| Summary: | The rally was held in response to riots at Ole Miss before the enrollment of James Meredith, the first African American student at the school. An image of speakers at the event was published in the Birmingham News on October 17, 1962, with the following caption: "Masks hide faces at Klan meeting in Bessemer / This picture, taken during a rally of the Ku Klux Klan in Bessemer Saturday night, shows at least some of those attending wore hooded masks. Observers said that of the several thousand attending the meeting, an estimated 800 wore robes and possibly 200 of those wore masks. State Atty. Gen. MacDonald Gallion has said that he will ask Deputy Circuit Solicitor Howard Sullinger of Bessemer for a report on the rally. Alabama has a law against wearing masks in public. The Klan in the past has rented land for meetings and has contended that wearing of masks was on private property and not in violation of the law. The Saturday meeting was held at the Moose Lodge on the Bessemer Superhighway and spilled out into an open area adjacent to the lodge building. Sullinger said today he had not received the request from Gallion and added that he did not attend the rally. He said he would, however, make any investigation requested by Gallion."
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