World War I effectively came to an end with the signing of a ceasefire in November 1918, but the KKK was just getting started. At the request of a Bureau agent in Tampa, a representative of the American Protective League-a group of citizen volunteers who helped investigate domestic issues like draft evasion during World War I-convinced an area Klan group to disband in August 1918.“This uneasiness of the Knights of Labor,” our agent noted, “is the first direct result of the Ku Klux activities.” Agent Outlaw investigated and assured Rhone we would protect him from any possible harm. Outlaw learned that Ed Rhone-the leader of a multi-racial group called the Knights of Labor-was worried by the abduction of another labor leader by reputed Klansmen. In June 1918, a Mobile agent named G.C.The agent came up with a novel solution to resolve the draft-dodging issue and to protect the man from harm: he escorted the evader to a military camp and ensured that he was quickly inducted. A Bureau agent looking into the matter discovered that the local KKK had gotten wind of the interracial affair and was organizing to lynch the man. In Birmingham, a middle-aged African-American-who fled north to avoid serving in the war-was arrested for draft dodging in May 1918 when he returned to persuade his white teenage girlfriend to marry him.Our early files show that Bureau cases and intelligence efforts were already beginning to mount in the years before 1920.
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