European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 22, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse A when not burning crosses the new look klan is going All out in this election year to Register the right kind of voter in the South. By Henry p. Leifermann Dpi staff writer for less than it costs to join the boy scouts your son or daughter can enlist in the klan youth corps Lear close order military Drill and grow up to be a racial bigot. The klan youth corps is part of to Day s new action Kun flux klan still the biggest of All hate organizations Black or White. Dues Are $2 in the youth corps payable when you can get it and there Are no uniforms to buy that cannot be made at Home with a bed Sheet. Smoother and Slicker than before the klan is cropping up in such unexpected places As the Model cities program a showcase Federal plan to revitalize the nation s cities. In Atlanta Calvin Craig a six footer fond of pistols and trained he says in klan snip e r and Molotov cocktail schools has taken Over a sizable portion of the Model cities program. Craig is the grand dragon of the United Klaus headed by Robert Shelton of Tuscaloosa Ala. The Uka s 15 000members make it the biggest of All the Klaus. Craig likes to boast also of his Success i.,.,.,.,.,.,., tin youngsters get dogs. Wood inspires says in another new Field for the klan vote registration. Through a front group the Georgia voter registration commit tee Craig says he rivals the league of women voters and the Al Cio i registering the right kind of voters. Two years ago according to estimate by the House in american activities committee there were 17,000 klansmen in 18 states. The membership Rolls go up and Down like popularity polls each year. But the significance of the klan a with militant Black groups lies not in its numbers but in its influence among Whites in its isolated acts of terrorism and in its ability to provoke violent responses among Whites and Blacks. If it were not for is durable terrorist Arm says the House committee the Pool Hall loungers and psychopaths who fill much of the klan ranks could be dismissed As ludicrous children playing at secret codes and War games. The klan youth corps for example is seriously regarded by grand dragon Craig and Imperial wizard Shelton a comparable to the boy scouts girl scouts or Camp fire girls. To join the corps youngsters 12 to 18sign a pledge that they not Only Are members of the White Gentile race and believers in White supremacy but also Are sound in Shelton claims thousands of Mem Bers in five Southern states for the youth corps but the Fri says that s a inflated claim. One night a week in a converted store on Stewart Avenue in Southwest Atlanta that is Georgia klan Headquarters the Junior Kluvers Lake their training. Craig will not let outsiders watch the proceedings but he says a typical night includes eight millimetre films from tin Atlanta Public Library that depict the ills of dropping out of school and teach first Aid skills. We re teaching them close order Drill he explains because it s just like in the army. The Only Way you can i re younger children Aio encouraged to a tend meeting. Slifer but unchanged have teamwork is to learn How to take orders after drilling inside the Hall the youngsters get soft drinks and hot dogs. Food inspires them to come Back Craig says. Most of the youth corps members live in the neighbourhood Adai Park the area whose Model cities pro Gram is is a lower Middle class mostly White area of close together bungalows Many of its residents work in the City s textile Mills. It is a Short step from the klan youth corps to the still violent klan mentality that dominates the actions and fears of the adult Kluwer. Last october near Bastrop la., one boy had his Kneecap torn away and his companion suffered cuts on a sunday afternoon when they came upon a klan meeting Hall while tramping through the Woods. The door was guarded by a near lethal Booby trap and the boys Acci dentally triggered it. In Louisiana one Leagle chapter Leader has a sixth Grade education was disc lunged from the army because of dementia Pra Cox and has a mental age of about 10 years 7 Arkansas Klansman was Dis charged from the armed services with in notation mental deficient or on another walked at klan initiation files when told that the klan was for irn Testant lie said he was Baptist. Lii comic Book code that called feb agents company men also called the v lil Adelphia miss., murders of three Vil rights workers the big logging of 1 1u informers and infiltrators so thoroughly riddled the violent White Kights of the Kun flux klan in Mississippi on jilt ease that Federal conspiracy convictions were won last in Mississippi says a Justice depart Mont source when a new Mem l i joins the Kian he gets a Knock on Lic door by the Fri just to let him know we a six year old boy was speaker at klan rally. A Page 12 the stars and stripes , Calvin f. Craig we teach them close order Dpi the aspects of counter intelligence Between the klan and the Fri Are number 2 Man in one klan state unit in the South is a paid informer. Imperial wizard Shelton propose truth serum and lie Detector tests to Weed out informers but he walked when some klansmen told Shelton he would have to go first. Sometimes the Fri informant system Heads off trouble. In Florida recently a Kluwer planned to set fire to the Home of a negro civil rights worker. Before he could a local policeman tipped by an Fri informer talked to the Kluwer about the general subject of fires arson and the clangers of playing with matches. The project never came on police forces in the deep South have been no Surprise but in Chi Cago at least six City police officers have been revealed As klan members. Exactly How the klan infiltrates police departments one of its favor Ite targets is not known but usually it is a Case says the Fri of the police Man s coming to the klan and not a matter of Active recruitment among police forces. Since the House in american activities committee made its r e p o r t last december based on two year old information the 14 klan organizations have splintered regrouped split again an combined in a constant shuffle of feud Mississippi while knights must secretive and vicious of the Klaus Isa splinter. Since the Philadelphia convictions the White knights reportedly have taken to joining other klan groups Kulil the pressure on them Lessen they then Are to regroup As Hite knights according to it another Mui former. The new look of thu klan Loda has taken a lesson from Chil rights workers. I sing Trout organizations such As Georgia s voter Llesi Stratios com the klan is going All out this 1968 the stars and strikes election year to Register voters in the s Craig claims his group has been signing up voters at the rate of500 a week for the past several months in Atlanta and surrounding full o county. The estimate is High say local politicians but not very is on the shift line at the City s textile Mills and Auto Assembly Plant looking for new voters at predawn hours. He says using the front group i just Good Public relations. The fact that Craig could Mastermind the takeover by the klan of a Large part of the Model cities program in at Lanta is evidence of political sophistication now augmenting the klan s terror ism. A Hon the Adair Park neighbourhood elected its Model cities representatives last january Craig spread the false Rumor that negroes planned to pack the meeting. As a result he had the election meeting packed with Whites most of them former or present Kluvers or sympathizers. Craig was elected vice chairman forthe neighbourhood and j. D. Newberry treasurer of Georgia s Uka according to the House was elected neighbourhood men sit on the citywide steering committee of the Model cities mass convention the chairman of the convention is leu is Peters a Nero. The of the Ait islam l program is Johnny c. Johnson another negro.craiv1. A s the column action 01 klans nun and negroes is a Happy a a a said the a say for a sule Man to understand the Prevc Nisi the negro is for Iho to u in 10 i elder at the conference lame. 1m- is unix not is klan Public relations at work in the held. It is a Sipunu ant part of today s action klan. But. Ays the Fri so is the legacy of terrorism thai re Mains in the klan jul t Beu Wil new veneer. Page 13
