Post #106407 by Satan's Sin on Thu, Aug 5, 2004 12:12 AM

Yes. Spy Tiki, I think I can answer this question.

The Masons were an an honored and "mysterious" society of fairly old origins, and at the time the KKK was conceived these sorts of men's clubs were very popular.

At that time, it was almost impossible to find someone in a small town's -- or even a large town's -- power structure who was not a Mason. In fact, up until basically JFK, every U.S. president was a Mason. So, in the 1870s, when I believe the former Confederate general Nathan Forrest took it in his head to create the KKK, when it came to rituals for their secret society, he very naturally modeled these on Masonic rituals.

Of course, the "core" of Masonry is the brotherhood of Man, and the KKK is the exact opposite. But the ceremonies associated with initiation and the running of their meetings are similiar to the Masons but only because Gen. Forrest was most likely a Mason and this was his only "model" for forming a secret society.

Although I am not a Mason, I am certain they would never have sanctioned an organization like the KKK, as the Masons were one of the first organizations to embrace another ethnicity into their ranks, even in the 1700s. In fact, there are stories of white men who saved their lives during Indian sacrifices by calling out some sort of Masonic "alley alley in free" secret signals and some Indian Mason (!) would immediately halt the procedures and have them let go.

So that, I think, is the connection. Barely none at all.

[ Edited by: Satan's Sin on 2004-08-05 00:23 ]