Published: August 24, 2007 06:02 pm         

From Klan leader to Christ follower

Former Imperial Wizard preaches reconciliation

LAUREL, Miss. — Burning crosses, issuing threats, organizing riots and even becoming part of police setups were once part of Johnny Lee Clary’s life.

He quickly moved up the ranks with the Klan, eventually becoming the imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Sam Bowers’ successor. He hated people from any ethnic background besides his own. He marched on African-American churches.

But, the man with so much hatred for other people throughout his life now preaches a different story. He says he submitted his life to God and went into the ministry. Churches across the nation, and even around the world, invite Clary to preach race reconciliation. He is preaching a revival in Laurel this week at Evangel Temple on Old Bay Springs Road.

Pastor Paul Edwards admits he was nervous until Clary’s first sermon earlier this week. Edwards said he got Clary’s name from his nephew, who preaches in Florida. He said members of the church prayed for guidance of an minister for revival, and Clary’s name kept coming back up.

“We felt the Lord leading this way,” Edwards said. “God confirmed in everybody’s heart. The first speaking Sunday, I don’t believe there was a dry eye in the house.”



A life of hatred



A Christian at an early age, Clary had fallen away from church and a religious surrounding. He dealt with issues as a child adults couldn’t handle.

He grew up in Del City, Okla., during the Civil Rights Movement. His father wasn’t in the Klan because he was Catholic, but his uncle was a member. He said his father would tolerate people of different backgrounds, but his grandfather wanted everyone killed. He was taught all black people wanted to kill, steal, and break-in on white people.

“I was taught to hate,” Clary said. “He (father) planted the seed to hate.”

Clary said the first time someone tried to change his mind was on a Sunday School trip. He was on a church bus and called a passing African-American man the n-word. His Sunday School teacher pulled him aside and taught him the words to the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” Clary went home singing the song and his father pulled him out of church and that took away a sanctuary.

“My mother was an alcoholic,” he said. “I went to church to avoid the fighting.”

The time came when his mother cheated on his father and he then watched his father commit suicide. His mother then moved her boyfriend into his father’s house and kicked out the children. Clary ended up living with a sister in California and spent much time on the streets of East Los Angeles because his sister only wanted him around to get his part of inheritance for drugs, he said.

“My whole world changed from that point on,” Clary said. “I was a kid taken from a middle class home to the middle of street gangs. I was learning to become a street fighter. I was becoming a mean kid.”



Finally, a family



Clary said he eventually saw David Duke, the former Grand Dragon for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, on television. He wrote a letter to Duke, explaining his childhood and problems. The Klan responded, Clary said, with much literature and he even got a personal visit from the group. The man was not Duke, but said he personally knew him.

“You’ve had a horrible life,’” Clary said the man told him. “’If you will join the Ku Klux Klan, you will be a leader. We will be your family.’”

Clary went back to Oklahoma, finished high school, and went into heavy recruitment for the Klan as a member of the Youth Corps. He joined the Invisible Empire of the KKK. His first recruits were police officers in Oklahoma.

“It was just spreading through Oklahoma,” he said. “By 20, I was the youngest state leader.”

Clary worked his way up through the organization, eventually becoming a Grand Dragon. He helped lead a riot on a small town in Oklahoma.

“The whole town about went up in flames,” he said.

Clary’s grandmother was still around, and confronted him on his actions. Crying, she told him he was wrong and she was praying.

“I told her she didn’t know what she was talking about,” Clary said.

Clary gained fame when he became a pro-wrestler. He made the talk show circuit, including Oprah. He spoke at rallies, using his notoriety to share his message of hate.



Time for a ‘barbecue’



It was during a talk show on a radio station he met someone who would become a huge part of his life, the Rev. Wade Watts. Watts was the state’s NAACP director, and had planned to debate Clary.

“I love you and Jesus loves you,” Watts told Clary.

Clary panicked after shaking Watts’ hand, saying he had broken a Klan rule. Watts noticed, and said, “Don’t worry, Johnny, it won’t come off.”

Clary went off on Watts, and made plans to get back at him.

“You can’t do enough to make me hate you, Johnny,” Clary said as he remembered the conversation.

Clary and other members of the Klan, in complete dress, marched on Watts’ house.

“He stuck his head out of the door and told us, ‘Halloween is four months away. I don’t have trick-or-treat for you now.’”

When that didn’t work, the Klan burned a cross across the street. Watts again responded with bravery and compassion.

“He told us, ‘Did you boys bring enough hot dogs for your barbecue?’” Clary said.

Clary said Watts’ mocking finally broke him down. He gave the word to burn the church where Watts pastored. He also called Watts, telling him, “You better be afraid, boy, be very afraid.” Clary continued his harassment of Watts when the Klan saw him eating at a restaurant. Watts was eating a piece of chicken, and Clary told him the Klan would do to him whatever he did to the chicken.

“He looked at the chicken and picked it up and kissed it,” Clary said.



Clary, the Imperial Wizard



During all this time, Clary became the Imperial Wizard, replacing Sam Bowers. Clary said he started fighting against the board of directors, made of Grand Dragons, and they clashed when the group wanted to join forces with “Skinheads” and Nazis.

“I didn’t like ‘Skinheads’ and Nazis,” Clary said.

Klan members started to distrust Clary. It turned out Clary’s girlfriend at the time was an FBI informant, and Clary’s friends were ending up in jail. Things started to get exposed.

“I was just tired of the entire mess,” Clary said.

A friend told Clary to be careful, that someone was trying to set him up. The friend said Clary would be pulled over by officers and drugs would be planted, sending Clary to prison for years.

“I resigned my position. I wasn’t going to quit the Klan, just as leader,” Clary said. “They all began to turn on me. They began to threaten me.”

Clary quit the Klan, couldn’t get a job, and wrestling sponsors would have no part with his beliefs. He got married a second time and that lasted six weeks. He lost everything.



A loaded gun



“She cleaned me out,” Clary said. “I put a bullet in a gun and wrote a suicide note.”

That’s when Clary saw a Bible. He picked it up, and it fell open to Luke 15.

“I started crying, saying, ‘God, I need your help.’ I promised service for the rest of my life,” Clary said.

Clary almost immediately got a job at a car dealership and made $700 the first day, enough to get him by a little while. He turned his life to God completely and the hatred for others went away. He got the call to missions and almost immediately he remembered the African-American preacher he terrorized.

“I called him up and his wife answered the phone. I didn’t tell her who I was. I heard her tell her husband who it was on the phone. He answered and I said, ‘Hello, brother.’ He said, ‘It’s not him, honey!’”

Clary told Watts he had surrendered to God’s service. Watts asked him if he had preached his first sermon yet, and Clary told him no. Watts invited Clary to his church, and Clary’s first sermon was at the same church he had burned down.

After the sermon, a 15-year old child was saved. The child was Watts’ niece.

“I led her in the sinner’s prayer,” Clary said.

Clary and Watts traveled seven years after that. They were guests on different talk shows, including Geraldo and the Ricky Lake Show. They held rallies in towns where Klan rallies were scheduled to preach peace and reconciliation instead of hatred. Watts died in 1998. Clary was a pallbearer and gave the eulogy. Before the coffin was closed, Clary kissed Watts’ forehead. It was then a memory resurfaced, the memory of when Watts had kissed the chicken.

“I kept my promise after so long,” Clary said.

Clary now preaches people should judge others on character, not race. He said people should remember Heaven isn’t made up of different religions or different races.

“Anybody who claims to be a Christian, but still hates a black person or a white person has no full relationship with God,” he said. “You don’t judge a race of people by the actions of a few.”



Jason Niblett writes for Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call.