KKK leaders in Hilton picture had played lead role in Mississippi lynchings
The first black in Jefferson county, Lewis Houston, was lynched in Linn Park, right across the street from The Tutwiler hotel but the white Hilton execs, who oppose critical race theory, dont care.
First the report, as it appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of Montgomery Advertiser 5/14/1916, lest anyone thinks I am a radical propagandist.
Among the many men prominent in public and private life who will attend the twenty-sixth annual reunion of the United Confederate Veterans in Birmingham next week(May 16 to May 18, 1916), will be a delegation of five members of the Mississippi legislature, all of whom were Knights of the White Camelia during Reconstruction days. This delegation will be headed by Gen. Calvin B. Vance, of Batesville, commanding the Mississippi division of the Veterans.
Remarkable Coincidence
For five living men from one state who were members of the Ku Klux Klan to attend a reunion in a body may not be unusual, but when all five of these have been elected to serve simultaneous terms in the legislature of the same state, and all of them to the same branch of that legislature, the coincidence verges on the remarkable.
This is exactly what has taken place in Mississippi, as is shown by the accompanying photograph, probably the most unusual picture of its kind in existence.
The five men in the picture are reading from left to right: Seated Senators Vance and Kendrick; Standing Senators Huff, Jefferson (newspaper was wrong as the actual name is Johnson) and Coen.
All Members of Senate
All of them are members of the Mississippi Senate for the term ranging from 1916 to 1920, and all of them rode under the white cloak to put down negro dominance in the South during the days that tried men’s soul. That they are still in the service of their state is an evidence of their patriotism.
All five of these men served in the ranks of the Mississippi regiment during the war. They returned to their native state after the war to face a situation without parallel in history.
Rode in “Invisible Army”
The carpet bagging regime had gained the ascendancy in all Southern Communities and the then recently freed negroes were about to be thrust down the throat of the White race both politically and socially.
It was then that the “Invisible Army” made its appearance made its appearance in the South, and finally freed it of the social menace of the negro, though the black in politics probably will be a problem for the South.
These five men, all wearing the senatorial toga of the Great State of Mississippi, served with this silent host. General Vance as a Grand Cyclop and the others in lesser capacities and they will leave their senatorial duties in the capital at Jackson long enough to follow their comrades in Birmingham next week there to March again under the banner of the Confederacy to the inspiring strains of Dixie.
The report headline is Five Members of the Ku Klux Klan, All Ftom Mississippi,
Cover of a book by Lisa McNair, whose sister Denise McNair, 11, was killed in the 9/15/63 in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the KKK. Eleven minutes walk away, Hilton’s The Tutwiler glorified KKK leaders with a historic picture.
The first lynching of a black person in Jefferson County took place in Linn Park right across from where the Tutwiler now stands in Downtown Birmingham. The victim, under 20, was Lewis Houston. He was lynched on November 24, 1883. His pleas of innocence fell on deaf white ears, and one of the last sentences to come from his mouth was, “Jesus take me home.”
At the time, the racist newspapers would call the lynching victims “Black demons.”
According to the iconic Equal Justice Initiative, 4,075 blacks, overwhelming majority of them extremely poor, were lynched in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950.
EJI says Mississippi had the highest numbers of lynchings among all states.
Let’s, go back down the time tunnel. Thousands of white supremacists had descended on Birmingham for the 26th annual reunion of United Confederate Veterans May 16 to May 18, 1916.
The handwritten caption reads: “The 26th Annual Confederate Veterans Renion. Tutwiler Hotel Lobby.” The date also handwritten is “May 1916.”
Some of the top KKK leaders were staying at The Tutwiler Hotel and a group picture of the killer thugs was snapped in the hotel lobby, probably May 18, 1916. The hotel hung that picture to glorify the Confederate generals, leaving this writer aghast and traumatized 9/13/23. But after his protest took it down 9/18/23.
Who’s Who on Hilton’s Wall Picture
District 1 KKK leader, Mississippi Senator Francis Marion Johnson, represented Harrison County that saw ten lynchings including Luke Thomas, lynched in Biloxi June 15, 1894 and Henry Leidy, lynched in Biloxi Nov. 10, 1908
District 7 KKK leader, Senator Daniel W. Huff, represented Amite (14 lynchings) and Wilkinson (nine lynchings) counties.
District 11 KKK leader, Senator James M. Coen, represented Copiah County with ten lynchings and one massacre— on the eve of his 26th Birthday this KKK leader was believed to have led the Copiah County Massacre on September 4, 1875 killing five black men1. He was also behind the lynching of Will Thrasher in Crystal Springs on February 2, 1922 for an alleged assault on a white school teacher.
District 33 KKK leader, Senator Calvin B. Vance of Panola County had the blood of four lynching victims on his hands.
District 37 KKK leader, Senator Carroll Kendrick, president pro tempura of the Mississippi senate represented three counties: Alcorn with five lynchings, Tishimingo with 4 lynchings and Prentiss one lynching.
Also in the picture is Vermont’s most hated General Bennett Young, ring leader of the Vermont Yankee Scare Party, who terrorized St. Albans in Vermont, killed one with his own hand, wounded another and made off with millions of dollars in today’s terms on Oct. 19, 1864. Just imagine a black youth being lynched over unproven charges of sexual assault 11/24/1883 while a white man who did so much harm 10/19/1864 in the same country, was being honored by Hilton in Birmingham. Not sure if they have one of their brands “Hilton Honors” because of such blatant travesty of Justice.
The Confederate veterans reunion ended on May 18, 1996 and the following day the Birmingham News Herald carried the following item about the founding of the clan in the city:
“The great trouble with the Negro in the South is that all presumptions are against him. A white man has but to blacken his face and commit a crime to have some Negro lynched in his stead. An abandoned woman has only to start a cry, true or false, that she has been insulted by a black man, to have him arrested and summarily murdered by the mob,” wrote visionary statesman and former slave, Frederick Douglass.
Douglass regretted that the upper classes of the South seem to be in full sympathy with the mob and its deeds... The mobocratic murderers are not only permitted to go free, untried and unpunished, but are lauded and applauded as honorable men and good citizens, the high-minded guardians of Southern virtue.”
Hilton executive team, headed by Virginian Christopher Nassetta, and other board members are repeating what Douglass said by their apathy. To the contrary, Nassetta gave thousands of dollars to Glenn Youngkin, whose first step after getting elected as governor of Virginia, was to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
Alongwith Nassetta, the entire executive team and all board members of Hilton Worldwide belong to the American upper class. And their apathy towards racial justice is exactly what Douglass write in his booklet.
Virginia is also among the Dirty Dozen States where life for colored people is still very challenging. While Germany bans Swastikas as it symbolizes the immense harm it inflicted humanity, Confederate flags and racists symbols are commonplace in these states as proof of white supremacism in the U.S. that Hitler loved
Hilton’s original founder Conrad N. Hilton and his son Baron Hilton were good friends of Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun. Not many know, but Hitler was full of praise for white supremacism in the U.S. In fact, he adopted Jim Crows laws and believed U.S. was a great white race success story.
Meanwhile, Hilton is now in talks with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute four blocks away to transfer the deadly picture there. The Institute and the Sixteenth Century Baptist Church are right across the street from one another— a short 11 minutes walk from Hilton’s The Tutwiler. I had gone there to attend the 60th anniversary of church bombings that killed 11 year old Denise McNair and three 14 year olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson.
After I used my journalism skills to reach author and speaker Lisa McNair, she sent an email that said, “We will never forget you.” My response, “The supreme sacrifice of little Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins along with countless martyrs will continue to inspire millions across the world like myself.”
If you like to help, please write to Jonathan Gray, Chsir of the Hilton Worldwide board; Christopher Nassetta, President & CEO of Hilton Worldwide; Chris Carr, director, Hilton Worldwide; Mark Weinstein, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Hilton Worldwide.
Their email addresses are:
Jonathan.Gray@hilton.com
Christopher.Nassetta@hilton.com
Chris.Carr@hilton.com
Mark.Weinstein@hilton.com
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