Act II of the House Committee on Un-American Activities’ investigation of the Ku Klux Klan got under way in early January and promises to continue for several months. The stars were disappointing compared to those who had enlivened the hearings last October, but one bright moment was provided by John D. Swenson, selfacclaimed “father of the modern-day Klan in Louisiana,” who, before invoking the Fifth and other constitutional amendments, revealed that he had burned all of the Klan records the House Committee had ordered him to bring to Washington “so they wouldn’t fall into the hands of the enemy.”
“Who is the enemy?” inquired Chairman Edwin Willis (D., La.). “The Communists,” replied Swenson, looking straight at a subcommittee of four conservatives and one Liberal. For unconscious irony the reply compared with the Imperial Wizard’s own statement to the press last fall that he would not answer the Committee’s questions because he refused to give in to “harassment, intimidation and coercion—the handmaidens of Communism — regardless of the power source from which it [sic] spews.” No one asked Robert Shelton if he was now going to join the forces seeking abolition of HUAC.
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