Fifty Years Ago Today, October 18, 1965

Klan Attacked

by AG Flowers

The Ku Klux Klan came under a double--barrel attack here with House investigators confident they have the facts to expose the group as "possibly the greatest ally of communism in the United States," and a stiff blast from the Alabama attorney general. Richmond Flowers attacked the Klan, issuing a 26-page "white paper" tabbing the organization as a "vicious, perverted" band of social and economic failures.

Sanders

Gov. Carl E. Sanders' announcement of an investigation aimed at revoking Ku Klux Klan charters in Georgia brought from Klan leaders a charge of politics and a prediction that the Klan would be better off. "The klan probably would be better off if they revoked the charters," said James R. Venable of Stone Mountain, an attorney and head of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc.

Voting Law

Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace's first taste of triumph in his fight against the 1985 Voting Rights Act was on the books today. A circuit judge declared the federal law unconstitutional. Judge James Hare's ruling Monday forbids Dallas County (Selma) Probate Judge Bernard Reynolds from placing on official voting lists the name of any applicant signed up by federal registrars sent to Alabama under the act.

This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Fifty Years Ago Today, October 18, 1965 ."