Terrorism Reference Biographies | Robert Shelton Biography

1929

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

"We don't want violence but we ain't gonna let [them] spit in our face either."

During the growing campaign by African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s to achieve equal rights with white Americans, another campaign began to deny equality to citizens with black skin. This campaign was led by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), an organization that often used violence, or threats of violence, to stop black Americans from exercising their rights under law.

In the 1960s, Robert M. Shelton was the Grand Wizard (the leader) of the largest organization of several that called themselves the "Ku Klux Klan." He was the public head of a shadowy organization officially named the United Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klans, Inc. Its headquarters were in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. But given the secret nature of the...