Klan Spreading Lie About Presidential Candidate, Nov. 2, 1924

They Exploit Credulity

Circulation by the klan of the report that John W. Davis proclaimed for social equality with negroes in an address to negro voters in Indianapolis is unworthy of notice except as corroborative evidence that the Ku Klux organization appeals to ignorance, stupidity, credulity and prejudice for its support. Let it be said emphatically that the order is by no means made up entirely of the ignorant or the vicious or of those who are easily deceived. Those who sent out the Davis story do not believe it, but they expect it to be accepted by the class that will make desirable henchmen for their organization. Moreover, there are no doubts in the order that many intelligent and good people who belong for political or business reasons, or whose religious and racial prejudices are stronger than their common sense. But the point here is that the worst enemy of the klan could not offer evidence of the strength that its leaders have voluntarily offered to convict themselves of the charge that their appeal is to the uninformed and the credulous whose prejudices are easily aroused. Of course, any reasonable individual will know that Mr. Davis, a native of West Virginia, and really a southerner, entertains no such ideas as are imputed to him. And common sense, where that faculty is available, also tells them that he would hardly be above the grade of an idiot if he entertained such ideas and gave expression to them while he is a candidate for President. Nobody who is not ready to be bored for the Simples, no matter what his politics, believes that Mr. Davis said anything that can be honestly so construed. And yet the klan leaders, for political and personal profit, try to put that absurdity over on people they would exploit. This is the organization that would take in keeping the public morals and the religion of the country.

From the editorial page of the Greensboro News, as reprinted in the Durham Herald, Sunday, Nov. 2, 1924

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