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December 10, 2006
Study Group 1966: LBJ Must Talk to the Klan
Washington, December 15, 1966: Responding to the wave of violence that has engulfed the South in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, a blue-ribbon Civil Rights Study Group has made sweeping recommendations to President Johnson on how to control the shootings, bombings, and terror. The report opens,
The situation in the American South is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved.
The report attempts to steer a new course for the movement to extend civil rights to blacks in the U.S. The initial enthusiasm for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, hailed as a new beginning for the country, has faded and turned acrimonious after groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and others started a slow-building wave of insurgency across the South, and even beyond the Mason-Dixon line. Over the past three years, at least 3,000 people have been killed, both blacks and whites, in roadside bombings, night-time attacks, sniper shootings, most horrifically the Easter 1965 bombings of the 10 black churches, which ignited a counter-insurgency by underground black groups. The presence of 100,000 National Guard troops from Virginia to Florida to Texas has failed to contain the violence.
Focusing on the "root causes" of the violence, the CRSG urged President Lyndon Johnson to open direct negotiations with the Ku Klux Klan, the group behind much of the violence. This is part of the "new diplomatic offensive" aimed at bringing all concerned parties to the negotiating table on civil rights matters. In its most daring move, the CRSG urged the President to consult with the governments of South Africa and Rhodesia, which are thought to be providing financial and logistical support to the Klan insurgency.
In return for the negotiations, the report said it expects the Klan insurgents to lay down their weapons and present their political views in a manner reflecting their membership in a "religion of peace."
Reaction by the various splintered Klan groups was immediate. Reflecting their interest in emerging technologies, writers of mimeographed Klan information logs, known as "kloggers," blanketed the South with their views on the CRSG. While some welcomed the report as a recognition of their "legitimate concerns and national aspirations in the territories occupied by the Federal armies," other kloggers dismissed the report at "Yankee propaganda supported by Zionist liberals" and vowed to wreak revenge on any Klan splinter groups that dared to seek a more moderate response to the Civil Rights Movement.
One irate klogger wrote, "Death to those who deviate for the paths of the Confederacy!"
As we went to press, President Johnson had scheduled a meeting with the chairman of the Civil Rights Study Group, distinguished West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd.
Van | 12/10/06 at 07:28 PM | Categories: Competing narratives
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Comments
It's like The Onion's fake newspaper pages, but with morality.
Jeremiah | December 10, 2006 11:45 PM
