Letter sheet, a "Fiery Summons," for notifying a Ku Klux Klan member of a forthcoming cross burning, c. 1925. Light dampstains in the lower margin.
Printed in lurid red and black, features a hooded Knight holding a burning cross, a column of mounted Knights approaching from behind. Blank area below is for a handwritten message.
Shocking as it may seem today, in its heyday in the 1920s, the KKK was considered a mainstream patriotic organization, with millions of members. These letter sheets were ostensibly mass-produced and sold to local chapters for use in organizing. The ritual of cross burning was a fairly routine practise, intended to rally the faithful and impress the public with the Klan's religious fervor and piety, as well as intimidate those the Klan deemed a threat to the racially-defined social order it espoused.