Ku Klux Klan members in United States politics

This is a partial list of notable historical figures in U.S. national politics who were members of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office. Membership of the Klan is secret. Political opponents sometimes allege that a person was a member of the Klan, or was supported at the polls by Klan members.

Politicians who were active in the Klan

In 2018, ''The Washington Post'' reported that, by 1930, the KKK, while its "membership remained semi-secret, claimed 11 governors, 16 senators and as many as 75 congressmen –roughly split between Republicans
and Democrats."

Supreme Court justices

Hugo Black

In 1921, Hugo Black (D) successfully defended E. R. Stephenson in his trial for the murder of a Catholic priest, Fr. James E. Coyle. E.R. Stephenson's daughter had converted to Catholicism and married a man of Puerto Rican descent, and Coyle had conducted the wedding. Hugo Black got Stephenson acquitted in part by arguing to the jury that Puerto Ricans should be considered black under the South's one drop rule. Black, a Democrat, joined the Ku Klux Klan shortly afterwards, in order to gain votes from the anti-Catholic element in Alabama. He built his winning Senate campaign around multiple appearances at KKK meetings across Alabama. Late in life, Black told an interviewer:

"At that time, I was joining every organization in sight! ... In my part of Alabama, the Klan was engaged in unlawful activities ... The general feeling in the community was that if responsible citizens didn't join the Klan it would soon become dominated by the less responsible members."

News of his membership was a secret until shortly after he was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Black later said that joining the Klan was a mistake, but he went on to say, "I would have joined any group if it helped get me votes."

On the Supreme Court, Black wrote the opinion in ''Korematsu v. United States'', which upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Black also wrote the opinion in ''Everson v. Board of Education'', a key case about the separation of church and state. Some have argued that his views on the separation of church and state were influenced by the Klan's anti-Catholicism.

Despite his former Klan membership, Black joined the Supreme Court's unanimous decisions in '' Shelley v. Kraemer'' (1948), which outlawed judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants, and ''Brown v Board of Education'', which outlawed school segregation. Justice William Douglas would write years later that at least 3 (and possibly as many as 5) Supreme Court justices were originally planning to rule school segregation constitutional, but Black had actually been one of the four justices who were planning to strike down school segregation from the beginning of the Brown case.

Members of the Senate

Theodore G. Bilbo

Theodore G. Bilbo (D), the U.S. Senator for Mississippi, stated he was a member of the KKK .

Joseph E. Brown

Joseph E. Brown (D), the U.S. Senator for Georgia, was a key supporter of the KKK in his home state.

Robert C. Byrd

Robert C. Byrd (D), the U.S. senator for West Virginia, a recruiter for the Klan while in his 20s and 30s, rising to the title of Kleagle and Exalted Cyclops of his local chapter. After leaving the group, Byrd spoke in favor of the Klan during his early political career. Though he later said he officially left the organization in 1943, Byrd wrote a letter in 1946 to the group's Imperial Wizard stating "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia." Byrd attempted to explain or defend his former membership in the Klan in his 1958 U.S. Senate campaign when he was 41 years old. Byrd, a Democrat, eventually became his party leader in the Senate. Byrd later said joining the Klan was his "greatest mistake," and after his death, the NAACP released a statement praising Byrd, acknowledging his former affiliation with the Klan and saying that he "became a champion for civil rights and liberties" and "came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda". In a 2001 interview, Byrd used the term "white niggers" twice during a national television broadcast. The full quote ran as follows: "My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much." Byrd later apologized for the phrase and admitted that it "has no place in today's society," and did not clarify the intended meaning of the term in his context.

John Brown Gordon

John Brown Gordon (D), the U.S. Senator for Georgia, was a founder of the KKK in his home state of Georgia.

James Thomas Heflin

James Thomas Heflin (1869–1951) (D), the U.S. Senator for Alabama, was suspected of being a member of the KKK.

Rufus C. Holman

Rufus C. Holman ( R), the U.S. Senator for Oregon, was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Oregon, serving as an officer in that organization.

Earle Mayfield

Earle Mayfield (1881–1964) (D), U.S. Senator (1923–1929) for Texas from 1923 through 1929. Mayfield had been a Texas Senator from 1907 through 1913.

Rice W. Means

Rice W. Means (R), the U.S. Senator for Colorado, was the directing head of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado.

John Tyler Morgan

John Tyler Morgan (D) (June 20, 1824 – June 11, 1907, the U.S. Senator for Alabama (March 4, 1877, to June 11, 1907), was the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Alabama.

Edmund Pettus

Edmund Pettus (July 6, 1821 – 1907) (D), the U.S. Senator for Alabama (1896 to 1907), was also a Grand Dragon of the KKK in Alabama.

William Bliss Pine

William Bliss Pine (1877–1942) (R), the U.S. Senator for Oklahoma (March 4, 1925, to March 3, 1931), was a Klansman, according to historian Chalmers and the Eufaula ''Indian Journal.''

Non-Klan Senators who received support from the Klan

Lawrence C. Phipps

The Klan helped elect Lawrence C. Phipps (1862–1958) (R), U.S. Senator for Colorado.

Daniel F. Steck

Daniel F. Steck (1881–1950) (D), of Iowa, in 1925, with the help of the Klan, defeated Senator Smith W. Brookhart (1869–1944) (R), a progressive. Because the vote was close, there was a recount, and Steck was the victor. Brookhart contested it. Steck reportedly had no Klan connections, except that he enlisted the Klan's top lawyer and legislative expert, William Francis Zumbrunn (1877–1930), to secure his seat in the 69th Congress (1925–1926). Earlier, Zumbrunn – with lawyer William Pinkney McLean, Jr. (1872–1937) of Fort Worth – helped seat Klan Senator from Texas, Earle Mayfield.

Frederick Steiwer

In the 1926 Oregon election, the Ku Klux Klan, under the auspices of The Oregon Good Government League, helped Frederick Steiwer (1883–1939) win the Republican primary by spreading word that it was supporting the reelection of his opponent, Senator Robert N. Stanfield (1877–1945) (R). The effort was fueled by White Supremacist (anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic) groups in Oregon in support of the state's Compulsory Education Act, enacted in 1922, mandating education; which would have taken effect in 1926; but the Supreme Court, in 1925, struck it down in '' Pierce v. Society of Sisters.''

Arthur Raymond Robinson

Arthur Raymond Robinson (1881–1961) (R), of Indiana, was, on November 2, 1925, characterized by ''Time'' magazine was follows: "The New Man. Arthur R. Robinson is only 44. He is an Indianapolis attorney, a 'good Republican' but of no particular political importance. He is said to be a good orator. Against him politically is the fact that he supported Governor Jackson in the last election and so, justly or unjustly, he is considered a 'Klan man."

Frank Willis

According to historian Chalmers, "the Klan supported Frank B. Willis (1871–1928) (R) f Ohionot because it liked him, but because it disliked his anti-Klan opponent, Atlee Pomerene (1863–1937) (D), more.

Members of the House of Representatives

Clifford Davis

Clifford Davis (D), U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 9th and 10th congressional districts was an active member in Tennessee.

George Gordon

George Gordon (D), U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 10th congressional district, became one of the Klan's first members. In 1867, Gordon became the Klan's first Grand Dragon for the Realm of Tennessee, and wrote its ''Precscript'', a constitution setting out the organization's purpose, principles, and the like.

William David Upshaw

William David Upshaw (D), U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district, was an active member in Georgia.

Governors

Homer Martin Adkins

Homer Martin Adkins (D), (1890 – 1964) the Governor of Arkansas, was a supporter of the Klan in his home state of Arkansas.

Bibb Graves

Bibb Graves (D), (1873 – 1942) was the Governor of Alabama. He lost his first campaign for governor in 1922, but four years later, with the secret endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan, he was elected to his first term as governor. Graves was almost certainly the Exalted Cyclops (chapter president) of the Montgomery chapter of the Klan. Graves, like Hugo Black, used the strength of the Klan to further his electoral prospects.

Edward L. Jackson

Edward L. Jackson (R), (1873 – 1954) was the Governor of Indiana in 1925 and his administration came under fire for granting undue favor to the Klan's agenda and associates. Jackson was further damaged by the arrest and trial of Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson for the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer. When it was revealed that Jackson had attempted to bribe former Gov. Warren T. McCray with $10,000 to appoint a Klansman to a local office, Jackson was taken to court. His case ended with a hung jury, and Jackson ended his political career in disgrace. There is, however, evidence that Jackson joined the KKK himself.

Clarence Morley

Clarence Morley (R),(1869 – 1948) the Governor of Colorado, was a KKK member and a strong supporter of Prohibition. He tried to ban the Catholic Church from using sacramental wine and attempted to have the University of Colorado fire all Jewish and Catholic professors.

Tom Terral

Tom Terral (D), ( 1882 – 1946) the Governor of Arkansas, was a member of the KKK in Louisiana.

Clifford Walker

Clifford Walker (D), (1877 – 1954) the Governor of Georgia, was revealed to be a Klan member by the press in 1924.

Federal Judges

Elmer David Davies

Elmer David Davies (D), a Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, was a member of the KKK while at university.

Statewide Officials

Lee Cazort

Lee Cazort (D), the Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, was active in the Klan, and openly endorsed the Klan's platform.

John W. Morton

John Morton (D), the Tennessee Secretary of State, was the founder of the Nashville chapter of the KKK

William L. Saunders

William L. Saunders (D), the North Carolina Secretary of State, was the founder of the North Carolina chapter.

Local Officials

A notable number of local officials were also Klansmen, resulting in such as the "reign of terror" inflicted by Louisiana by crony "exalted cyclops": Bastrop mayor, John Killian Skipwith, known as Captain J. K. Skipwith, and Mer Rouge mayor, Bunnie McEwin McKoin, MD, better known as Dr. B. M. McKoin (and whose surname was variously misreported as McCoin, M'Koin and McKoln in media).

John Clinton Porter

John Clinton Porter (D), was mayor of Los Angeles and an early supporter of the Klan in the 1920s.

Benjamin F. Stapleton

Benjamin F. Stapleton (D), was Mayor of Denver in the 1920s–1940s. He was a Klan member in the early 1920s and appointed fellow Klansmen to positions in municipal government. Ultimately, Stapleton broke from the Klan and removed several Klansmen from office.

Kaspar K. Kubli

Kap Kubli (R) Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives {{R from other capitalisation ...