Wilmington, July 22—The observing of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Klu (Ku) Klux Klan, centered on Seventh and Nixon streets late last night and a flaming cross, its arms pointing east and west, was planted at that point by hooded and robed Knights with a warning to law violators that their operations must cease, or they will be baled (?) into court. The scrawled message directed to those who live without the law, posted near by and illuminated by the wavering light from the blazing cross read:
“Snakehead dealers, pistol toters, crap shooters, woman beaters, wife stealers; the records need a rest. K.K.K. Do not remove.”
The ceremony was deeply impressive, the flaring light from the blazing cross lending a weird effect while the robed and hooded knights circled around their blazing emblem. Not a word was spoken by any member of the klan and the silence of the crowd was oppressive. Passing motor cars, entering the city from the north, drew up and were brought to a halt, their motors silenced. Negro residents of the section strolled up in two and threes, congregating in little knots on the outer edge of the robed circle and speaking occasionally in hushed whispers. Not a person ventured near the warning placard while the robed figures remained.
Three minutes before the ghostly figures arrived and alighted from their cars there was almost a babble of voices in that section. When the first robed figure, however, stepped from the leading automobile, a deathly silence fell over the section. Few white people were in the section and while there was no noticeable effort on the part of the negroes to vacate the corner, those who were at a distance remained completely outside the circle of light cast by the blazing cross. A hushed silence fell over family groups that were occupying front porches although few, if any, removed to the inside.
The riders wasted no time in preliminaries. The long string of cars, their headlights gleaming, that swung in from the north, coming over the Smith Creek bridge, the whites of the klansmen’s robes showing as the machines neared, passed under and left the glare of the street lamps, presented a weird effect. The cars were halted at Seventh and Nixon, and the hooded figures stepped boldly out.
A minutes later and a match splintered, the cross was aflame and deathly silence reigned. Then came an almost musical twitter from the whistle between the lips of the leader, a few negro children who had approached closely broke and ran with little short cries and the klansmen re-entered their cars and headed toward the city, moving west on Nixon to Fifth and then south in the direction of town.
Last night was the second time the klan has road within the past week, similar signs having been placed a few nights along the Carolina beach road and on the riverside in Sunset Park.
From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Wednesday, July 23, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1924-07-23/ed-1/seq-1/#words=JULY+23.+1924
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