Why John Brown Gordon Belongs in this Lineup The Face of the Georgia KKK: While Forrest was the Grand Wizard in Tennessee, Gordon was widely recognized by historians as the secret, operational head of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia. He used his immense wartime popularity to organize nighttime terror raids, assassinate Black leaders, and systematically suppress the Black vote.The Convict Leasing Kingpin: Gordon didn't just support convict leasing; he built an empire on it. As Governor of Georgia and a U.S. Senator, he ran a massive triumvirate of political power known as the "Bourbon Triumvirate." He leased thousands of predominantly Black prisoners to work in his coal mines and railroads under conditions so utterly horrific that the mortality rate regularly mirrored the worst historical atrocities.The Master of the "Pious" Lie: Gordon was the ultimate smooth-talking politician. He would stand before Congress and swear up and down that white Southerners loved Black people and only wanted peace, while simultaneously pocketing massive corporate profits from his forced-labor camps and funding the Klan to terrorize those same citizens.
