Indiana’s Grand Wizard creating a kinder, gentler KKK

            By Ryan Polk, THG Features

In the early 1920s, Indiana was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity.  The KKK had hundreds of thousands of members that helped get Ed Jackson elected as governor in 1925.  It was not uncommon for the Klan to gather over 100,000 supporters at a rally in places like Kokomo or Evansville.

In the past two decades, the KKK has been a complete joke. 

Instead of government officials and leading businessmen running the Klan and controlling politics in Indiana, in recent years the KKK has been a collection of a few hundred hayseeds that look as if they were plucked straight from a cornfield.  You have probably seen them, dressed in their trademark white robes and hoods, on talk shows like Ricki Lake or Jerry Springer, spewing their message of hate in an ignorant way that makes the group even more laughable.

Sure, now and then they would have a rally in a small Hoosier town, where protestors outnumbered supporters 1000 to one.  These rallies were weak attempts made by a washed up group to get a little media attention—attention that no one took seriously.

New president of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan Buford Kellens is hoping to change all of this by promoting the KKK as a “social club” to draw more members to the group.  Kellens, a native of Martinsville, says there needs to be serious changes made if the Klan is going to survive in the 21^st century.  “What we need is a kindler, gentler Klan,” said Kellens, a 53 year-old construction worker, “Folks have a negative view of us because of the actions of a few bad apples when in reality we do a lot of good in our communities.  Of course the media doesn’t want to mention that—that doesn’t sell newspapers.”

To regain the support of communities around Indiana, the KKK has postponed all marches planned for 2004.  This will give the Klan time to rebuild and promote what Kellens calls “The New Klan.”  In Klaverns around the state, members have been working in soup kitchens, visiting universities, volunteering as crossing guards, and doing other forms of community service.  “This shows the public we are good people who are just misunderstood,” said Kellens.

The Klan is also making other ideological changes in 2004.  The Indiana chapter is opening membership to groups formerly excluded in hopes of increasing enrollment.  Now Mexican-Americans and Catholics can join the Klan, as long as they take an oath of loyalty to the KKK. 

The club is also changing the names of officials in the Klan’s hierarchy to make them sound more business-like and less mystical.  “The public is not going to accept titles popular in the past like ‘Imperial Wizard, Grand Dragon, and Exalted Cyclops’,” said Juan Montoya, general manager of Klavern #1 in a Sunday afternoon interview, “So now we have titles like CEO, vice president, and general manager to reflect our more business-like approach.”

Not everyone is convinced the Klan has changed its ways.  “You can take a racist a-hole, clean him up and put him in a suit, and he is still going to be a racist a-hole.  They ain’t fooling anyone,” said Gary resident Tyrone Wilke.

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