Laura Martin Rose (September 18, 1862 May 6, 1917) (born Laura Marcella Martin), known professionally as Mrs. S. E. F. Rose, was a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

propagandist Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

for the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

employed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Biography

Rose was born in 1862 near Pulaski, Tennessee, the town where the Ku Klux Klan would be formed three years later. After her marriage to Solon Edward Franklin Rose, she often identified herself with her husband's name, as Mrs. S. E. F. Rose. Rose wrote a pamphlet, called ''Origins of the Ku Klux Klan'', sold as a fundraiser by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, of which she was

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

division president. The funds were to be used to erect a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

monument at

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

's home. The pamphlet promoted the Lost Cause narrative of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

and presented racist acts of violence as heroism. Encouraged by the success of the pamphlet, Rose expanded it into a textbook titled ''The Ku Klux Klan, or Invisible Empire''. Rose justified Klan violence by claiming it was a last resort in response to supposed African American racial violence, and to encourage southern boys, if deemed necessary, to commit acts violence against African American men to defend the virtue of white southern women. The book was one part of a broad campaign to insert false Confederate narratives of the "Lost Cause", glorification of the KKK, and minimalization of the role of slavery in the Civil War, into public school curriculums in the South, so as to uphold institutionalized

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

. It was unanimously endorsed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at their 1913 annual convention in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, and again at their 1915 annual convention in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Jacksonville in 1914, with aim of promoting it in schools throughout the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. It was frequently promoted in '' Confederate Veteran'', the official organ of the

United Confederate Veterans The United Confederate Veterans (UCV, or simply Confederate Veterans) was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate Sta ...

. Rose succeeded

Mildred Rutherford Mildred Lewis "Miss Millie" Rutherford (July 16, 1851 – August 15, 1928) was a prominent white supremacist educator and author from Athens, Georgia. She served the Lucy Cobb Institute, as its head and in other capacities, for over forty years, ...

as historian-general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1916. She died in 1917. Martin Methodist College (renamed University of Tennessee Southern in 2021) was named for her grandfather Thomas Martin (1799–1870), who established the college in his will. As her book describes, some of the earliest meetings of the Klan were held at her grandfather's house.

Re-founding of the Klan

Rose's 1914 textbook contributed to mythologizing and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan, which at that time was a nearly-extinct regional organization. It was one of a number of works of the era that would lead to the Klan's re-founding in 1915. According to journalist Michelle Serrano, Rose's textbook served to propagate white supremacy and helped to bring about the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era of racist laws.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Laura 1862 births 1917 deaths Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy American Ku Klux Klan members People from Giles County, Tennessee American women historians

Biography

Re-founding of the Klan

Further reading

References