Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard was the title given to the leader of the first Ku Klux Klan, which formed during Southern Reconstruction. Nathan Bedford Forrest was believed to have held the title before the Klan was dissolved. At the time the Grand Wizard had very little real power, since most Klan "dens" (local groups) were effectively autonomous due to the Klan's semi-clandestine nature.
In 1915 the Klan was reborn as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Still commonly referred to as the KKK, this incarnation has used a different system of titles for their officers. The highest-ranking leaders of the modern Klan factions have more commonly used the title of Imperial Wizard.
List of Grand Wizards and Imperial Wizards
- Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1867-1869 (GW)
- William J. Simmons, 1915-1945 (IW)
- James A. Colescott, 1939- (IW)
- Hiram Wesley Evans, 1920-45 (IW)
- William Hugh Morris, 1946- (IW)
- Samuel W. Roper, 1949- (IW)
- Eldon Lee Edwards, 1955-1960 (IW)
- Jack William Brown (IW)
- James W. Cole (GW)
- Robert Davidson (IW)
- Walter A. Bailey (IW) Mississippi Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
- Charles H. Maddox 1960-1967 (IW) Association of Georgia Klans (1960)
- Robert Shelton, 1961- (IW)
- James Venable, 1963-1987 (IW)
- Sam Bowers, 1964-2006 (IW)
- Donald Joseph Ballentine, 1965- (IW)
- Xavier Edwards, 1966- Maryland Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (IW)
- Jack Helm, 1966- Universal Klans of America (IW)
- Albert Lentz, ca. 1971 (IW), Independent Ku Klux Klan, York, Pennsylvania
- David Duke, 1974-1978 (GW)
- Bill Wilkinson, 1975-1982 (IW)
- Bill Sickles, ca. 1980 (IW) Adamic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
- Don Black,1980-1984 (GW)
- Virgil Lee Griffin, 1984-February 2009
- Dennis Mahon, 1988-1992 (IW)
- Roy A. Davis
- James Blair, 1982-1986
- James Farrands, (1986- )
- Ray Larsen (2002- ) (IW) National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
