John Andrew Collins

Stone Mountain to Dallas John Andrew Collins

Roy Elonza Davis was a religious grifter from Texas who hung his hat in middle Georgia to evade the Texas authorities. Posing as a Baptist minister, he made connections with prominent figures in Atlanta and the surrounding area. When the Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915, Davis helped to write the constitution, by-laws, and ritual. As popularity of the White nights began to spread, Davis became an official spokesperson for William Joseph Simmons, the Imperial Wizard. After Simmons was ousted, Davis continued to work with Simmons as Royal Ambassador of the Knights of the Flaming Sword. After Klan membership began to decline with the fall of D. C. Stephenson of Indiana, Davis seized the opportunity to rebuild. Together with former Georgia Congressman and Klansman William D. Upshaw, Davis started to build a Klan organization of his own. This time, he had an unusual ally: The Reverend William Marrion Branham, leader of the Post WWII Healing Revival.