Posted on 05/28/2010 7:41:33 AM PDT by GonzoII
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) The 1921 murder of the Rev. James E. Coyle on the front porch of his rectory was no ordinary slaying. Involved were the anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan, a future Supreme Court justice and a preacher’s daughter who secretly married a Puerto Rican.
In her book “Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race and Religion in America,” Ohio State University law professor Sharon Davies digs deep into the Coyle’s murder—and the dark chapter of anti-Catholicism in American history.
“There are so many things about this story that are really compelling,” said Davies, who stumbled across the case while doing research for a law journal article. “When I found it, I was absolutely captivated by it. This story needed to be told. We can’t afford to forget this.”
The murder trial was historic partly because future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black defended the accused killer, Edwin R. Stephenson, a Methodist minister and member of the Ku Klux Klan.
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
Weird thing is that the hound dog of one of the guys who did it was there the next morning sound asleep. She knew exactly who had been a part of it.
Hugo Black the Freemason? Hugo Black, he of the “seperation of church and state?”
Rat
The original Klan was not anti-Catholic or anti-Jewish (it had Catholic and Jewish members including Dr. Samuel Baruch, Jefferson Davis' personal physician) and did not burn crosses. Its primary purpose was resistance to Reconstruction and its targets were Blacks, Republicans, Federal troops, and "scalawags" like my ancestors.
The second Klan is a phenomenon all on its own. Though founded in Atlanta, Georgia (by a professional organizer of fraternal organizations) and based on the very unpatriotic KKK of Reconstruction, it became a national organization representing "100% Americanism" throughout the country. How such an organization, based on a treasonous organization, was accepted as such by people all over the country is a mystery (comparable to a "patriotic" organization based on the "Tories" of the Revolutionary War era). The number one target of this Klan--the largest ever--was indeed the Catholic Church, though this has been largely forgotten. This Klan was not at all controversial in its day but was considered a commendable, mainstream organization. It paraded openly through the streets of Washington and President Harding was initiated as an honorary member in the White House.
As an interesting aside, it was this Klan that began the cross-burning ritual. Simmons had read Dixon's infamous novel The Clansman (on which Griffith's Birth of a Nation had been based). In this book Dixon anachronistically had the Klan burning a cross. He did this because in ancient Scotland (and the ritual of the Klan was based on Scotland, that being the ancestral homeland of many of the initial founders) the highland clans burned crosses as a signal to assemble. The cross was originally "X" shaped (St. Andrew's cross) but after the conversion of Scotland they began burning the Latin cross. Ulster Protestants still burn an X shaped cross as a rallying signal. Anyway, this old Scottish signal was adopted by Simmons and the Second Klan to represent chr*stianity which the Klan evidently interpreted not only theologically, but ethno-culturally as well--specifically the traditional American northwestern European Protestant consensus.
The third Klan, which began during or after WWII and persists to this day, is primarily anti-Semitic, subscribing to the classic conspiracy theories of "the Jews" as being ultimately behind all the "plots" against the white race. Also, to my knowledge, the Klan at the present time is not universally anti-Catholic.
Ain't they full of fun?
Indeed.
Unfortunately, at that time Catholics as well as white Southern Protestant bigots were "yellow dog Democrats." That means the fun was intra-party.
Don't you mean "much of white Protestantism in the Southern U.S.?"
Interesting how being Black in America seems to be an identity all its own, trumping both chr*stianity and Protestantism, leaving the Black church in its own little demimonde, much like the isolated Armenian and Ethiopian churches.
ZULU:
I agree that orthodox Confessional Protestants and Traditional Catholics have more in common than not, and thus should, while not compromising core theological differences, recognize the theological agreements that we have and see each other as allies against the forces of both milatant secularism and miltant Islam.
Rat
Black was actually a Klan member at one point.
I used to hang out with methodists. They would giggle uncomfortably at the thought of a real Holy Eucharist. Remember the story of Jesus at Cana when he turned the water into juice?
Zionist Conspirator:
I don’t think Jefferson Davis became a Catholic till much after the Civil War so I think he was in it during the reconstructionist period, which you noted, ie. the Klan founded by the Southern Calvery General [and perhaps the best milatary figure of the Civil War], Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee.
To the best of my memory, when Davis moved to Savanah I think it was after the war, or maybe somewhere in South Carolina, much of Southern Society saw him as a failure and many of the private schools and academies would not take his kids in their schools and he was viewed as an outcasts. A group of Catholic Nuns allowed treated Jefferson and his family with decency and I think educated his children and that is what ultimately led to his coming into the Catholic Church before his death.
But I guess if you are a nut, there is no room for logic in your brain.
That's simple. He wasn't Jewish. He was the "kinsman-redeemer" of Israel (the White Race). The "Jews" aren't Biblical Israel, but just sort of pop up out of nowhere two thousand years ago to kill chr*st. Then they went off and founded the American Civil Liberties Union. [/sarcasm]
I've long wondered why Puerto Ricans don't count as "white." Since they cannot be the descendants of the actual original inhabitants (who were exterminated by the Honorary Indigenous Spaniards) I assumed that the only thing keeping them from being white was the Spanish language (you know, the indigenous American language that all Indians spoke before the "rednecks" came along).
I don't think Davis ever became Catholic, though as a young student at a parochial school he once wanted to.
My point is that the original KKK was never anti-Catholic or anti-Jewish and had Catholics and Jews as members (Dr. Baruch was Jewish).
As stated earlier, both Southerners and Catholics were "yellow dog Democrats" back in the day (and many still are).
The Deep South was never anti-Catholic, having a semi-feudal society similar to that of medieval Europe. In fact at the time of the Civil War many Catholics had a deep affinity for the South and many in the North became Copperheads.
It was the North, inheriting traditions from Puritan New England that was anti-Catholic. Many Republicans associated Catholicism with Southern slavery and were anti-Catholic. Moreover, in the election of 1928 the Deep South went solidly for Al Smith. The only defections to the Republican party were in my own Upper South, which to a large extent is more similar to Puritan New England than the Deep South ever was.
Zionist Conspirator:
Well, I am not sure it was pro-Catholic either. The fact is that after the Civil War, there were not many areas of the country that had any Catholics save Louisiana [French and Spanish immingrants, mostly French], maybe Southern Ohio and Indiana [Bavarian-German immingrants] and maybe the coastal Northern Cities of Boston and New York [Irish].
There were large numbers of Catholics in the SouthWest [Mexican], although that was not part of the United States then [save Texas.].
It was the continued Irish Immigration after the civil war thru the early 20th century along with the immigration of the Italians [my ancestors] and Polish [my wife’s ancestors] in the late 19th and early 20th, which would eventually make the Catholic Church the largest single religous group by the time of say WWI.
“Also, to my knowledge, the Klan at the present time is not universally anti-Catholic”
I heard that there have been Kontemporary (sarcasm) Klansmen who are Catholic and also that some have been Jewish. I thought the current klanners were mainly anti-black.
Before the Klan, there were the No Nothings. Similar groups with simialr targets.
“That’s simple. He wasn’t Jewish. He was the “kinsman-redeemer” of Israel (the White Race). The “Jews” aren’t Biblical Israel, but just sort of pop up out of nowhere two thousand years ago to kill chr*st. Then they went off and founded the American Civil Liberties Union. [/sarcasm] “
Either people who believed that never read the Bible, or they were too inbred to understand it.
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