My Escape
I was finally 17 years old and my father told me it was time, time for me to join the group. Every child that has family members in the KKK are expected to join. We did not have a choice; we were a part of the Ku Klux Klan as soon as we were born. First thing in the morning of my seventeen birthday I sat at the kitchen table with my father to fill out the required application. I remember the application consisted of twenty questions. The application asked some simple questions; age, gender, education, marital status, and occupation. The other questions asked if you believe in White Supremacy and in the PURE Americanism. (Onion, 2015) I signed the application and placed it in the envelope to mail off. Within a week I finally received my KKK membership card in the mail and the look on my parent’s face was priceless. This is when I knew my life would change forever.
The weekend began at the crack of dawn by me getting dressed in the simplest outfit I could locate in my closet. I throw on a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt, sneakers and a baseball cap. I was to meet up with my cousin Dave on my corner by 2 A.M. Our sole purpose for the morning was to distribute flyers called “Black Panthers” on all the parked vehicles in our neighborhood and place in every mailbox. The flyer rebutted the facts of the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers would like their followers to kill white people and police officers in the name of justice for the killing of innocent race in the line of duty. The pamphlet states these negros were not innocent at all, they were breaking the law and resisting the police. The flyer points out the reasons to join the KKK. For example, the only organization standing up for the white population in America and we are not a hate group we are just keeping ourselves safe.
I grew up in the south surrounded by every member in my family belonging to the KKK. It was like a tradition that was passed down from generation to generation. My grandfather told stories during our Sunday family dinners how the KKK arose in southern states after the Civil War. The secret society began to ban former slaves from obtaining the right to vote while maintaining white supremacy. My grandfather explained his father joined the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee in the 1860’s. My grandfather was one of eight siblings and all of them took part of the organization. He explained the family members gathered every Saturday dressed in white robes, cone-shaped hats and masks to protest and preach the importance of white power to save our race against the black in the south.
Growing up family dinners did not consist of talking about our days but instead the ideology of the KKK. My father would explain at dinner the purpose of our strong knit group was to have a nation we called home free of drugs, immigration, race mixing and homosexuality. I grew up believing Caucasians are the superior race and our race alone should control everything. My father explained to ensure the white race stayed in power we needed to protect it at all costs. My father told the story of his uncle in Florida that participated in the 1920’s with the Klansmen killing over 150 African Americans. The group needed to protect the threat against white rights. My parents explained the importance and practice of the burning of the cross which symbolizes through the light eliminating ignorance. The fire represents the cleansing of the treasured land of evil.
As I got older it was an obligation to attend all demonstrations, protest when needed and never associate with a different race. I attended school with only white students and was only allowed to socialize with ones that carried the same hatred as I did for the black race. My philosophy was I could not let them destroy or control my country. I protested in honor and unafraid to stand up for what I thought I believed in. This way of life was all I knew.
As I got older with no college education, a boring job I began to wonder what I was missing. I began to explore outside my KKK beliefs and wondered if my thoughts about others could change. My family had moved by this time and decided to tell my parents I wanted to attend college. My parents agreed on the exception that I would not socialize with another race. I started college and it was the first time in my life I was in class with black students. I decided to take a history class that concentrated on debate and discussion. When the class began to topic of hate groups in America, I thought I was mentally prepared to stand my ground. The next day in class we were going to discuss the KKK how it began, the statics of violence and the beliefs. The teacher assigned to the class to go home and research the topic to be prepared for the discussion in class tomorrow. I went home that evening and knew everything about the subject since the day I was born this is the belief my parents taught me, and I knew nothing different.
I arrived at class with full confidence that I got this debate. No one in class knew I was a member of the KKK, and I was ready to put all the nonwhite students in their place. One student roughly starts the discussion that the hate group killed approximately 3700 innocent black people. The violence that this hate group bestowed on Americans is and was worse than any other hate group America has ever experienced. As the KKK progressed one focus was to keep black slaves from gaining any sort of power and to keep them in their place. The violence grew over the years including the Tulsa Race Riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma in1921 where two hundred black people were murdered after one black person was accused of raping a white woman. (Davis, 2016) How sad is that for so many innocent lives were taken in a mass riot from an incident that was not proven. A black student discussed the Murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi 1955. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was badly beaten to the point that his face was disfigured and one of his eyes was dislodged from its’ socket before being fatally shot, tied to a fan and thrown in the Tallahatchie River by two White men for allegedly flirting with a White woman while visiting a local store. I sat there at my desk ready to fight back. The violence and actions of the KKK are tragedies in history. How can one group hate innocent people so much to cause death because of their skin color? I raised my hand and I was ready to explain to the group the true purpose of the KKK and why I was a member along with my whole family. I was finally called upon and repeated the words of my grandfather. Midway through me speaking a black student started to chip away at my ideology because when two enemies are talking, they're not fighting. He explained when the talking ceases that when the ground becomes fertile for violence. After class ended, we spent an hour talking – I was talking with who I thought was my worst enemy. We did not discuss race or hate groups instead we focused our attention on our desire to find a cure for cancer since we both have had family members die from the disease and how we wanted to continue our education in cancer research. By the end of the conversation I realized a friendship had begun and how by beliefs were not who I was as a person but instead something I have learned and did not know anything else. After he left, I sat in the empty class and realized by hatred I carried all these years was only because that is what my family bestowed upon me. I did not want to be a person of violence and hatred anymore and needed to escape the reality of the KKK and become my own person.
As the author writing this story, it makes me question whether people are born with hatred or is it something they are taught? In the story, “My Escape” the main character never got the chance to decide for himself if he wanted to be a part of the KKK and did he truly believe in the ideology of the organization. The question arises why hatred is drawn from just the color of a person’s skin. We live in a society filled fill individuals with different skin color, religion, height, weight and beliefs and no matter what that entitles we should be accepted for who we are. We live in a country that strives itself on freedom and hatred should not be a part of that.
Works Cited
BAUDOUIN, R. (2011). Ku Klux Klan A History of Racism and Violence. Retrieved from https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/Ku-Klux-Klan-A-History-of-Racism.pdf
Davis, R. (2016, December 1). 12 Horrific Crimes Committed By The KKK Between 1921 And 2016 . Retrieved from https://www.essence.com/culture/horrific-kkk-crimes/
Onion, R. (2015, April 8). Retrieved from slate.com: https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/04/history-of-the-kkk-membership-application-from-the-1920s.html