THE SACRED WHITE KNIGHTS
On Sunday December 24th (Christmas Eve) 1865, 6 ex-confederate soldiers met at the office of Judge Thomas M. Jones to form a club or society to amuse themselves. They were Captain John C. Lester of the 3rd Tennessee infantry, Major James R. Crowe of the 3rd Tennessee. Infantry, Calvin Jones (son of Judge Thomas M. Jones) Adj. of the 35th Tennessee. Regiment, Captain John B. Kennedy of the 3rd Tennessee and Frank O.McCord, Editor of the Pulaski Citizen and private in the 3rd Tennessee. Richard Reed is also of the 3rd Tennessee. They all thought it was a great idea and they appointed a committee composed of Richard Reed and Calvin Jones to come up with a name for the organization. They agreed to meet the following evening.
The following night when they met, the committee presented the name 'Ku klos' from the Greek word for circle and since all 6 men were of Scotch-Irish decent; John Kennedy suggested the word Clan to follow Kuklos. They all agreed except they changed the C in the word Clan to K and making Kuklos two words, thus the name Ku Klos Klan. The name remained for an uncertain time. Until Major Crowe suggested that the middle word be changed to Klux, history gives a reason for this. There were two Colleges on the outskirts of Pulaski, one was a Woman's college and the other, a Man's college and they both had Greek Societies and klan members feared that someone would make the connection about the word Kuklos being the Greek word for "circle"; and Major Crowe suggested the word "Klux", becaue he believed it would help maintain the secrecy of the klan. He also suggested having costumes (Robes) in order to make the club more mysterious.
A quote from Major James R. Crowe while serving in the Tennessee legislature in the early 1880's "The origin of the order had no political significance, it was purely social and for their own amusement and it proved a great blessing to the entire South and did what the State and Federal officials could not do --- It brought order out of chaos, peace and happiness to our beloved South and I'm proud to say that I never knew of any single act done by the original K. K. K. that I am ashamed of".
