Eldon Edwards

Eldon Lee Edwards (June 8, 1909 – August 1, 1960)[1] was an American Ku Klux Klan leader.

Eldon Edwards
7th Grand Wizard of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
In office
1950–1960
Preceded bySamuel Roper

Biography

Edwards was an automobile paint sprayer from Atlanta, Georgia, and rebuilt the Klan beginning in 1953. In his book The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo, Gary May notes that Edwards became prominent at a time when the Klan was splintered into different local groups. In 1955, Edwards created his own organization, "U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan", and established a 15,000 strong following in nine American states.[2]

Edwards was interviewed by Mike Wallace on May 5, 1957, as noted in Wallace's 2006 book Between You and Me.[3]

Edwards, long diagnosed with heart disease, died of a heart attack in Atlanta on August 1, 1960. In his last public appearance, Edwards said, "We have more right to organize than the communists and the NAACP," and added, "We white people are the inheritors of this country. We do not intend to surrender it."[4]

References
  1. Sims, Patsy (1996). The Klan. University Press of Kentucky. p. 34. ISBN 0-8131-0887-X.
  2. Review of The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo by May, Gary, 2005 at www.wnyc.org Archived April 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Review of "Between You and Me" by Wallace, Mike, 2006 at www.mvtimes.com". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved October 21, 2006.
  4. "Klan Wizard Dies of Heart Attack", Pacific Stars and Stripes, August 4, 1960, p. 3.
Preceded by
Samuel Roper		 Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
1950–1960		 Succeeded by
Robert M. Shelton
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