Simmons, W. J. (William Joseph), 1880-1945

William Joseph Simmons was born in Harpersville (Ala.) in 1880. After serving in the Spanish-American War, he became a Methodist circuit preacher in Alabama and Florida. He served in that capacity until 1912 when he was suspended at the Methodist Bishop Conference. Simmons then became active in numerous fraternal organizations, primarily the Woodmen of the World in Birmingham (Ala.). After a "vision," and in conjunction with the Hollywood release of movie The Birth of a Nation, he was instrumental in organizing a revived Ku Klux Klan in 1915 in Atlanta (Ga.). He appointed himself the emperor and imperial wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and began a crusade to increase membership which reached its height in the 1920s A rift in the Klan leadership resulted in Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans of Dallas (Tex.) replacing Simmons as imperial wizard in November 1922. After an automobile accident in 1925 Simmons' health soon began to fail and he eventually moved to Luverne (Ala.) where he died in 1945.