Knights of the White Camelia
2 References
The Knights of the White Camelia was a terrorist group
in the American South, similar to and associated with the
Ku Klux Klan, supporting white supremacy.
Dictionary of Louisiana Biography vol 1, pg. 222
Like most such groups, it was founded by a Confederate
veteran. Colonel Alcibiades DeBlanc founded the group
on 22 May 1867 in Franklin, Louisiana. Chapters existed primarily in the southern part of the Deep South.
However, unlike the Klan, which drew much of its membership from lower-class southerners (primarily Confederate veterans), the White Camelia consisted mainly of
upper class southerners, including physicians, landowners, newspaper editors, doctors, and ocers. They
were also usually Confederate veterans, the upper part of
antebellum society. Its organizational structure had less
unusual names than did the Ku Klux Klan. It began to decline, despite a convention in 1869. The more aggressive
people joined the White League or similar paramilitary
organizations that organized in the mid-1870s. By 1870,
the original Knights of the White Camelia had mostly
ceased to exist.[1] Among its members was Louisiana
Judge Taylor Beattie, who led the Thibodaux massacre
of 1887.
Dictionary of Louisiana Biography vol 2, pg. 1-760805-7018
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Earlier, David Theophilus Staord of Alexandria, prior
to his election as sheri of Rapides Parish, was a member of the Knights. He joined the Citizens League and
was at Canal Street during unrest there on September 14,
1874.[2]
In 1939, Time reported that the West Virginian antiSemite George E. Deatherage was describing himself as
the national commander of the Knights of the White
Camellia. In the 1990s, a Klan group based in East
Texas adopted the name. According to the book Soldiers of God, the new age White Camelia has a strong
inuence in Vidor, Texas. Ever since the return of the
White Camelia name, so-called White Camelia (sometimes spelled Kamelia) Klan groups have also emerged in
Louisiana and Florida.
Notes
[1] Christopher Long, KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE
CAMELLIA, Handbook of Texas Online, accessed 28
June 2010
[2] David Theophilus Staord. Louisiana Historical Association. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
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