The KKK grand wizard offered Reagan electoral support after his states’ rights speech

Evidence

Although the Reagan-Bush campaign repudiated support of the Ku Klux Klan, a month following Reagan’s appearance in Philadelphia the campaign received a telegram from the grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Tuscumbia, Alabama, promising that if Reagan continued his support for “anti white discrimination” and a range of issues, Reagan “will receive the support of our membership as well as the majority of all Americans.” — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 243

Categorization

• XREF: The telegram strengthens the book’s claim that the Philadelphia ‘states’ rights’ speech was coded white-supremacy outreach. — connects to: Reagan’s states’ rights rhetoric signaled racial backlash — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 286; Reagan used racially coded language that racists understood without spelling out — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 148; Reagan launched his campaign with a states’ rights appeal at a murder site — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 284 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle: primary-source receipts (Reagan Library mailgram) tying the 1980 campaign directly to Klan courting, useful for a piece on how the Religious Right’s Southern Strategy was pursued in plain sight.

Related

• Reagan opened his 1980 campaign at the Mississippi Klan-murder site invoking states’ rights (similarity 0.84)
• Reagan’s states’ rights speech at the fair signaled racial retrenchment to Black Mississippians. (similarity 0.83)
• Reagan launched his campaign with a states’ rights appeal at a murder site (similarity 0.82)
• Reagan’s backlash rhetoric repudiated civil rights through coded attacks (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Reagan’s states’ rights speech at the fair signaled racial retrenchment to Black Mississippians. #corroborates (0.95) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1210
• Reagan’s states’ rights rhetoric signaled racial backlash #corroborates (0.92) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 286
• Reagan launched his campaign with a states’ rights appeal at a murder site #expands (0.90) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 284
• Reagan used racially coded language that racists understood without spelling out #corroborates (0.88) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 148
• Reagan’s backlash rhetoric repudiated civil rights through coded attacks #corroborates (0.85) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 211