Visual Artifact Page
the ku klux klan
This illustration comes from the Walker County Messenger, a small paper north of Atlanta in an article from November 5, 1915 entitled “Mission of Ku Klux Not Understood and Misrepresented.” The illustration was likely influenced by the depiction of KKK members in the film Birth of a Nation.
stone mountain in 1913
This image comes from a postcard sent in 1913 and depicts the community of Stone Mountain as it may have looked when William Joseph Simmons and co. ascended the mountain on the night before Thanksgiving in 1915. The granite “hump” of Stone Mountain rises in the background.
stone mountain in 1926
col. william joseph simmons
A former Methodist minister, William Joseph Simmons, filed paperwork in Georgia in October of 1915 to recharter the Ku Klux Klan. He appointed himself as “Imperial Wizard.”
“klan is established with impressiveness”
On November 28, 1915, the Atlanta Constitution reported on the newly reformed Ku Klux Klan.
birth of a nation - opening in atl
An advertisement in the Atlanta Constitution for the opening of Birth of a Nation in Atlanta. December, 1915.
atlanta theater
Birth of a Nation premiered in Atlanta in December, 1915, at the Atlanta Theater (shown at bottom right). This picture was taken much later (1940s). The Hurt Building can be seen at left.
Photo via the Atlanta History Center
kkk pamphlet
As authored by William Joseph Simmons.
Image via the Smithsonian
“An urgent call to real men”
This KKK recruitment flyer was authored by William Simmons in 1917.
the klan reborn
William Simmons, pictured in skull mask, leads a Klan meeting sometime between 1916 - 1922.
What’s a catlick?
leo frank + atlanta ripper
The front page of the Cedartown Standard
harry Preston
This legal affidavit by Oscar Elsas’s top labor spy, Harry Preston, reveals some of the details of his final days as a vice president of Railway Audit & Inspection Company. He died in Atlanta three years later (1939).
oscar elsas - 1871 - 1924
Elsas died in 1924 at the age of 53. This obituary appeared in the Atlanta Constitution.