Revealed: The defiant 1976 letter in which Former Attorney General Bill Baxley told a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon to 'kiss my a**'
A newly discovered letter reveals that former Alabama Attorney General and civil rights campaigner Bill Baxley was a man of few words when it came to the Ku Klux Klan.
In response to a letter from the KKK's Grand Dragon Edward R. Fields, Mr Baxley had only this to say: Kiss my 'a**'.
Fields, who held one of The Klan's highest offices until the group threw him out, wrote to Mr Baxley in 1976, threatening to protest over a court case involving a race-hate bombing.
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On Message: The letter from former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley telling Edward R. Fields of the Ku Klux Klan to 'kiss my a**'
Committed: In 1970 Bill Baxley reopened the 16th Street Church bombing, the infamous white supremacist terrorist act that killed four black girls in 1963. By re-opening the case Mr Baxley angered White supremacist groups prompting Edward Fields to write to him
Hatred: The hate-filled threatening letter Mr Fields wrote Mr Baxley
In 1970, within one week of being elected, 29-year-old Bill Baxley reopened the 16th Street Church bombing, the infamous white supremacist terrorist act that killed four black girls in 1963.
The case, which had gone cold, was a critical flashpoint in the Civil Rights Movement.
'When it happened I got physically ill,' Mr Baxley said recently. 'I hoped from that moment forward that I might do something, somewhere, some day to help bring whoever did this to justice.'
INSIDE THE KU KLUX KLAN
Founded in 1866 by Confederate Civil War veterans Captain John C. Lester, Major James R. Crowe, John D. Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard R. Reed, and Frank O. McCord the Klan fragmented into more than 40 separate factions of varying sizes. There is no 'one' Ku Klux Klan.
There are over a hundred different chapters in the various Klan organizations, with varying memberships. Overall, there may be as many as 5,000 members and associates across the South and Midwest states.
The Klan's criminal activity ranges from hate crimes to acts of domestic terrorism.
They get their message out by mass mailings, leafleting and the Internet as well as holding public rallies and protests.
Their white supremacist ideology is not far from that of neo-Nazis, although it tends to be more Christian-oriented and to stress nativism.
Most funding comes from membership dues and sales of Klan paraphernalia.
*Source: Anti-Defamation League
Mr Baxley's commitment to the case also attracted hostility, specifically from the KKK.
In the letter, Fields accused Mr Baxley of reopening the case for 'tactical reasons.'
Fields sent a threatening, backhanded congratulations to Mr Baxley.
'We would like to congratulate you, you are now an honorary n*****,' he wrote.
Clearly a man of few words, Mr Baxley instructed the white-robed letter writer to kiss his backside.
'Dear 'Dr.' Fields,' Mr Baxley wrote in the letter dated February 28, 1976. 'My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is – kiss my a**. Sincerely, Bill Baxley.'
The following year, Robert 'Dynamite Bob' Chambliss, a member of the United Klans of America, was found guilty of the murders.
He remained in prison until his death in 1985.
Mr Baxley still practices law in Birmingham, Alabama.
Fields, a powerfully influential white supremacist who in 1958 founded the National States'
Rights Party, a white racist political party that attacked Jews and Blacks, was kicked out of The Klan in 1983.
This is the first time the letter has surfaced according to The Huffington Post.
'Now I could do what I had sworn to do,' Mr Baxley is quoted as saying. 'Within two months in office I had set one goal for myself: to solve that bombing case.'
As a reminder of this vow, he is said to have written the four victims' names on a card he carried in his wallet.
The Ku Klux Klan is the most infamous - and oldest - of American hate groups, according to Southern Poverty Law Center.
Although black Americans have typically been their primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics.
Bomber: Robert E. Chambliss after his arrest for bombing a black church was convicted of the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham Alabama
Jailed: Robert 'Dynamite Bob' Chambliss was found guilty of 16th Street Baptist Church murders
Started during Reconstruction at the end of the Civil War, the Klan quickly mobilized as a vigilante group to intimidate Southern blacks - and any whites who would help them - and to prevent them from enjoying basic civil rights.
Since its inception, The Klan has gone through several periods of growth and recession.
The last large growth period was in the 1960s in response to the civil rights movement.
Since the 1970s the Klan has been greatly weakened by internal conflicts, court cases, a seemingly endless series of splits and government infiltration.
While some factions have preserved an openly racist and militant approach, others have tried to enter the mainstream, cloaking their racism as mere 'civil rights for whites.'
Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members, split among dozens of different - and often warring - organizations that use the Klan name.
Then: Since it was founded in 1866, The Klan has seen its numbers dwindle
Meeting: Although black Americans have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics
Today: While some factions have preserved an openly racist and militant approach, others have tried to enter the mainstream, cloaking their racism as mere 'civil rights for whites'
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