Roy Elonzo Davis (April 24, 1890 – August 12, 1966) was an American preacher, white supremacist, and con artist who co-founded the second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.

Davis was Second Degree (second in command) of the KKK under William J. Simmons and later became National Imperial Wizard (leader) of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

[1] Davis used religious meetings and revivals as a tool for KKK recruitment and was a traveling evangelist and pastor, founding churches in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky.

He baptized and ordained William Branham as a minister in 1929, who served as an elder in his church and participated in Davis's revival meetings.

He abandoned his wife Emma and their three children in Texas and fled to Georgia where he took the alias of Lon Davis and married another woman, Elva Gravley.

[2][9][10][11] Davis was apprehended in Georgia during May 1917 after being turned in by a woman who recognized him and was upset that he had abandoned his Texas family and remarried illegally.

[13] Davis posed as a Christian missionary bound for Egypt to gain the trust of the community and was later offered the pastorship of the Acworth Baptist Church during the summer of 1920.

A newspaper article covering the event contained information suggesting that Davis had been involved organizing KKK groups at Baptist churches in multiple other cities in South Carolina and Georgia.

He held rallies and meetings to recruit members in Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

The newspapers also began recording and reporting on his speeches in which he explained the principles of the KKK to include "white supremacy" and "protection of pure womanhood".

[24] Davis faced legal trouble again in September 1922 when complaints were filed against him in connection to a burglary case in Waco, Texas.

In May 1923, Davis instigated physical violence when two business owners he targeted in his publication were involved in an altercation with KKK members.

Davis, as a high ranking Klan leader, played a key role in encouraging members to abandoned Evans and remain loyal to Simmons in their new order.

[40] After a financial scandal over misuse of funds led to the collapse of the Knights of the Flaming Sword, Davis began to refocus on building up the new denomination.

[49] Davis ran into legal troubles in Kentucky during March 1930 after he defrauded multiple people by soliciting donations to a fake charity.

[53] While the revivals were still being held in Jeffersonville during September 1930, when he was 40, Davis was reported to police for living with a 17-year-old girl, Allie Lee Garrison, whom he had brought over state lines from her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[55][56][57] Davis successfully convinced the court to drop charges against him, but he was jailed ten days and members of his church were fined for their antics during the trial.

[58] After being released from jail, Davis resumed pastoring his church in Indiana and traveling and holding revivals in other states including Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Michigan, and Tennessee.

[71] In 1932 Davis continued to travel regularly between the churches he had planted in Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee holding revival meetings and conducting KKK recruitment.

Branham reported that in one meeting held in Memphis, Tennessee, that Davis drank sulfuric acid to make people "believe that God's real".

[86][87] In 1937 Davis held publicized revival meetings in New York City, while he continued to spend much time at his church in Kingsport, Texas.

[91] After leaving prison in November 1942, Davis and fellow KKK member, former Congressman William Upshaw, began working together in California.

The William Branham Campaign team published an article publicizing Davis and his revivals in Voice of Healing in October 1950.

[85] Davis became president of the Oak Cliff White Citizens Council in Dallas Texas during the 1950s which he used as a platform to oppose racial integration.

[97] In 1958, Davis was known by law authorities to be Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Flaming Sword in Texas, a position he had been holding for some time.

In a letter published in The Waco Citizen on August 15, 1957, Davis advocated for the upholding of segregation and criticized presidential candidate John F. Kennedy for his support of the civil rights movement.

[110] A cross was burnt in the front yard of Congressman Overton Brooks during a Davis led KKK rally in Shreveport, Louisiana, in February 1961.

Shreveport Mayor Clyde Fant declared that local authorities would not tolerate KKK activity and called Davis "unamerican" for intimidating a Congressman.

Davis was named in an investigation by the United States Secret Service as being suspected of authoring a pamphlet entitled J.F.K Wanted For Treason shortly before the assassination.

Their investigation concluded that Davis had been Imperial Wizard since before 1960 and his group and leadership position had grown following a splintering of Eldon Edward's KKK in the late 1950s.