Book by Alma Bridwell White
Alternative cover
Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty was a book published by the Pillar of Fire Church in 1926 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White and illustrated by Branford Clarke .[ 1] She claims that the Founding Fathers of the United States were members of the Ku Klux Klan , and that Paul Revere made his legendary ride in Klan hood and robes.[ 2] She said: "Jews are everywhere a separate and distinct people, living apart from the great Gentile masses ... they are not home builders or tillers of the soil."[ 3] [ 4] Her book, which contains many anti-Catholic themes, became popular during the United States presidential election of 1928 when Al Smith was the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party.[ 5]
History
White authored over 35 books and founded the Pillar of Fire Church , where she made herself a bishop.[ 6]
This book primarily espouses White's anti-Catholicism , while it also promotes antisemitism , racism , white supremacy and women's equality . Guardians is a compendium of essays and sermons by White and illustrations by Clarke that were originally published in her pro-KKK political periodical The Good Citizen , one of the numerous periodicals published by her Pillar of Fire Church at their communal headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey .
The book contains an introduction by Arthur H. Bell , the Grand Dragon of the New Jersey Ku Klux Klan .[ 7] It is the second of three books White published to promote the KKK. The other two books were 1926's The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy , and 1928's Heroes of the Fiery Cross . White republished her Klan books as a three volume set in 1943, three years before her death and 21 years after her initial association with the Klan, under the title Guardians of Liberty .[ 8]
The contents included essays entitled The Hebrew Rock , Klansmen of the Revolution , Rome's Idolatrous Shrines and Papal Prisons in America .[ 1]
References
^ a b Alma White (1926). Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty . Pillar of Fire Church . ISBN 9781425490003 .
^ Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman (2003). Hate in the Garden State . Weird New Jersey . ISBN 9780760739792 . Retrieved 2010-01-10 . In Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, she claimed that the founding fathers of the United States were full-fledged members of the KKK and that Paul Revere made ...
^ David Harry Bennett (1988). The party of fear: from nativist movements to the New Right in American history . University of North Carolina Press . p. 216. ISBN 0-8078-1772-4 . 'Jews are everywhere a separate and distinct people, living apart from the great Gentile masses,' said the author of Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty. ...
^ Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle (1993). Taking Sides: Reconstruction to the present . Dushkin Publishing. ISBN 1-56134-122-3 . ... apart from the great Gentile masses," said the author of Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty. But these people are not "home builders or tillers of the soil. ...
^ Arnold S. Rice (1962). The Ku Klux Klan in American politics . Public Affairs Press . p. 88. In her book, Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, which although written in 1926, enjoyed a wide circulation among Knights during the 1928 presidential race, ...
^ "Bishop Alma White, Preacher, Author; Founder Of Pillar Of Fire Dies at 84. Established Several Schools And Colleges" . Associated Press in New York Times . June 27, 1946. Retrieved 2007-07-21 . Bishop Alma White, founder of the Pillar of Fire Church and author of thirty-five religious tracts and some 200 hymns, died here today at the headquarters of the religious group at near-by Zarephath. Her age was 84.
^ Dorothy Marie Brown (1987). Setting a course: American women in the 1920s . Twayne. p. 185. ISBN 0-8057-9906-0 . One year later her Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty began with an introduction by the Grand Dragon, Realm of New Jersey, and the assertion that she was ...
^ Susie Cunningham Stanley (1993). Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White . The Pilgrim Press. ISBN 0-8298-0950-3 . Volume 2 of Guardians of Liberty consists of fifteen chapters, thirteen from Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty and one from The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy. ...
Further reading
External links