Samuel Green

Samuel Green (November 18, 1889 – August 18, 1949) was an American obstetrician who was Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1940s, organizing its third and final reformation in 1946. By the early 1930s, Green had become the Grand Dragon of Georgia.

Starting from the late 1920s, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a problem with declining membership. In 1939, Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans sold the organisation to two Klan members, Green and James A. Colescott. Colescott served as the Imperial Wizard and Green as his assistant. While Colescott was forced to dissolve the organization in 1944, Green began to reform the Association of Georgia Klans with its focus on white supremacy and anti-communism. In October of the same year, Green orchestrated a formal revival ceremony on Stone Mountain. According to historian Robert P. Ingalls, the fiery cross lit for the ceremony was between 200 and 300 feet in height (60.96-91.44 metres). The initiation ceremony of the night closely followed the patters established by William Joseph Simmons in 1915. The only problem for the ceremony was that there were more members and initiates present than robes and hoods available to them. Many of them wore handkerchief masks instead of more traditional Klan uniforms. He died in the rose garden of his home. His death weakened the Klan by further splintering its leadership.

1949 Exhibition Baseball Games After the Brooklyn Dodgers announced in January that their exhibition games would be in Macon and Atlanta, Green stated "there is no law against the game. But we have an unwritten law in the South – the Jim Crow law." His statements were against the black players on the team. During the exhibition games, Green used the influence of Herman Talmadge to try and ban Dodgers players Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.

Organizations During his command, the Ku Klux Klan infiltrated and controlled the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Green's successor Samuel Roper was the second director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Green also made alliances with the Atlanta Police Department and Atlanta taxi drivers.