A Story of the Original Ku Klux Klan

A Story of the Original Ku Klux Klan, authored by William Bethel Romine and published in 1924, emerged from a period of intense historical revisionism in the American South. The work was produced during the resurgence of the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, a time when various authors sought to romanticize the Reconstruction-era predecessor of the organization. The text functions as a piece of local historical narrative, specifically focusing on the Klan's activities in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the group was founded.

The book reflects the popular historical myth-making prevalent in the early twentieth century, which framed the original organization through a lens of Southern chivalry rather than acknowledging its role in domestic terrorism and racial violence. Romine, a local newspaper editor, intended the work to serve as a definitive account of the group's origins, drawing heavily upon the testimonies of surviving members. While it was received by contemporaries as an authoritative local history, modern scholarship categorizes the text as a primary source document for studying the construction of Lost Cause mythology.