Editing Ku Klux Klan (section)

==== Organization ====
New Klan founder [[William Joseph Simmons|William J. Simmons]] joined 12 different fraternal organizations and [[Ku Klux Klan recruitment|recruited for the Klan]] with his chest covered with fraternal badges, consciously modeling the Klan after fraternal organizations.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html |title=Nation: The Various Shady Lives of The Ku Klux Klan |magazine=Time |date=April 9, 1965 |access-date=December 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806144942/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html |archive-date=August 6, 2009 }}</ref> Klan organizers called "[[Kleagle]]s" signed up hundreds of new members, who paid initiation fees and received KKK costumes in return. The organizer kept half the money and sent the rest to state or national officials. When the organizer was done with an area, he organized a rally, often with burning crosses, and perhaps presented a Bible to a local Protestant preacher. He left town with the money collected. The local units operated like many fraternal organizations and occasionally brought in speakers.

Simmons initially met with little success in either recruiting members or in raising money, and the Klan remained a small operation in the Atlanta area until 1920. The group produced publications for national circulation from its headquarters in Atlanta: ''Searchlight'' (1919–1924), ''Imperial Night-Hawk'' (1923–1924), and ''The Kourier''.{{sfn|Jackson|1967|p=296}}<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/ImperialNighthawkVol.1No.77 |magazine=Imperial Nighthawk |volume=1 |issue=8 |date=January 1, 1923|location=Atlanta, Georgia |publisher=Knights of the Ku Klux Klan|via=Internet Archive|title=Imperial Nighthawk Vol. 1 No. 8 }}</ref><ref>{{OCLC |magazine=The Kourier |date=January 1, 1924 |oclc=1755269}}</ref>