The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy

The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy is a 144-page book written by Bishop Alma Bridwell White in 1925 and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke.[2][3] In the book she uses scripture to rationalize that the Klan is sanctioned by God "through divine illumination and prophetic vision".[4][5] She also believed that the Apostles and the Good Samaritan were members of the Klan.[6] The book was published by the Pillar of Fire Church, which she founded, at their press in Zarephath, New Jersey. The book sold over 45,000 copies.[1][3]

The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy
AuthorAlma Bridwell White
IllustratorBranford Clarke
SubjectAnti-Catholicism, antisemitism, nativism and white supremacy
PublisherPillar of Fire Church
Publication date
1925
Pages144
Preceded byThe Story of My Life, volume 1 (1919) 
Followed byKlansmen: Guardians of Liberty (1926) 
The unrepentant Hebrew is everywhere among us today as the strong ally of Roman Catholicism. ... To think of our Hebrew friends with their millions in gold and silver aiding the Pope in his aspirations for world supremacy, is almost beyond the grasp of ... The Jews in New York City openly boast that they have the money and Rome the power, and that if they decide to rule the city and state ... It is within the rights of civilization for the white race to hold the supremacy; and it is no injustice to the colored man. The white men of this country poured out their blood to liberate the colored people from the chains of slavery, and the sacrifice should be appreciated. ...

—Alma Bridwell White in The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy in 1926 [1]

History

White wrote more than 35 books and was the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church.[7] She herself could not be a member of the Klan because she was a woman.[6]

This book primarily espouses White's deep fear and hatred of the Roman Catholic Church while also promoting racism against African Americans, antisemitism, white supremacy, and women's equality.[8][9][10] It was published in 1925 by the Pillar of Fire Church.

It is a compendium of essays and speeches by White, illustrations by Clarke, poems, prayers, and racial, anti-Catholic, and antisemitic slurs embedded in jokes and short stories. Most of this material was originally published between 1920 and 1924 in the pro-Ku Klux Klan political periodical The Good Citizen, one of numerous periodicals published by the Church. It is the first of three books White published to promote the KKK and her dogma of intolerance.[3]

The book includes an introduction by Arthur Hornbui Bell, Grand Dragon of the New Jersey Ku Klux Klan.[3] The introduction reads as follows:

This book brings out vividly the titanic struggle now taking place, not only in the United States, but over the entire world, and while at the present time the battle raging has not reached the point where bullets, swords and poison gas are the reasons used, the time will soon arrive when the Roman Catholic craving for world-power will, if not checked, cause a revival of a religious war that will be far more disastrous than the late World War.

Bishop White deserves the highest praise for her work on this truly wonderful book of "light" and it is hoped that it may reach out into the minds of Protestants and Catholics alike and bring them to a sense of realization as to where this great un-American movement to make the world Catholic will ultimately end.[1][3]

The book also includes essays with titles such as "Great Klan Victory in the Election of 1924," "Enemies of the Ku Klux Klan Stricken with Blindness," "Papal Contention for Rulership of the World," "Bow or Burn," and "The Ku Klux Klan and Women's Causes."[1]

She authored two more books on the Klan: Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty in 1926, and Heroes of the Fiery Cross in 1928. White republished the 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. The set contained seven chapters from The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy and one from the 1928 Heroes of the Fiery Cross.[11]

Sample illustrations

References
  1. Alma White (1925). The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy. Pillar of Fire. ISBN 978-1-4286-1075-0. It is within the rights of civilization for the white race to hold the supremacy; and it is no injustice to the colored man. The white men of this country poured out their blood to liberate the colored people from the chains of slavery, and the sacrifice should be appreciated.
  2. Lynn S. Neal (June 1, 2009). "Christianizing the Klan: Alma White, Branford Clarke, and the Art of Religious Intolerance". Church History. American Society of Church History. 78 (2): 350–378. doi:10.1017/S0009640709000523. White’s words and Clarke’s imagery combined in various ways to create a persuasive and powerful message of religious intolerance. ...
  3. Charles Wright Ferguson (1929). The New Books of Revelations: The Inside Story of America's Astounding Religious Cults. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4179-7955-0. Bishop Alma White of the Pillar of Fire Church in New Jersey has been good enough to trace out these references for us and has embodied the result of her seasoned findings in a book called The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy. ...
  4. Donald Charles Yelton (1978). Brief American lives: four studies in collective biography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-1114-6. There one learns that the treatise published in 1925 (The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy) in which Bishop White established the godly origins of the Klan, ...
  5. Lina Mainiero (1980). American Women Writers. ISBN 9780804431514. In The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy (1925), she "proves" by means of scripture that the Klan is sanctioned by God. She claims "through divine illumination and prophetic vision ...
  6. Lois Stiles Edgerly (1995). Women's Words, Women's Stories: An American Daybook. Tilbury House Publishers. ISBN 0-88448-144-1. Although she could not be a member because she was a woman, she lectured on the group's behalf and wrote a book, The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy, in which she ...
  7. "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.
  8. Kristen Kandt (2000). "Historical Essay: In the Name of God; An American Story of Feminism, Racism, and Religious Intolerance: The Story of Alma Bridwell White". American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law. Alma White and the Pillar of Fire were unique, however, in their public alliance with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, the Pillar of Fire was the only religious group to publicly associate itself with the Klan.
  9. Kathleen M. Blee (1992). Women of the Klan. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07876-4. Bishop White’s transformation from minister to Klan propagandist is detailed in voluminous autobiographical and political writing. White’s anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and racist message fit well into the Klan’s efforts to convince white Protestant women that their collective interests as women were best served by joining the Klan.
  10. Alma White (1928). Heroes of the Fiery Cross. The Good Citizen. I believe in white supremacy. ...
  11. Susie Cunningham Stanley (1993). Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White. Pilgrim Press. ISBN 0-8298-0950-3. Seven chapters from The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy and one from Heroes of the Fiery Cross are reprinted in volume 1 of Guardians of Liberty. ...

Further reading
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