Knights of the White Camellia

The Knights of the White Camellia was a secret organization of white men formed in the lower Southern states in the Reconstruction period. They were considered much more conservative than the Klan and they were generally less violent. Its members were pledged to support the supremacy of the white race, to oppose the uniting of the races, to resist the social and political seizing of the carpetbaggers, and to restore white control of the government (Cantrell, 2005). The Knights of the White Camellia was organized in New Orleans in May 1867 by Col. Alcibiade DeBlanc and soon spread throughout the lower South, reaching as far west as Central Texas and as far east as the Carolinas. Though similar in some respects to, and frequently confused by the public with, the Ku Klux Klan, the White Camellias denied any connection whatsoever with that order. Their activities were confined to the southern parts of the Southern states; a region farther south in general from that occupied by the Klan. The White Camellias operated with less publicity but with perhaps even more effectiveness than did the Klansmen, although they did not employ such violent methods. They were thought to have been even more numerous than the Klansmen, and their secrets better kept. They were typically better organized than the Klan, and their membership, which was generally from a higher social stratum, included newspaper editors, physicians, lawyers, law-enforcement officials, public figures, and even a few former officers of the Union army living in the region. Many of the members freely admitted their membership, and officers sometimes identified themselves as members before congressional or legislative committees and detailed their organization and some of their activities. Though some renegade members committed atrocities, many others left the order because of its lack of militancy (Long, 2002).
"The Ku Klux Klan was founded on Christmas Eve in 1865. It was six former Confederate military