AH Challenge: The Ku Klux Can!

The picture below is from NATIONAL LAMPOON magazine's July 1976 issue. NATIONAL LAMPOON, for those of us old enough to remember it, used to be a magazine, and a damned funny one. Literally nothing was sacred and EVERYTHING was mined for laughs. Even the KKK.

It occurred to me, as I was flipping through old back issues, that this picture contains some obvious alternate history implications. So my challenge to you is, with a POD anytime after 1920, and without resorting to Alien Space Bats, transform the Ku Klux Klan into a multi-racial charitable and benevolent society whose purpose is raising money to support a chain of children's hospitals across the USA.

Have fun. :D

kukluxcan2.GIF
 

Sachyriel

Banned
They use hospitals as front organizations to administer sterilizations to the poor black population.
 
IIRC, the early Klan was only anti-black, but didn't have any concern (at least as an organization) about Jews, Catholics, and all the others they'd come to make an enemy. Maybe if they kept to that, and slowly evolved more into an "America for Americans" organization with the eventual dropping of anti-black hatred, it could be possible. But that's pushing it. The Klan was founded against blacks; getting it off the path of racism will require so many POD's it'd make your head spin.
 
IIRC, the early Klan was only anti-black, but didn't have any concern (at least as an organization) about Jews, Catholics, and all the others they'd come to make an enemy. Maybe if they kept to that, and slowly evolved more into an "America for Americans" organization with the eventual dropping of anti-black hatred, it could be possible. But that's pushing it. The Klan was founded against blacks; getting it off the path of racism will require so many POD's it'd make your head spin.

That's actually a good start. Let's add to it. Interestingly, there is a possible historical POD...

wikipedia said:
Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans sold the organization in 1939 to James Colescott, an Indiana veterinarian, and Samuel Green, an Atlanta obstetrician. They were unable to staunch the declining membership.

wikipedia said:
Colescott was forced to dissolve the organization in 1944, but in 1946, Green reformed the group in Atlanta. He was elected Imperial Wizard two weeks before his death from a heart attack in Atlanta.[1] Following Green's death, the Klan split into independent groups.

Let's suppose that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Samuel Green (and many other Klan members) experiences some general shock and revulsion about what the Nazis did and a recognition of some of the obvious parallels between Klan ideology and Nazi ideology. Let's say he lives a couple of decades longer than in OTL and decides to take the Klan into a whole new direction. Being an obstetrician, his natural inclination is the care of children and pregnant women. The Klan founds the first of what will become a chain of hospitals in Atlanta in 1948. Rejecting racist ideology, they open this hospital to children of all races. Gradually, over time, as more hospitals open and this mission increasingly takes over the Klan, membership is opened to non-whites.

Robed members of the Klan go door to door, collecting donations for the hospitals. The phrase, "The Klan may be visiting you soon" takes on a whole new meaning. :D
 
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That's actually a good start. Let's add to it...

I like it! And a Klan that accepts non-whites is a bit more plausible if we make it a relatively recent development, perhaps a bit controversial within its own ranks. And of course, this benevolent Klan will likely have an awfully hard time convincing blacks to join (to say the least), so perhaps the guy in the photo is more of a promotional decision than an accurate reflection of the KKK's racial makeup.
 
Being an obstetrician, his natural inclination is the care of children and pregnant women. The Klan founds the first of what will become a chain of hospitals in Atlanta in 1948. Rejecting racist ideology, they open this hospital to children of all races. Gradually, over time, as more hospitals open and this mission increasingly takes over the Klan, membership is opened to non-whites.

I wonder what the Shriner do in that TL
 
wat about this
Several KKK Leaders or high rang members are in WW2 GI and get prisoners of war
and end up in SS-Workcamps like Mittelwerk or Japanies prisoncamps
they experience racism from otherside and get backt home purified
start Transforming KKK into humanist organization


to the picture ROFL
you know this one ?
black-kkk-pink-klan-love-tolerance-demotivational-poster.jpg

by the way there SpongeBob SquarePants fans also....
 
They use hospitals as front organizations to administer sterilizations to the poor black population.
Heh. All too possible.

IIRC, the early Klan was only anti-black, but didn't have any concern (at least as an organization) about Jews, Catholics, and all the others they'd come to make an enemy. Maybe if they kept to that, and slowly evolved more into an "America for Americans" organization with the eventual dropping of anti-black hatred, it could be possible. But that's pushing it. The Klan was founded against blacks; getting it off the path of racism will require so many POD's it'd make your head spin.

Let's expand this. Suppose they go anti-immigrant, 'keep out the foreigners' (by which they mean mostly e.g. Italian Catholics and anyone from eastern Europe). 'America for Americans' 'America First' and pro-protestantism trump race. So black Americans whose ancestors arrived 200 years ago and are Baptist are 'better' than 'foreign' refugees.

Raising 'American' health and survival rates, even birth rates, would be in line for such an organization.


Some how I suspect that immigrants from England/Scotland/Wales, or even Scandinavia will still be perceived as 'good'....
 
First: ROFLMAO!! Magnificent Bastard.

Second:

Here's a possibility:

OTL right after the ACW N. B. Forrest took over the Klan, which began as more of a social fraternity before morphing into a de facto guerilla cell. Even HE found the Klan's actions too much. OTL he tried to desolve it and nearly suceeded.

Instead let's say ATL he tries to make it a legitimate Christian grassroots political org, purging the more violent elements.

It grows into a peaceful protest group for State's Rights, segregated, but what wasn't then? By 1900 it's still whites only, but has Catholic members, even some registered Cherokee, Choctaw, etc., and has started evolving into a Christian charity organization. By 1930 it's a growing club, still nominally Christian in tone, but open to other views, famously crowning its first Jewish Grand Cyclops in 1941. By the Civil Rights era it has fully integrated and takes a stand for racial justice in keeping with Jesus' message and black protestors are always happy to see the men and women in the white sheets marching alongside them.

By 1970 it's a national club accepting all members. It raises millions every year for charities and sends missionaries around the world. The Burning Cross is seen worldwide as a symbol of giving, acceptance, international brotherhood, and love.


And somewhere, in the sky, an Irony Fairy gets its wings. :)
 
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