An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven)

Interviewer: Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Numbering: Issue 23.A, Idea: Outliers & Outsiders (Part Nineteen)

Place of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Title: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.com

Individual Publication Date: June 22, 2020

Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Name of Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Frequency: Three Times Per Year

Words: 7,575

ISSN 2369-6885

Abstract

John Collins is an author and the Founder of William Branham Historical Research. His new book is entitled Preacher Behind the White Hoods: A Critical Examination of William Branham and His Message. He discusses: “The Message” formed in the racist sub-culture of the Ku Klux Klan; William Marrion Branham and the Serpent Seed Doctrine; the theology of William Marrion Branham supporting racist ideologies; the Klan-supportive doctrines of purported revelations and the Serpent’s Seed; William Marrion Branham claiming Martin Luther King as “communistic inspired”; the anti-integration of the school systems at the times of the Civil Rights movement; William Marrion Branham and “heathens”; and the deepest ‘revelations’ about the Serpent Seed doctrine being something only the bride could understand in any real way.

Keywords: John Collins, Klu Klux Klan, Preacher Behind the White Hoods, Roy E. Davis, Serpent Seed Doctrine, The Message, white supremacy, William Branham.

An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven)[A]^,[B]

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How was “The Message” formed in the racist sub-culture of the Ku Klux Klan?

John Collins: In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan was re-birthed in Stone Mountain, Georgia, by William Joseph Simmons and a group of fifteen charter members.[1] Among those charter members, according to his own testimony, was a minister and evangelist named Roy E. Davis.[2]

Davis was an official spokesperson for the Klan in the 1920s[3] and critical to understanding the themes of white supremacy woven through William Branham’s theology. It was Davis who trained William Branham in the ways of the Pentecostal faith and the “art” of “faith healing”.[4]

Though created as a fraternal organization, the Ku Klux Klan touted itself as a “Christian” group[5] established to uphold and enforce “moral” values they referred to as “true” or “pure Americanism”.[6] Membership grew to over 500,000 recruits before government institutions realized that the nation had been silently infiltrated by a terroristic, militant force. In September 1921, New York World ran a series of articles exposing this fact,[7] resulting in a Congressional inquiry and ultimately splintering the group into several sub-sects. The Klan was suddenly exposed as an anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-Black terrorist organization inciting violence in American cities. Congressman William D. Upshaw, a secret member of the Ku Klux Klan[8] and familiar name to William Branham’s “Message” cult, managed to save the group from a government-issued shutdown.

The description of events that happened next, as it relates to William Branham, are difficult to summarize in the course of one single interview. I do my best to outline the details in my book, Preacher Behind the White Hoods: A Critical Examination of William Branham and his Message. William Joseph Simmons was ousted from the group he created. Simmons and Davis attempted to create another white supremacy group called the Knights of the Flaming Sword.[9] The Indiana Ku Klux Klan grew to an enormous capacity and infiltrated Indianapolis Government,[10] only to be left in disarray with the murder and rape conviction of Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson.[11] Roy Davis set up his base of operations in Jeffersonville, Indiana, seemingly to seize the opportunity while evading multiple criminal convictions[12] and after serving prison time.[13] Davis’ brothers migrated to Jeffersonville, Indiana[14] to assist in revivals producing “healing miracles”.[15]

It was during the highly publicized intersection of these events that Roy E. Davis ordained William Branham into the Pentecostal faith and established him as a “faith healing” minister. Based on the timing of the articles printed in the local newspapers, Branham’s first ministerial tasks would have been to battle the negative publicity before, during, and after Roy Davis’ extradition to multiple states for multiple criminal charges. After Roy Davis was released from a 1940 “ sex pervert” prison sentence[16] and reconnected with William Upshaw[17], the two former Klansmen planned a strategy to rebirth the original Ku Klux Klan.[18] Then they reconnected with William Branham,[19] and shortly after, the “Message” was born.[20]

2. Jacobsen: When did William Marrion Branham first learn of the Serpent Seed ideology within a church led by a high-ranking official of the Ku Klux Klan?

Collins: Among white supremacy groups touting themselves as “Christian”, there is a notion of “Christian Identity” through bloodline.[21] This “Christian Identity Doctrine” is based upon the extra-biblical claim that the Original Sin in the Garden of Eden was the result of a sexual union between Eve and the Serpent. Based upon William Branham’s close ties to high-ranking members of the Ku Klux Klan and his statements aligned with Klan agenda,[22] it should come as no surprise that this would be a fundamental doctrine in Branham’s “Message” cult theology.

William Branham alleges that he first came in contact with this doctrine through George DeArk,[23] who was an elder in Roy Davis’ Pentecostal church along with Branham. DeArk continued as an elder when Davis was extradited for criminal charges and the church transitioned to the Billie Branham Pentecostal Tabernacle.[24] It is unclear whether the transfer of knowledge happened during Davis’ leadership or Branham’s, but based upon the timeline of events it would appear that Branham first learned Christian Identity Doctrine while acting as an elder of church led by a former high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Understanding the timing of William Branham’s public position regarding the Christian Identity doctrine is critical in understanding its racial context. During the years in which the “Message” was being birthed, at least according to the sermon transcripts that we have access to read, William Branham publicly rejected Christian Identity (or his “Serpent’s Seed Doctrine) as false. Branham alleged that he disagreed with George DeArk on this subject, and preached that “Adam and Eve was the father and mother, earthly, of every living creature of human beings that’s ever been on the earth. {…} Black, white, pale, brown, yellow, whatever color you might be”.[25]

In 1958, however, as the country grew more strongly divided on the issue of Integration of black and white children into schools, Braham changed his position. Nine African Americans had enrolled in Little Rock Central High School at the end of 1957,[26] after which time the issue of Integration went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups were actively recruiting in Little Rock, Arkansas to block integration, and had successfully convinced the public to keep the schools segregated.[27] The Federal Bureau of Investigation was working undercover in Little Rock, Arkansas at that time, and found Rev. Roy E. Davis at the center of the integration protests. As the Arkansas government voted to reject the Supreme Court decision to force integration,[28] Branham introduced his Christian Identity doctrine to the public.[29] Christian Identity doctrine, rebranded as “Serpent’s Seed”, would continue to be a fundamental part of Branham’s cult doctrine.

Just like it was on The Serpent’s Seed, but it’s absolutely proven to be right. I got papers right here, out of the paper, where women right now…and even in—in the great…Some of the great dioceses has got the pictures of the original, a snake crawling on a woman’s leg, and just in how it goes around her; she has all kinds of sensations and things, something a man could never touch her with, with this huge snake wrapping around her, and so forth. That’s exactly the truth. And it’s going worse and worse, and will get worse. Serpent, which he was not…he could not have had the sex affair with her when he was a serpent.[30]

3. Jacobsen: How did the theology of William Marrion Branham support racist ideologies?

Collins: Christian Identity doctrine was not the only racially charged theology that William Branham propagated, and his use of doctrine and claims of “supernatural events” were not solely focused upon theology. Some of Branham’s teachings included politically motivated agendas supportive of the white supremacy ideology. Many of these teachings were very subtle, and might have gone unnoticed without the more obvious ones to examine. Branham was very outspoken against specific public figures in the entertainment industry, for example, which would seem out of place for a minister of the “Gospel”. Many of them just happen to be the same public figures targeted by white supremacy groups. Branham frequently condemned Lucille Ball and any who watched her television show,[31] “I Love Lucy”. This show, featuring an interracial married couple, attempted to break down racial barriers.

As the battle for Civil Rights intensified, and Roy E. Davis assumed his role of Imperial Grand Dragon, the supreme leader of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,[32] Branham was no longer subtle. This was especially the case when John F. Kennedy began running for office; Kennedy promised to create equal opportunity for all mankind “by the stroke of the President’s pen”.^[33] William Branham claimed that the election of President Kennedy was “one of the greatest mistakes the colored race ever made”. Branham compared Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Civil Rights activism to Hitler,^[34] and claimed that President Kennedy’s support of equal rights was a denial of freedom of religion. This, he said, was the “antichrist”.^[35]

The most revealing, as it relates to a minister during the era of intense battle to prevent the integration of public-school systems, is a tale Branham frequently used in his sermons. Overlooking the racial slurs Branham used such as “Aunt Jemima”, the underlying theme was that of an African American boy suffering the effects of syphilis – with whom no “respectable” white mother would want her daughter to attend school:

The first thing you know, I looked, leaning across a gate, and I was going on along there singing that little song, “I’m so glad that I can say I’m one of them,” singing it to myself, and I looked across the gate, and there was a typical old Aunt Jemima with a man’s shirt tied around her head, a little old whitewash cabin of a thing setting there, and there was a—a plowpoint hanging on the gate for a weight to pull it back. And she was hanging out there looking over there. And I seen her about a hundred yards away, and I quit singing, just went on down the street. When I passed by, she started smiling, looking at me, tears running down her big fat cheeks. She said, “Good morning, parson.” I turned around. I said, “Good morning, Auntie.” I said, “How’d you know I was a parson?” She said, “Parson, did you ever read in the Bible about the Shunammite woman, who couldn’t have a baby, and she told the Lord that she was blessed, and—and Elijah told her that she was going to have a baby, and she had it, and then the baby died?” I said, “Yes, I remember that.” She said, “I’s was that kind of woman. I couldn’t have no baby, and I told the Lord I’d raise the baby,” and said, “to suit for Him.” And she said, “The Lord give me and my husband a baby.” And she said, “Parson,” she said, “the baby, my boy, when he got to be a man, he went out and done what was wrong.” And said, “I couldn’t help it, parson.” Said, “I’ve washed over the washboard” said, “to try to raise him right in church, but,” said, “he backslid, and he went away from God; and he got with the wrong crowd.” And said, “Parson,” said, “he got a bad disease, syphilitic, dying with a venereal disease.” And said, “And he’s laying in here dying.”[36]

4. Jacobsen: What were the Klan-supportive doctrines of purported revelations and the Serpent’s Seed?

Collins: As is the case with the central figure of any religious or political cult, supreme authority in doctrine and interpretation of scripture was given to William Branham by his cult following. In political cults, this authority is granted through a shared belief in a common goal. Religious cults favor the “supernatural”, their central figures claiming “visions”, “prophecies”, or “revelations”. If evaluated after the Little Rock Nine incident and Branham’s true intentions made public, it would appear that Branham’s “Message” cult following is both religious and political. Doctrine fundamental to the cult’s theology, such as Branham’s “Serpent’s Seed”, clearly aligned with Klan Agenda.

Shortly after John F. Kennedy was elected, Branham started claiming to have had a “prophecy” in 1933 proclaiming that women voting would result in “electing the wrong man” and causing the “destruction of the United States”.[37] Cult doctrine was introduced that forbade female cult members to vote, in an apparent attempt to control future ballots. (It was a common belief at that time that Kennedy won the election due to his popularity among female voters, though more women voted against Kennedy than for him.[38])

When each of Branham’s extra-biblical doctrines and “revelations” are examined in context of the timeline of the Civil Rights movement, the agenda becomes clear. This is especially the case with regards to his doctrine that a “Christian should forfeit their rights”, his stance against education,[39] and his statements claiming that African Americans should be content with their own schools.

It’s just because they want to go to school. They got schools. Let them go to school. That’s right. … a colored man is satisfied in the state he is in, so they don’t need those things[40]

5. Jacobsen: Why was William Marrion Branham claiming Martin Luther King as “communistic inspired”?

Collins: The second “Red Scare” of the 1940s and 1950s was a tool used frequently by white supremacy groups both to reinforce their agenda and to create distrust in their opponents. Many people in the United States feared that the Soviet Union and its allies had infiltrated the U.S. Government, resulting in a massive witch hunt to identify communist sympathizers.[41] As Martin Luther King took center stage in the battle for Civil Rights, these groups began to focus their efforts against King, labeling him as a “Communist.”[42]

It was during this same time that William Branham launched his own campaign against Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. According to Branham, African Americans seeking equal rights was “communistic”:

Down there that day in Shreveport when that uprise come, and them…and there was all them young colored inspired out there, communistic[43]

But look, it isn’t them real genuine borned again Christian colored people that’s causing all of this trouble. You want to condemn them for that, what about some of our renegade white kids? See? Now, what sauce for the goose is for the gander. Well, our white kids cause twice as much trouble as they have. That’s exactly right. Where’s it at? In our colleges and things like that. Some of our higher-educated people is causing those things. See? Well, what is it? Now, to show you that it’s communism and not them colored people, that’s how communism has always come in to take over.[44]

Like I said, this Martin Luther King is leading his people to a crucifixion. It’s communistic.[45]

6. Jacobsen: Did this racist attitude and worldview influence the anti-integration of the school systems at the times of the Civil Rights movement?

Collins: It is difficult to say whether William Branham’s efforts to sway politics through religion had direct impact, and even more difficult to measure how much that impact influenced the decisions made by State and local governments. Without question, it contributed to the resistance. Any of Branham’s devout followers would have been persuaded due to his authority over doctrine and scripture, some of them repeating his ideology to others. Any of those same members who were militant against the integration of schools would have used Branham’s theology as justification for their bigotry and hatred. The question is whether or not those committing hate crimes had come in contact with Branham’s recordings or literature. With Branham’s influence, especially among the right-wing, evangelical Christians in the South, it would seem more likely than not.

Regardless, it is clear that the main arguments used to remain segregated can be identified in Branham’s sermons. Whether claiming the Civil Rights movement to be “communist” or claiming that black schools during segregation were “better than white”, Branham’s racially charged statements would have been more popular among the opposition than the freedom seekers.

The question down there is “segregation of school.” Now, I was there at the first uprise, and I heard it, and I—I know from what I speak of. The colored people has fine schools, sometimes much better than the other schools. And, for instance, in Shreveport they got finer schools than the white school is. But it’s the idea of somebody inspiring them that they should go and mix themselves together. Which, I think that it’d be all right, but as long as the people are protesting it, those southern people, then what difference does it make anyhow?[46]

7. Jacobsen: Why did William Marrion Branham consider all black people “heathens” based on the culture?

Collins: Without awareness of William Branham’s connections to white supremacy, researchers would mistakenly assume that Branham was either ill-informed or had never visited the locations in Africa that he claimed. His descriptions of the South African culture mislead readers and listeners to believe that large cities such as Durban were undeveloped and untamed. His descriptions of the inhabitants were that of indigenous tribes from scenes in Hollywood movies instead of the civilized cultures that existed at the time in which he participated in the healing revivals.

Without awareness of the themes of white supremacy in his sermons, one might also mistakenly assume that Branham was simply boasting by overexaggerating the number of conversions in his revival meetings, as seemed to be the case among others in the Post World War II Healing Revival. Though the revivals Branham participated in included hundreds of other “faith healers”, evangelists, and ministers having ministries they claimed to be just as “supernatural” and “powerful” as Branham’s, there was very little mention of the other ministers involved with the revivals. Branham used the word “I” more frequently than the word “we”, seemingly with intent to claim the results of the Apostolic Faith Missions, Voice of Healing Revivals, and other movements as his own.

Durban, South Africa, for instance, had a population of almost a half of a million citizens.[47] There were (and still are) some remaining indigenous tribes outside of the cities where meetings were held, but the vast majority of Durban citizens were Christian. Of those, a large number of Christians were already Pentecostal. In the late 1800s, John Alexander Dowie (founder of the Zion City Cult in Zion City, Illinois) began growing a church of converts, mostly Zulus.[48] In 1908, the Apostolic Faith Missions (AFM) began their attempt to spread Pentecostalism, leading to racial segregation among the converts and the more than 6,000 independent Pentecostal churches that exist today. If not for one single statement[49] in Branham’s post-Africa-trip speech, Branham’s connections to the AFM might otherwise have gone unnoticed. He later tried to distance himself from the AFM, claiming a disagreement in the process of baptism.[50]

Knowing the connections to white supremacy and the types of propaganda used in the sermons, it becomes easier to identify the strategy behind the statements. The racially charged statements go far beyond racial profiling; Branham attempted to demonize the profile. In sermons with titles such as “demonology”, William Branham claimed that Africans were “big, burly, heavy fat-like people. Some of them are nearly seven-foot tall, and weigh, oh, two hundred and eighty, three hundred pounds, burly.”[51] He described citizens attending the revivals as “fifteen different tribes”,[52] without qualifying his statements with phrases such as “as well as thousands of civilized Pentecostal converts from the thousands of local churches”.

His usage of the word “heathen” was based on their use of cosmetics and jewelry, specifically earrings. Though the Bible contains many examples of the righteous wearing jewelry and cosmetics, from the beauty contest in the book of Esther[53] to God’s own description of his Bride in the book Ezekiel,[54] Branham claimed that cosmetics and earrings were “heathenism”.

That’s the heathen trait. Any paint, never in the world, but all painting of faces originated with heathens is always condemned by believers. I hope this goes real far down home, just to make you real good and sick for a few minutes. But now, don’t get angry with me; I love you. But I just want to tell you what’s truth. Remember, I’ve just returned from the African jungle. Every one, the tribals of heathen, on every kind of an occasion they paint their face and wear great big earrings. The Indian savage heathen paints his face and puts on war paint when he goes in—in the… His war is worship around his idols. He paints.[55]

I can prove this without a shadow of a doubt, that woman wearing paint come from a heathen trait. The heathens do it. And boogie-wooglie and rock-and-roll is a African dance of the heathens. Can’t you see how the devil come in and polished it up?[56]

Branham also combined negative statements describing two separate cultures, naming only the African culture. Whether strategic or not, it resulted in listeners mistakenly assuming the descriptions were of Africa. In a sermon describing his upcoming travels to South Africa,[57] for example, William Branham described scenes from a popular “spiritualist camp” in Indiana that was just a short drive from his home in Jeffersonville. Camp Chesterfield, home of the famous “Madam Mimi” offered an attraction of a floating piano that played the same jingle used in the Beverly Hillbillies television show, “Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits”. Until it was later exposed as a hoax, many visitors believed they were witnessing actual “spirits”.[58]

I’ve seen the heathens clap their hands, do a dance, speak in tongues, and do all those things, and interpret it, but they were African heathens. Sure. I seen them lay a pencil down, and that witch doctor stood there and made that pencil stand up, and run up-and-down on a place up there, and come back and played, like, “shave and a hair cut, two bits,” and drawed out an unknown tongue and wrote it out, and one of them stood there, interpreting it. Oh, my![59]

8. Jacobsen: What was the idea of the deepest ‘revelations’ about the Serpent Seed doctrine being something only the bride could understand in any real way? What were the deepest supposed revelations? Who or what was the “bride”?

Collins: As was the case with any propaganda used by white supremacy groups, the deepest secrets and most fundamental ideologies contained the vague, public version and the deeper meaning in private versions. If asked by news media or religious journal, many leaders of Branham’s cult following would simply claim that Branham’s alleged sexual union between Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden resulted as a “spiritual separation” of people, not physical. Others might claim that it was physical, for a period of time, but after the Great Flood of Noah, one of the two physical bloodlines was made extinct. My grandfather, who was for almost fifty years the pastor of William Branham’s “Branham Tabernacle” after William Branham’s death would have never publicly stated his belief in two physical bloodlines from behind the pulpit, regardless of what he thought and said in private. There were a handful of African American congregants in his church, and this would certainly not have went over well. He would never mention in public that my grandmother refused to eat food served by a person with black skin in a restaurant, or that family members refused black renters for their skin color. Those who knew the public versions of cult leaders have vastly different opinions than those who knew the private, and even then, only those in agreement on those ideologies knew the extent of the private version.

To understand the “deeper revelation” behind Branham’s Serpent’s Seed doctrine, one must first understand Branham’s doctrinal teaching concerning the female gender. Under the public surface, this doctrine has the context of a physical blood type that currently exists – not a “spiritual” separation of race or limited existence. Branham taught that the female gender was not in the original creation,[60] a by-product or afterthought designed by Satan[61] for sex[62] and filth. In his twisted version of the Creation Story, Branham claimed that God created the female body as an impure creature solely for the purpose of sex with the Serpent to produce a second bloodline.[63] This “perversion”,[64] the female gender, was not limited to the “spiritual” or to a specific period of time. In Branham’s theological teaching, the female gender was physically and morally the same as Eve, the mother of all living, and were (in present tense) “not worth a good clean bullet to kill them with it”.[65]

Based on the timeline of Branham’s reversal in theology, it becomes clear that his version of Christian Identity was introduced with a deeper meaning that could be applied to the current events, specifically the integration of public schools. It was the “mystery” of a physical “perversion”, creating a physical bloodline, resulting in the modern system of education. What was the result of this physical bloodline? To the white listener in alignment with the themes of white supremacy, the serpent and Eve created the non-white race. To the black listener unaware of those themes, this bloodline created the education system they wanted the freedom to participate in through the attendance of their children. To the cult member, unaware that any of these themes exist, it is simply the idea that evil is among the public, undetectable by the human eye, which claims a direct lineage to Satan through the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.

You know that. The woman doesn’t have a seed, the female. She has an egg, but not a seed. But she…appointed him, a seed, see, appointed by God’s appointment, she took the seed. And the great Seed, course, from the woman, was that God gave. See, God appointed her a seed instead of the one that Cain slew; that, the enemy, death, serpent’s seed slew God’s seed, in perversion there, you see. God appointed, through the woman, a Seed, which is Christ, see, to bring back the original seed again. You see it? And so you see the perversion brought death through education and intelligence, and what we call today, science and religion, and so forth, it brought death. But she…appointed him, a seed, and then man began to call upon the Name of the Lord, and begin to come back to the Word again. See? And remember, follow that seed, as we will track it in a few weeks, on this serpent. You follow that, it switches right through the Scripture. Watch it. Them two vines grow right together, as you heard my Message on “the vine.” They come right up together, and so close together that it would almost deceive the very elected, if possible, in the last days when it come to the head. It puts forth a grain just like a wheat, but it isn’t a wheat, see, it isn’t. It’s a shuck, yet. Now, see there: civilization, education…I think I’ve got about ten more Scriptures, you see, wrote down there, but I think not to go through that. But we understand by this, that education, science and civilization, is of the devil. That’s right. It isn’t of God. It is of the devil.[66]

9. Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, John.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[A]  Author; Founder, William Branham Historical Research.

[B] Individual Publication Date: June 22, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2020: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[1] “The Various Shady Lives of the Ku Klux Klan”. Time. April 9, 1965. “An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. Simmons, an ascetic-looking man, was a fetishist on fraternal organizations. He was already a “colonel” in the Woodmen of the World, but he decided to build an organization all his own. He was an effective speaker, with an affinity for alliteration; he had preached on “Women, Weddings and Wives”, “Red Heads, Dead Heads and No Heads”, and the “Kinship of Kourtship and Kissing”. On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a “practical fraternity among men”, and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”

[2] Ku Klux Klan Active in Shreveport Area. 1961, Feb 10. The Times. “Davis said that he is the only Klansman who can boast having all the degrees of the Klan conferred on him. He said that he helped write the constitution, by-laws, and ritual of the original Klan when it was revived in 1915.

[3] Klan Refused Hall. 1923, Jan 12. Reading Times. “Rev. Roy E. Davis, an official spokesman of the Ku Klux Klan”

[4] Davis, Roy. Wm. Branham’s First Pastor. 1950. The Voice of Healing. “I am the minister who received Brother Branham into the first Pentecostal assembly he ever frequented. I baptized him, and was his pastor for some two years.

[5] Constitution and Laws of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 1921. “We the Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of Almighty God and recognize His goodness and providence through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

[6] Constitution and Laws of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 1921. “a fervent devotion to pure Americanism”

[7] The Ku Klux Klan. 1921, Sept 5. New York World.

[8] Norfolk Chief of Police Said to Be Member Ku Klux. 1921, Oct 12. Durham Morning Herald. “Upshaw a member. Information Gained From News Letters Sent From Klan Headquarters”

[9] Fraternity Attacked as Money Making Order. 1925, Jan 23. Lead Daily Call. “He [Roy E. Davis] said that he had been led to believe Col. Simmons was one of America’s greatest Christian statesmen and the Moses of the present order of things”

[10] Gitlin, Marty. 2009. The Ku Klux Klan: A Guide to an American Subculture. “Before the 1924 election, the Indiana Klan sent out 250,000 sample ballots to its members, indicating which candidates to vote for. The result was that Klansman Ed Jackson, an unknown before the primary, won the gubernatorial election”

[11] Lutholtz, M. William (1993). Grand Dragon: D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University

[12] Ex: Pastor Held in Mann Act Case. 1930, Oct 12. Courier Journal

[13] Roy Davis, Singer and Masher, Goes to Prison. 1917, Jun 29. Wise County Messenger.

[14] 3 Davis Brothers Plan a Pentecostal Revival. 1931, Apr 17. The Evening News.

[15] Gospel Healers Claim a Cure at Tent Meet. 1930, Oct 4. The Evening News.

[16] Saltarella, Jim Magus. 2017. Acworth; Heritage History Hauntings. “A record dating July 9, 1940 showed him in Huntsville Prison, in Walker County, Texas. The note ‘sex pervert’ was handwritten on the log beneath his name”

[17] 1943, Aug 8. The San Bernardino County Sun. Orphanage, School At Upland Slated To Open Sept. 15. “Former Representative William D. Upshaw is taking an active part in the organization of the institution and is to be in charge of the department of Americanism”

[18] The Present-Day Ku Klux Klan Movement. Report by the Committee on Un-American Activities. House of Representatives. Ninetieth Congress, First Session. 1967, Dec 11. “Prior to 1960, there had been no effective Klan activity in the State of Louisiana for several decades. The Klan was reactivated in Louisiana late in 1960 by Rev. Roy E. Davis of Dallas Texas.

[19] Branham, William. 1954, Feb 17. Jesus On The Authority Of The Word. “And he said, ‘Well, I [William D. Upshaw] was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.’ said, ‘Dr. Davis, the one that ordained you in the Baptist church, was the one who sent me here to see you.’”

[20] The “Message” is a broad term describing adherents to William Branham’s cult following. In the late 1940s through early 1950s, it held other titles, such as “Latter Rain Message”. See Chapter 31, “WILLIAM BRANHAM AND THE BIRTH OF THE MESSAGE”. Collins, John. 2020. Preacher Behind the White Hoods: A Critical Examination of William Branham and His Message. ISBN 9781735160900

[21] Christian Identity. Southern Poverty Law. Accessed Oct 24, 2018 from https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/christian-identity

[22] Ex: Branham, William. 1960, Nov 13. Condemnation by Representation. “One of the greatest mistakes that the colored race ever made, was down in Louisiana and over in there, when they voted for Kennedy, the other night, put him in. They actually spit on that dress of Abraham Lincoln, where the blood of the Republican party that freed them, and voted a Catholic.”

[23] Branham, William. 1953, Jul 29. Questions and Answers on Genesis. “he said, “I tell you where Cain got his wife,” said, “Cain went over and married a great big female ape.” And said, “Out of that ape come forth the colored race.”

[24] Warranty Deed. 1936, Nov 9. Clark County Courthouse.

[25] Branham, William. 1957, Oct 6. Questions and Answers on Genesis. “Brother George DeArk and them down there. And I was walked, and the Lord led me to a little place. And they was discussing where the colored man came from. And they were trying to say that the colored man…That Cain married an animal like an ape, and through there come forth the colored race. Now, that’s wrong! Absolutely, that’s wrong! And don’t never stand for that. Cause there was no colored or white, or any other different, it’s just one race of people unto the flood. Then after the flood and the tower of Babel, when they began to scatter out, that’s when they taken their colors and so forth. They’re all come from the same tree. That’s exactly right. Adam and Eve was the father and mother, earthly, of every living creature of human beings that’s ever been on the earth. That’s right. Black, white, pale, brown, yellow, whatever color you might be”

[26] Little Rock Nine. Accessed Oct 20, 2018 from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration

[27] Office Memorandum. 1958, Oct 2. F.B.I. Vault

[28] On This Day – Sept 27, 1958. Little Rock, Arkansas Votes to Close Public Schools Rather Than Integrate. Accessed 2020, Jun 9 from https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/sep/27

[29] 1958, Sept 28. The Serpent’s Seed. “All right, we’ll just find out whether it’s wrong or not. “And I will put enmity between thy Seed and the serpent’s seed.” What? The serpent seed! She had a Seed, and he had a seed.”

[30] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce.

[31] Branham, William. 1956, Aug 1. The Arrow Of God’s Deliverance Shot From A Bow. And the people today, they’d rather stay home and see “I Love Lucy,” or what is that? Lucy—Lucy something. They’re very loosey; I’ll take that again. They’re loose enough, they’re running to hell. Exactly. That might be all right for the—from the heathens, but that’s not for Christians. That’s right. It’s not for Christians. Christians won’t…?… and love the Word of God. If you’ve got something in you feeding on such nonsense as that, you need to repent.

[32] Assassination of President Kennedy. 00-2-34030. “On December 9, 1963, Inv. Brumley, Intelligence Unit, Dallas Police Department, discussed this case with the reporting agent, and he through that Earl Thornton, Klansman, and former associate of Rev. Roy Davis, might be suspect in this case. Thornton offered to allow Davis to use his printing equipment when Davis was in business as Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Brumley, who knows Davis personally, doubted however that Davis printed these leaflets.”

^[33] Blight, David W. Scharfstein, Allison. King’s Forgotten Manifesto. Accessed 2020, May 18 from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/opinion/kings-forgotten-manifesto.html

^[34] Branham, William. 1963, Jun 30. The Third Exodus. “One thing, I pray that Brother Martin Luther King will certainly soon wake up. He loves his people; there’s no doubt. But if he just only see where his inspiration. What good would it do if you went to school, a million of you laying yonder, dead? Wouldn’t just be, go to school, just the same? Now, for—for hunger, if it was for something another, slaves, the man would be a martyr to give his life for such a cause, a worthy cause, and that would be a worthy cause. But just to go to school, I—I don’t see it. See? I don’t think the Holy Spirit is agreeing with him, at all, on that. It’s got the people all worked up, in a bunch of ballyhoo, you see. Just—just like Hitler did, over in Germany, led them right into a death trap.”

^[35] Branham, William. 1963, Jun 30. The Third Exodus. “The natural man, the antichrist, is growing now. Through politics, he’s already got to the White House. In religion, he’s got all the people so scrupled up, till actually they’d fall right for it. And the denominational leaders, practically every church that there is in the nation, is already in the confederation of churches. Raamses is growing. And they’re all uniting together, and that’s what they’ll have. And what does it do? It makes a power, a beast just like the first one.”

[36] Branham, William. 1955, Aug 7. Leading of the Spirit of God.

[37] ^[37] Branham, William. 1960, Nov 13. Condemnation by Representation. “It shall also…has been an evil thing done in this country, they have permitted women to vote. This is a woman’s nation, and she will pollute this nation as Eve did Eden.” Now you see why I’m hammering the way I do? I got THUS SAITH THE LORD. “In her voting, she will elect the wrong person.”

[38] Gallup poll information for 1960

[39] Branham, William. 1961, Apr 11. “Today they want to make an educational school out of it: reading, writing and arithmetic. When I got to Africa amongst my colored brethren, what did they know? Reading, writing, and arithmetic, they had no business for that. That’s the reason when they seen a real true moving, God come into the midst of the people, thirty thousand accepted Christ at one altar call: Durban, South”

[40] Branham, William. 1963, Jun 28. O Lord Just Once More.

[41] Second Red Scare. Accessed 2020, Jun 9 from https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Second_Red_Scare. “The Second Red Scare (1947-1957) was a fear-driven phenomenon brought on by the growing power of communist countries in the wake of the Second World War, particularly the Soviet Union. Many in the U.S. feared that the Soviet Union and its allies were planning to forcefully spread communism around the globe, overthrowing both democratic and capitalist institutions as it went. With the Soviet Union occupying much of Eastern and Central Europe, many in the U.S. perceived their fears of communist expansionism as confirmed. The U.S. also feared that communist agents had infiltrated the federal government. A massive witch hunt to root out communist sympathizers ensued.”

[42] Honey, Michael K. 2018. To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice “In the 1960’s, right-wing groups demonized King and the movement he represented. The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama and Mississippi bombed black churches, murdered civil rights activists, and made life hell for SNCC organizers in Mississippi. A segment of evangelical white Christians based in the Southwest also demonized the civil rights movement. The Christian Anti-Communist Crusade mass-distributed a vituperative pamphlet with a drawing of King wearing a mask, titled, “Unmasking the Deceiver, Martin Luther King, Jr.” This eight-page flyer outlined the standard anticommunist lines: “King Associates with Communist School”; “King Lauded by Communist Press”; “King Works With Communists”: “Lawlessness and Violence Accompany King”; “King Aids Communist Party Objectives”

[43] Branham, William. 1964, Aug 30. Questions and Answers #4

[44] Branham, William. 1964, Aug 30. Questions and Answers #4

[45] Branham, William. 1964, Apr 18. A Paradox.

[46] Branham, William. 1963, Jul 21. He Cares

[47] “Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants”. Demographic Yearbook 1965. New York: Statistical Office of the United Nations. 1966. pp. 140–161.

[48] Historical Overview of Pentecostalism in South Africa . Accessed 2020, Jun 10 from https://www.pewforum.org/2006/10/05/historical-overview-of-pentecostalism-in-south-africa/

[49] Branham, William. 1953, Nov 14. Africa Trip Report. “And so the—the next day, Brother Schoeman going up, which he was—he belonged to the—the Apostolic Faith Missions of Africa. And he was the President of the—of my—of my group. And he was a National Committee”

[50] Branham, William. 1957, Aug 21. Hebrews, Chapter One. In Africa they baptize three different ways: they baptize once for the Father, and once for the Son, and once for the Holy Ghost. The Apostolic Faith mission, they baptize three times, face forward, to His death. What they call the Full Gospel on the West Coast, or the East Coast, baptize three times backward, said He…unto His burial.

[51] Branham, William. 1953, Jun 9. Demonology, Religious Realm.

[52] Branham, William. 1953, Jun 9. Demonology, Religious Realm.

[53] Esther 2:1-18. Bible, King James Version.

[54] Ezekiel 16:12. Bible, King James Version. “And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.”

[55] Branham, William. 1956, Oct 3. Painted Face Jezebel

[56] Branham, William. 1958, May 9. Life.

[57] Branham, William. 1963, Dec 1. Just Once More, Lord. “And then we come back here, through July and to the middle of August. And then go back, way down under the earth, at South America…not South America, South Africa. And on the second day of September, this coming 1964, the Lord willing, we begin in—in Durban, South Africa, where we saw thirty thousand people come to the Lord, at one time.”

[58] Marimen, Mark. William, James A. Taylor, Troy. 2008. Weird Indiana: Your Travel Guide to Indiana’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

[59] Branham, William. 1963, Dec 1. Just Once More, Lord.

[60] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. She is not in God’s original creation. She is a by-product

[61] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. You may question me about Satan being her designer, but that’s the Truth. Satan designed her. He still does it.

[62] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. Excuse this, young ladies. She is nothing but a human garbage can, a sex exposal. That’s all she is, an immoral woman, is a human sexual garbage can, a pollution, where filthy, dirty, ornery, low-down filth is disposed by her. What is she made this way for? For deception. Every sin that ever was on the earth was caused by a woman. And an analyst just from Chicago, a—a woman wrote this article, the police force; that they chased down, in United States, metropolitan United States, that “Ninety-eight percent of every crime that was ever did in any form, in the United States, there was either a woman in it or behind it.

[63] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. Why didn’t He make her like that in the beginning, like the rest of His females? Because it would be unbecoming to Him. He is the Fountain of all purity. That’s the reason He had to let Satan get a hold of her, what he done in the perversion. Such a creature would be, would not be becoming to Him, originally designed for.

[64] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. You remember what was the first perversion? Was a woman.

[65] Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage and Divorce. This was my remark then, “They’re not worth a good clean bullet to kill them with it.” That’s right. And I hated women. That’s right. And I just have to watch every move now, to keep from still thinking the same thing.

[66] Branham, William. 1965, Oct 31. Power of Transformation

Appendix II: Citation Style Listing

American Medical Association (AMA): Jacobsen S. An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven) [Online].June 2020; 23(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

American Psychological Association (APA, 6^th Edition, 2010): Jacobsen, S.D. (2020, June 22). An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven). Retrieved from http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 23.A, June. 2020. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven>.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2020. “An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 23.A. http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

Chicago/Turabian, Humanities (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott “An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 23.A (June 2020). http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

Harvard: Jacobsen, S. 2020, ‘An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven)‘, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 23.A. Available from: <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven>.

Harvard, Australian: Jacobsen, S. 2020, ‘An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven)‘, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 23.A., http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 7^th Edition, 2009): Scott D. Jacobsen. “An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 23.A (2020):June. 2020. Web. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven>.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. An Interview with John Collins on The Message, the Klu Klux Klan, Serpent Seed Doctrine, and William Branham (Part Seven) [Internet]. (2020, June 23(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/collins-seven.

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