Robert Marvin Shelton (June 12, 1929 – March 17, 2003) was an American salesman and printer who became notorious for being the Imperial Wizard of the

United Klans of America The United Klans of America Inc. (UKA), based in Alabama, is a Ku Klux Klan organization active in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in membership in the late 1960s and 1970s,Abby Ferber. '' White Man Falling: Race, Gender, ...

(UKA), a

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

group, active from the early 1960s until 1987.

Career and KKK activities

Shelton was a factory worker and a car-tire salesman. He also owned a printing business, with an office on Union Boulevard. In the late 1960s, Shelton ran for Police Commissioner in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

. He finished in fifth place. Following the death of Imperial Wizard Eldon Edwards, the original KKK organization began to fracture during the leadership of Imperial Wizard Roy Davis during the 1960s. Shelton started a new KKK organization, the

in an effort to unite the various KKK factions, and served as the UKA leader starting in 1961. which peaked with an estimated 30,000 members. By 1965, Shelton's organization had outgrown the other KKK factions to become the largest in the United States, according to the FBI. In 1966, Shelton was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $1,000 for contempt of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

, "for refusing to turn over membership lists to the

House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...

." In 1969, after losing his appeals, he reported to prison to serve his sentence. In 1984, James Knowles, a UKA member of the UKA's Klavern 900 in Mobile, was convicted of the 1981 murder of Michael Donald. At trial, Knowles said he and Henry Hays killed Donald "in order to show Klan strength in Alabama." In 1987, the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

brought a civil case, on behalf of the victim's family, against the United Klans of America for being responsible in the lynching of Donald, a 19-year-old black man. Unable to come up with the $7 million awarded by a jury, the UKA was forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother, who then sold it. During the civil trial Knowles said he was "carrying out the orders" of Bennie Jack Hays, Henry Hays' father and a long-time Shelton lieutenant. In 1994, Shelton described the Klan as a shadow of what it once was:

"The Klan will never return. Not with the robes and the rallies and the cross lightings and parades, everything that made the Klan the Klan, the mysticism, what we called Klankraft. I’m still a Klansman, always will be. The Klan is my belief, my religion. But it won't work anymore. The Klan is gone. Forever."

Death

Shelton died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on March 17, 2003, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

References

External links

United Klans of America History

Endnotes: Robert Shelton Biography

Photos of Robert Shelton from the Moncrief Photograph Collection at the Mississippi Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelton, Robert 1929 births 2003 deaths People from Tuscaloosa, Alabama Leaders of the Ku Klux Klan Activists from Alabama American Ku Klux Klan members convicted of crimes American prisoners and detainees People convicted of contempt of Congress United States Air Force personnel of the Korean War