Quote:
Originally Posted by naraht
https://archive.org/details/director.../2up?q=when+we
Note, written in an early 1920s Catalog of the Fraternity.
At the time in 1866 when we were organizing, in the
academic sphere, for the defense of Southern culture,
another organization, the Ku Klux Klan, was forming,*
in the political and economic spheres, to overthrow the
carpet-bag governments that were bankrupting the
Southern states. The Klan soon achieved its object,
which was just, patriotic and limited, and disbanded in
1869. Its mission was ended. Not so ours. Ours is a
subtler task. The maintenance of the spirit of Southern
youth on a high plane of principle and conduct is a per-
petual interest and duty.
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The footnote: "*Organized December 20, 1865, at Pulaski, Tenn. The "Prescripts," "creed" and "oaths" of the Klan were remarkably similar to the principles and obligations of the K.A. -- so much so that our brother Thomas Dixon, author of the Clansman, claims a participation of K.A.'s in organizing the Klan, a claim made debatable by chronological difficulties. The two organizations were reactions against the same evils, but their spheres and methods of action differed." Directory of the Kappa Alpha Order 1865-1922 (1922).
Interesting that, even in 1922, KA seemed to be trying to distance itself from the KKK while at the same time placating the beliefs of many of its members. Though these passages certainly do support argument of KA’s Lost Cause identity.