American Historical Ephemera & Photography, including African Americana

Covington, [LA], 13 April [no year]. 2 pages, 6 3/4 x 11 1/2 in.

In this unsigned letter to the writer's father, this Covington resident details mysterious recruitment activities of a secret society known as the Ku Klux Klan.

In part: "We are fearing exciting times as election day approaches. A petition has been sent to New Orleans for a body of the military. Some of the negroes have been making incendiary speeches. Politics run high. Have you noticed anything in the papers about a secret society, called 'Ku Klux Klan,' some of them were in Covington night before last, appeared and disappeared like spectres. From whence they came, or where they went, none except those concerned know. They went to nearly all of the houses where there were young men, called them out at midnight, made each take an Oath on the bible with a revolver laid on it, that they would never reveal the secret, which is to be imparted soon, and be ready to act when called. All called out the Oath resistance was impossible, as the party was composed of twelve or sixteen men, wrapped in white sheets, who marched in military order, preserving a dead silence."

The writer continues, with an almost poetic description of "ghostly visitants" whose "company marched in solemn silence to the graveyard where their horses were tied, mounted and rode up the Holmesville road. Next morning several notices were found pasted up, headed Ku Klux Klan, some mysterious characters or symbols followed, then 'Nemesis' which signifies revenge, and 'midnight' the hour. Whoever these strange visitants were, they knew all about Covington, for they called each gentleman by name as they took him out separately and singly to take the Oath..."