Evans of Dallas Is the New Imperial Wizard--Clarke Imperial Giant. | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = November 29, 1922}}</ref> The Klan started to decline after a peak of membership and influence in 1925, particularly because of the scandal in which [[D. C. Stephenson]], one of its top leaders, was convicted of raping, kidnapping and murdering [[Madge Oberholtzer]].<ref name="Linder">{{Cite web |title=State v Stephenson: Prosecution Case (Excerpts from testimony)(1925 trial of D. C. Stephenson |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/stephenson/atatevstprosecution.html |access-date=2022-07-21 |website=law2.umkc.edu}}</ref>
| title = Klan Makes Simmons Emperor For Life; Dr. H.W. Evans of Dallas Is the New Imperial Wizard--Clarke Imperial Giant. | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = November 29, 1922}}</ref> The Klan started to decline after a peak of membership and influence in 1925, particularly because of the scandal in which [[D.C. Stephenson]], one of its top leaders, was convicted of raping, torturing and killing [[Madge Oberholtzer]].


Simmons died in [[Atlanta]] on May 18, 1945.
Simmons died in [[Atlanta]] on May 18, 1945.
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{{Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan}}
{{Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


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[[Category:Methodists from Alabama]]
[[Category:Methodists from Alabama]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan]]
[[Category:American people of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:People from Atlanta]]
[[Category:People from Atlanta]]
[[Category:Christian radicals]]
[[Category:Christian radicals]]
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[[Category:19th-century Methodists]]
[[Category:19th-century Methodists]]
[[Category:Stone Mountain]]
[[Category:Stone Mountain]]
[[Category:Ku Klux Klan in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:American Ku Klux Klan members]]

Latest revision as of 06:24, 18 October 2024

For the president of Simmons College of Kentucky, see William J. Simmons (teacher).
William Joseph Simmons
2nd Imperial Wizard of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
In office
November 25, 1915 – November 1922
Succeeded byHiram Wesley Evans
Personal details
Born(1880-05-07)May 7, 1880
Harpersville, Alabama
DiedMay 18, 1945(1945-05-18) (aged 65)
Atlanta, Georgia

William Joseph Simmons (May 7, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was an American preacher and fraternal organizer who founded and led the second Ku Klux Klan from Thanksgiving evening 1915 until being ousted in 1922 by Hiram Wesley Evans.[1]

Early life

[edit]

Simmons was born in Harpersville, Alabama, to Calvin Henry Simmons, a physician, and his wife Lavonia Simmons née Davis, daughter of Thomas C. Davis.[2] In his younger years, he attempted to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, but unable to afford it, opted to serve in the Spanish–American War instead. After receiving an honorable discharge, he became a teacher for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but was suspended by the church in 1912 for inefficiency.

Simmons later joined two churches and twelve different fraternal organizations, which flourished in the early twentieth century. He was known as "Joe", "Doc" (in reference to his medical training) or "Colonel" (referring to his rank in the Woodmen of the World).[3]

Ku Klux Klan

[edit]
"The Atlanta Constitution clipping Nov. 28, 1915, describing the Klan re-establishment atop Stone Mountain

While recovering in 1915 after being hit by a car, Simmons decided to rebuild the Klan which he had seen depicted in the newly released film The Birth of a Nation directed by D. W. Griffith. He obtained a copy of the Reconstruction Klan's "Prescript" and used it to write his own prospectus for a reincarnation of the organization.

As the nucleus of his revived Klan, Simmons organized a group of friends, in addition to two elderly men who had been members of the original Klan. On Thanksgiving eve, November 25, 1915, they climbed Stone Mountain to burn a cross and inaugurate the new group, with fifteen charter members.[3] Simmons's later account of the founding included a dramatic story of "a temperature far below freezing", although weather records showed that the temperature had never fallen below 45 °F (7 °C) that night on Stone Mountain.[citation needed] He declared himself the Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

The imagery of the burning cross, which had not been used by the original Klan, had been introduced by Griffith in Birth of a Nation. The film had derived the image from the works of Thomas Dixon, Jr., upon which the film was based. Dixon had been inspired by the historical practices of Scottish clans, who had burned crosses as a method of signaling from one hilltop to the next. The image also occurs in Lady of the Lake (1810), a long poem by Walter Scott.[4] The signature white robes of this new Klan also likely come from Dixon via Birth of a Nation.[5]

In the first years of the new Klan, a few thousand members enrolled, although many more later pledged allegiance, particularly in industrial cities of the Midwest. Initially portraying itself as another fraternal organization, the group was opposed to the new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe—who were mostly Jews and Roman Catholics—and anybody else who was not a native-born Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Protestant.[3]

While leading the Klan, Simmons was a "professor of southern history" at the short-lived Lanier University in Atlanta.[6]

Simmons toured with Roy Elonzo Davis during the 1920s during klan rallies; Davis claimed to be second in command of the Klan under Simmons.[7] After Simmons was ousted as KKK leader by Hiram W. Evans in 1923, he and Davis worked together to start a new white supremacist organization called Knights of the Flaming Sword, where Simmons resumed his role as Imperial Wizard. Davis, as a high ranking Klan leader, played a key role in encouraging members to abandon Evans and remain loyal to Simmons in their new order.[8] Traveling across the south, Davis successfully retained the loyalty of at least 60,000 Klan recruits and had secured over $150,000 ($2.3 million in 2021 dollars)[9][10][11][12]

Later life and death

[edit]

When the New York World exposed violent affairs conducted by the Ku Klux Klan, Simmons was called to testify in front of the U.S. House Committee on Rules. Hearings began in October 1921 and lasted for over a week. Simmons distanced himself from the events and stressed the Klan's fraternal nature. Congressional hearings ended with no direct consequences for the Klan, although Simmons lost his influence.

Having increased his own network of influence, Hiram Wesley Evans succeeded Simmons in the position of the Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Simmons was at the same time elected Emperor for life.[13] The Klan started to decline after a peak of membership and influence in 1925, particularly because of the scandal in which D. C. Stephenson, one of its top leaders, was convicted of raping, kidnapping and murdering Madge Oberholtzer.[14]

Simmons died in Atlanta on May 18, 1945.

Publications

[edit]
  • The Ku Klux Klan (1917)
  • ABC of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (1920)
  • The Klan Unmasked Atlanta, Ga., Wm. E. Thompson Pub. Co. 1923
  • America's menace; Or, The Enemy Within (An Epitome) (1926)
  • The Ku Klux Klan: Yesterday, Today and Forever (1930s)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The 20th Century Ku Klux Klan in Alabama". Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original on 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
  2. ^ Alabama Confederate Pension request dated 6 Dec 1920, completed by Lavonia Davis
  3. ^ a b c "The Various Shady Lives of the Ku Klux Klan". Time. April 9, 1965. An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. Simmons, an ascetic-looking man, was a fetishist on fraternal organizations. He was already a "colonel" in the Woodmen of the World, but he decided to build an organization all his own. He was an effective speaker, with an affinity for alliteration; he had preached on "Women, Weddings and Wives," "Red Heads, Dead Heads and No Heads," and the "Kinship of Kourtship and Kissing." On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a "practical fraternity among men," and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
  4. ^ Lehr, Dick. Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America's Civil War. Public Affairs Press, 2014.
  5. ^ "A 1905 Silent Movie Revolutionizes American Film—and Radicalizes American Nationalists". Southern Hollows podcast. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  6. ^ "KU KLUX KLAN TO BE REORGANIZED THROUGHOUT SOUTH". St. Landry Clarion. 20 November 1920. p. 1. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Denied Use of Auditorium". Nebraska State Journal. January 12, 1923.
  8. ^ "Klan Is Tottering". Tipton Daily Tribune. February 29, 1924.
  9. ^ "Klan Is Renounced By 4,000 at Chattanooga". The Tennessean. October 4, 1924.
  10. ^ "Simmons Order Growing Rapidly". Arkansas Gazette. October 6, 1924.
  11. ^ "Flaming Sword Turns Against Col. Simmons". Muncie Post Democrat. May 29, 1925.
  12. ^ Davis, Roy E (January 19, 1925). "Proclamation issued by the Royal Ambassador". Chattanooga Daily Times. p. 1.
  13. ^ "Klan Makes Simmons Emperor For Life; Dr. H.W. Evans of Dallas Is the New Imperial Wizard--Clarke Imperial Giant". The New York Times. November 29, 1922.
  14. ^ "State v Stephenson: Prosecution Case (Excerpts from testimony)(1925 trial of D. C. Stephenson". law2.umkc.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
[edit]
Preceded by
Nathan Bedford Forrest (1869; as Grand Wizard)
 Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
1915–1922 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=William_Joseph_Simmons&oldid=1251813330"