Principles and Purposes of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A pamphlet titled "Principles and Purposes of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." The pamphlet is printed on white paper in black text. The front cover features the title of the pamphlet inside a rectangular border. Printed in bold text below the title is “Are Outlined by / An Exalted Cyclops / of the Order.” The pamphlet describes in detail the beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan.

An excerpt from the first page reads, "The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, as now organized, is a patriotic, benevolent, fraternal order, the chief aims of which are to bring the different branches of the Protestant church into a closer relationship, one with another; to inculcate a purer patriotism in its members; to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States and the separate states thereof; to maintain, perfect and perpetuate the free public schools and to preserve the United States as a Protestant Christan nation. To be eligible to membership in this all American order, one must have been born in the United States, of white parentage, be over eighteen years of age and of the Protestant Christian faith."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1925
• Printed by: Ku Klux Klan, 2nd, American, 1915 - 1944
• Subject of: Ku Klux Klan, 2nd, American, 1915 - 1944
• Type: pamphlets
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 8 9/16 × 3 11/16 in. (21.8 × 9.3 cm)
• Place printed: Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Associations and institutions
• Topic: Christianity
• Topic: Fraternal organizations
• Topic: U.S. History, 1919-1933
• Topic: White supremacy movements
• Object number: 2013.231.14.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Anonymous Gift
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.