HISTORY CHANNEL PRESENTS KU KLUX KLAN: A SECRET HISTORY PART 5 OF 5

Vocabulary

Membership in the Klan is secret, and the Klan, like many fraternal organizations, has signs members can use to recognize one another. A member may use the acronym AYAK (Are you a Klansman?) in conversation to surreptitiously identify himself to another potential member. The response AKIA (A Klansman I am) completes the greeting.

Throughout its varied history, the Klan has coined many words beginning with "KL" including:

-Klabee: treasurers
-Kleagle: recruiter
-Klecktoken: initiation fee
-Kligrapp: secretary
-Klonvocation: gathering
-Kloran: ritual book
-Kloreroe: delegate
-Kludd: chaplain

All of the above terminology was created by William Simmons, as part of his 1915 revival of the Klan. The Reconstruction-era Klan used different titles; the only titles to carry over were "Wizard" (or Imperial Wizard) for the overall leader of the Klan, "Night Hawk" for the official in charge of security, and a few others, mostly for regional officers of the organization.