John Tyler Morgan House | |
![]() The house in 2011 | |
Location | 719 Tremont St., Selma, Alabama |
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Coordinates | 32°24′49″N87°1′39″W / 32.41361°N 87.02750°W |
Area | 0.4 acres (0.16 ha) |
Built | 1859 |
NRHP reference No. | 72000159 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 27, 1972 |
The John Tyler Morgan House is a historic Greek Revival-style house in Selma, Alabama, United States. It was built by Thomas R. Wetmore in 1859 and sold to John Tyler Morgan in 1865. Morgan was a Confederate brigadier general amid the American Civil War and the second Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. [2] [3] [4] [5] In 1876, Morgan stepped down as supreme leader of the Alabama Klan and was elected as a Democratic U.S. senator from Alabama for six terms. [2] [3] [4] He used this house as his primary residence for many of those years. [6]
The building housed John T. Morgan Academy, a prominent segregation academy, [7] [8] from its incorporation in June 1965 until a new campus was completed in 1967. [9] The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 27, 1972, due to its historical significance. [1] It currently houses the Alabama Historical Commission's Old Cahawba Administrative Offices. [10]
General James H. Clanton of Montgomery was the first Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and continued in this capacity until his death, when General John T. Morgan was elected in his place, and served until 1876. The Ku Klux Klan in 1877 was led by General Edmund W. Pettus as Grand Dragon of the Realm.
On his death the mantle [of Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon] passed to General John T. Morgan, who later became one of the most distinguished of Senators and statesmen.
The first leader of the Klan in this state was Gen. James H. Clanton, for whom one of our fine towns is named. And on his death, the leadership passed to Alabama's Gen. John Tyler Morgan.
[John Tyler Morgan was] a former senator who was a Confederate general and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Morgan Academy, a segregated private school founded by whites three months after Bloody Sunday.
Administrators are quick to acknowledge that Morgan, like most other private schools in the area, began as a response to desegregation.