Robert Shelton (Ku Klux Klan)

Robert Marvin Shelton (June 12, 1929 – March 17, 2003) was a former car-tire salesman and printer who became nationally famous as the Imperial Wizard of United Klans of America (UKA), a Ku Klux Klan group.

Robert M. Shelton
1st Grand Wizard of the
United Klans of America Inc.
In office
1960–1987
Preceded byPosition Established
Succeeded byPosition Abolished
Personal details
Born
Robert Marvin Shelton

June 12, 1929
DiedMarch 17, 2003 (2003-03-18) (aged 73)
ResidenceTuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S.
Occupationfactory worker, car-tire salesman, printer
Known forImperial Wizard of United Klans of America

Career

Shelton was a factory worker and a car-tire salesman.[1] He also owned a printing business, with an office on Union Boulevard.[1] In the late 1960s, Shelton ran for Police Commissioner in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He finished in fifth place.

Shelton served as the UKA leader starting in 1961,[1] which peaked with an estimated 30,000 members.[2] In 1966 Shelton received a year in prison and $1,000 fine for contempt of the United States Congress, "for refusing to turn over membership lists to the House Committee on Un-American Activities."[2]

In 1984, James Knowles, a UKA member of the UKA's Klavern 900 in Mobile, was convicted of the 1981 murder of Michael Donald.[3] At trial Knowles said he and Henry Hays killed Donald "in order to show Klan strength in Alabama."[3] In 1987, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) 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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[3]

In 1994, Shelton said, "The Klan is my belief, my religion. But it won't work anymore. The Klan is gone. Forever."[2]

Death

Shelton died of a heart attack on March 17, 2003 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.[2]

References
  1. Theroux, Paul (2015). Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads. London, UK: Hamish Hamilton. p. 74. ISBN 9780241146729.
  2. "Robert Shelton, 73, Leader of Big Klan Faction". New York Times. March 20, 2003. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  3. "Emergence of the UKA". Anti-Defamation League. 2007. Archived from the original on November 10, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  4. "Donald v. United Klans of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. 1988. Archived from the original on February 6, 2006. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  5. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 11
Preceded by
Eldon Edwards		 Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
1960 – 1987		 Succeeded by
none (UKA disbanded)
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