AHEPA, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Siege of the Orthodox Church

ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ

Examining historical evidence, organizational origins, and the controversy surrounding AHEPA’s relationship with the KKK and its influence within the Greek Orthodox community. Until AHEPA comes face-to-face with its heavily blemished past (its origins by Ku Klux Klan and its crimes with the Greek orphans of the 1950s and 1960s), until it repents and asks forgiveness PUBLICLY, it has no right to encroach on our Churches and our communities.

By Helleniscope’s Editorial Team

Last Monday, June 9^th, 2026, the “Shrine” of St. Nicholas at Ground Zero turned its bema over to AHEPA to use it for its purposes.  Addressing the resident priests from the church’s bema, AHEPA’s Konstantinos Prentzas welcomed them to AHEPA.

It was sincerely painful to then watch Fr. Samuel get burned at his church’s altar by reading a false history narrative that is crafted by the fraudsters of AHEPA.

The issue must be resolved with solid, verifiable, conclusive evidence.  No interpretive commentary is needed to prove that AHEPA has hoodwinked an honorable Orthodox priest inside his own church by making him repeat AHEPA’s lies!

1. AHEPA’s constitution excluded Blacks for nearly five decades.

Look at the photograph that shows an excerpt of AHEPA’s constitutional provision in effect for nearly five decades.  It was written by the Ku Klux Klan at AHEPA’s founding, and was in force at the time Archbishop Iakovos marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. for universal civil rights.

In 1927, then-Supreme President V.I. Chebithes justified the exclusion of Blacks by arguing that Blacks were likely to “retard” AHEPA’s progress because of characteristics of their race:

“[T]he necessity that those who may be admitted to membership be required to measure up to certain standards, be in sympathy with the objects of the Fraternity and its methods of operation, and must not be likely to retard its progress because of any characteristics peculiar to their age, ideals of morality, religion, race, …”  The Ahepa, Aug. 1927, p. 30.

“[T]he reasons why persons of certain age, color, religious beliefs, or domicile, are automatically barred from becoming AHEPANS, are not because the Order seeks to encourage the establishment of distinctions between people, but because its objects and work being defined, it desires to avoid the possibility of conflict ever arising within its ranks upon any of its fundamental principles.  The Order of AHEPA teaches respect for all races, creeds, and religions, as long as they are not contrary or repugnant to the accepted teachings and established standards of morality and Americanism.”  Id., p. 19.

That same year, AHEPA’s Delphi Chapter held a kangaroo trial for its most prominent member, attorney Seraphim Canoutas.  It expelled him from AHEPA because he objected to AHEPA’s imitation of the Klan and its policies against Blacks, Catholics and Jews!  See Κανούτας, Σεραφείμ Γ., Το Νέον Πρόβλημα του Ελληνισμού της Αμερικής: ΑΧΕΠΑ, η παραδοξοτέρα ελληνική οργάνωσης εν Αμερική, η ιστορία της και οι σκοποί της, η στάσις της προς την Ορθόδοξην Εκκλησίαν, την ελληνική γλώσσαν και τα ελληνικά σχολεία, η στάσις του κλήρου, τι δέον γενέσθαι, Νέα Υόρκη, 1927.

2. The K.K.K. created AHEPA as part of a plan to expand into K.K.K.-affiliated organizations.

A year before AHEPA was founded, a high-ranking K.K.K. defector, C. Anderson Wright, “who resigned from the secret order ‘that rides in the night,’ after a threat on his life, he says, was one of those in the innermost circle of the Imperial Palace in Atlanta, and became familiar with all the plans, comprehensive and far-reaching, of the order.  First, he discloses a scheme by which, he says, Jews, Catholics, and foreign-born persons, under a new plan, are to be admitted partway in the order, but to none of its secrets, that plan being hit upon as a means of swelling the funds of the Klan and getting better ‘control’ of the ‘enemy.’  Undying hatred of the members of these creeds was not to be abridged in any degree.”  The Washington Times, Sept. 16, 1921, pp. 1 and 5.

The K.K.K. also responded to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.  “This activity on the part of the Negro, in the judgment of [K.K.K. Imperial Wizard] Clarke, warranted prompt action, and it was decided to set up a rival organization to the Society for the Advancement of the Colored people without delay.  Clarke began with a Negro in his own employ, a man of unusual intelligence, who was in charge of the servants on his farm on the outskirts of Atlanta. . .”  The Washington Times, Sept. 16, 1921, pp. 1 and 5.

3. AHEPA admits that it is the “brainchild” of a Klansman, George A. Polos.

AHEPA has called itself the “brainchild” of George A. Polos, also known as Poulos, who was a Klansman.  Past Supreme President V.I. Chebithes wrote in his memoirs:  “It is an established fact that George A. Polos was employed by the Imperial Palace of the Ku Klux Klan in a confidential capacity and that he was present and participated in its secret meetings and conferences with the policy makers and high administrators of that then dreadful powerful group.”  The National Herald, Oct. 17, 1950.

Polos, who worked as a salesman for the Fulton Fish Market in Atlanta, moonlighted as the KKK’s runner who framed trial witnesses into undesirable situations to impeach their testimony.  Newspapers at that time reported that Polos, who went by the name Poulos, worked on the K.K.K.’s legal defense team, which consisted of Klansmen J.O. Wood and Carl F. Hutcheson, who were the editors of the Klan’s newspaper, The Searchlight, as well as Walter A. Sims.  See The Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 22, 1921, pp. 1-2.

A newspaper reported in 1921 that “[t]hough the Klan’s foundation claim rests on ‘America for Americans’ and ‘white supremacy,’ George Poulos, a native of Greece, admits he was used by the Klan to trap C.H. Myers, a pressman . . .  [T]hereafter Poulos has Meyers arrested and appeared before the grand jury against him as the principal witness . . .”  Columbus Ledger Enquirer, Sept. 26, 1921.  Myers complained that “[i]t is simply a frame-up because I am a Catholic.”  The Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 22, 1921, pp. 1-2.

4. AHEPA’s founders were motivated by personal financial greed.

Polos and his fellow Klansmen modeled AHEPA after the Klan’s Ponzi scheme structure.  Under this scheme, recruiters kept half of the new members’ initiation fees, and the rest was passed up the pyramid to the lodge’s leaders.  There were 600,000 Greeks in the U.S. at that time, so with initiation fees set at ten dollars a head, later increased to 20, the organizers stood to make millions.  Let the record speak for itself:

Spiros J. Stamos, one of the eight celebrated “visionary” founders, recalled that the payment scheme did not work too well for fellow “visionary” Angelopoulos:  “When Brother Polos was complaining, Brother John Angelopoulos stood up and said to him, ‘Oh, yeah!  What about the sardelles (fish)?” “Sardelles, what sardelles?” answered Polos, in amazement.  “You know what sardelles!  You told me that if I help you organize this Order, I wouldn’t have to sell sardelles anymore!”  The National Herald, Oct. 9, 1950, p. 3.

5. The Klan organized and hosted the meeting in which it established AHEPA.

For nearly a year, Polos and his K.K.K. bosses tried to organize Atlanta’s Greeks into a Ponzi-schemed fraternity.  Polos was dismayed that Greeks rejected his invitations.  With Hutcheson’s guidance, Polos and Angelopoulos (the sardelles seller) sent out invitations to about 75 prominent Greeks to come to a meeting at the Red Brick Wing of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Atlanta at 3:00 pm, Sunday, July 23, 1922.  The meeting agenda was not announced; it was to discuss “an important subject.”  The invitations were signed by an unnamed “Committee.”  Angelopoulos’ testimony in The National Herald, Oct. 12, 1950, 3.

John D. Angelopoulos, Polos’ cohort in this endeavor, wrote that “this invitation to meet was suspected of being, in some way, connected with the [K.K.K.’s] activities.  Peter Marinatos, a leader in the Argos Society, told me this.”  Id.

When about 25 Greek Americans showed up at the meeting in response to the suspicious invitations, they found seven Klansmen already seated at the podium, waiting to host the meeting!  The Klansmen included George A. Polos and his K.K.K. bosses:  Carl F. Hutcheson and Walter A. Sims, as well as Solon B. Cousins, a minister who preached forcefully in defense of the Klan.  Id.

Klansman J.O. Wood was notably missing from the podium.  He was Hutcheson’s law partner and fellow editor of the Klan’s newspaper, The Searchlight, and a well-known anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant agitator.  He was returning that day from his trip to England, where he hoped to organize Klan affiliates as part of the K.K.K. expansion plan.  See, e.g., New York Times, July 10, 1922, p. 3.  Wood attended numerous AHEPA meetings afterward and influenced AHEPA’s anti-Greek direction.

At the organizational meeting, the Greeks, who were guests in their own church, objected to the organizers’ plans.  Frustrated, Carl F. Hutcheson, who chaired the meeting, angrily ordered them to leave if they did not agree.  According to “visionary” Peter Stamos, all were left except the eight who are now named AHEPA’s “visionary” founders.  They include Polos, Angelopoulos, and six others.  One of the eight visionaries pulled out and was replaced.  See Stamos’ testimony, The National Herald, Oct. 8, 1950, p. 3.

The eight “visionaries” then elected Klansman Hutcheson to be AHEPA’s first Supreme Counselor and raised money to pay him.  Hutcheson remained active in AHEPA until his death in 1962, forty years later.  His pallbearers included an Ahepan officer, Nick Lambros. See The National Herald, Oct. 15, 1950, p. S4, and The Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 3, 1938, p. 10; Feb. 7, 1962, p. 19.

The establishment of AHEPA was proudly reported in The Searchlight, the K.K.K.’s organ, on July 29, 1922.  Titled “Greeks to Teach Real Americanism,” the article states, in part:

“The Greeks of Atlanta held a meeting last Sunday afternoon [July 23], with a large number of local leaders present and began an organization for the purpose of promoting pure and undefiled Americanism among their nationality and for loyalty thereto, for the study of American democracy, its principles and institutions and to educate themselves in the manners, forms and functioning of the federal, state and municipal governments of the United States… The session was lengthy, and many interesting and patriotic speeches in behalf of the United States were made.”  The Searchlight, July 29, 1922.

AHEPA’s Chebithes boasted in his memoirs that AHEPA began to publish a newspaper of its own for its members.  “The [AHEPA] paper was also mailed to all the officials and to many of the members of the K.K.K., as well as to the editors of the official Klan publication, ‘The Searchlight,’ which announced, prominently on its front page, the establishment of a new American order composed of American citizens of Greek descent, with the same aims and objects as those of the Klan and any member of AHEPA should be accepted and considered as good as a Klansman.” The National Herald, Oct. 20, 1950, p. 3.

6. The Klan drafted AHEPA’s ideology and foundational documents.

Klansman Hutcheson drafted AHEPA’s name, charter, Constitution, Bylaws, oaths, and rituals, all modeled after the Klan’s. The eight “visionaries” simply signed on the dotted lines.  See, e.g., The National Herald, Oct. 15, 1950, p. S4.

AHEPA’s mission was not to resist the Klan, nor to promote Greek ideals or even assimilation.  It was to promote the Klan’s concept of “pure and undefiled Americanism,” a code phrase for White protestant nativist supremacy.  See AHEPA’s mission statement in George Demeter’s AHEPA Manual, 1926, p. 24.

In the 1950s, AHEPA admitted it was influenced by the Klan, but with a twist that it thought made it palatable.  “The objects set forth [in the AHEPA Charter] and the essential qualifications for eligibility to membership set forth in the constitution, being that the candidate must, among other things, be a white, male, and a believer in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, reflect the unmistakable influence of the Ku Klux Klan, which was so strong in the south at that time.  And although the objects of the Order have been revised in both the Charter and the Constitution, traces of Ku Klux Klan indoctrination still remain.  These are not dangerous in themselves, but they are reminiscent of the obnoxious and unsavory fanaticism in that era and that section of the country…” V.I. Chebithes in The National Herald, October 18, 1950, p. 3.

But did AHEPA merely get influenced by the Klan, or was it a ruse by the victims to avoid the wrath of the villains?

Chebithes is clear that AHEPA was created to “achieve through proper use of human intelligence what the Klan was trying to accomplish through improper use of brute force.”  The National Herald, Oct. 17, 1950, p. 3.

But AHEPA expelled Seraphim Canoutas for writing:

“AHEPA has the same goals as the Ku Klux Klan.  In phrasing its mission, AHEPA took both the spirit and phraseology from the Charter and Constitution of that American secret society.”  Κανούτας, Σ., op cit., p. 73.

AHEPA has admitted it imitates the Klan.  “Not only did the aims, objects, and official titles, as set out in the charter and ritual, smack of Ku Klux Klanism, but a large part of the wording in the Oath and Obligation administered to candidates for membership, and the paraphernalia, uniforms, and regalia used in the initiation and installation ceremonies during those early days, were borrowed from the Klan.”  Chebithes in The National Herald, Oct.19, 1950, p. 3.

More recently, in 2020, AHEPA’s Basil Mossaidis said: “AHEPA owes a debt of gratitude to the founders who wisely mimicked the structure and system of organization ‘borrowed’ from Masonic Orders.”  Mossaidis’ presentation to the Freemasons William R. Singleton-Hope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7, Oct. 20, 2020.  Unlike Chebithes, Mossaidis, and today’s AHEPA officers, who do not have the balls to call the Masonic Order they mimic by its name: Ku Klux Klan.

7. The whole world knew that AHEPA was created by the Klan.

A newspaper in Muncie, Indiana, that was familiar with the Klan’s methods reprinted an article from The Houston Chronicle that said:

“The latest is a Greek Ku Klux organization [AHEPA] fostered by Atlanta.  Their emissaries have secured 60 members in this city [Houston].  Here is the selling campaign: ‘We intend to have this government run by native born only.  No man of foreign parentage will have any show.  We will make an exception in the case of you Greeks; you are a fine lot of boys.  For ten dollars each we will let you come into the Greek branch of our order.’  And to think, 60 of them in Houston fell for it.”  The Muncie Post-Democrat, Aug. 22, 1924, p. 2.

8. AHEPA cannot provide a single example of a Greek it defended from the K.K.K., but there is evidence that it persecuted a Greek with the K.K.K.

Fr. Samuel recited numerous examples of crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan against Greeks.  He is right; the Klan was atrocious against Greek immigrants.  However, he is wrong in asserting that AHEPA ever opposed the Klan in its atrocities against any Greek American.  For years, AHEPA has been challenged to cite a single example where it defended a Greek from the Klan, but they cannot because their claim is a pure and undefiled lie.

There are, however, published instances where AHEPA worked in tandem with the Klan against Greeks.  George Leoles of Atlanta was a Greek-born U.S. citizen, a World War I vet, the father of a U.S.-born daughter, Dorothy, and a Jehovah’s Witness.  When Dorothy refused to recite the pledge of allegiance at school on religious grounds, the K.K.K. picketed George’s shoe repair and hat-cleaning shop until he went out of business.  AHEPA sided with the Klan and called for the Leoles family to go back to Greece.  Nicholas Chotas, AHEPA’s very first Supreme President, was quoted as saying that “Mr. Leoles was ‘a traitor to his native country and an unworthy citizen of his adopted country.’  Furthermore, said Mr. Chotas, [Leoles] was not ‘true Christian.’”  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 2, 1988, p. B2.

9. AHEPA’s relationship with the NAACP.

Contrary to the AHEPA narrative that Fr. Samuel trusted and repeated, AHEPA did not support the NAACP in the 1920s and 1930s.  The NAACP was the Klan’s anathema back then, as it was AHEPA’s.  Similarly, Catholics were the Klan’s anathema, as they were AHEPA’s.

As Canoutas wisely wrote before AHEPA threw him out, “Does it benefit Greeks, a handful of people, recent immigrants, to tie ourselves via Ahepa behind the ‘Great Machine of 100% Americanism’ and declare ourselves against all other people, especially against Catholics, who are so strong and well-organized in states of the North…?  Is that Ahepa’s ‘non-political’ character?”  Κανούτας, Σ., op cit., p. 74-75.

To its credit, in 1990 AHEPA filed an amicus brief in a Georgia Supreme Court case related to mask-wearing.  AHEPA was then reacting to a request from B’nai B’rith, which also filed a supporting brief, along with the NAACP.  But this was not in the 1920s or 1930s; it was in 1990.  By then, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were condemned to the ash bin of history, and AHEPA’s founders were all dead.

A few years later, when AHEPA celebrated its 75^th anniversary in 1997, its supreme president, James Scofield, wrote his infamous essay that, for the first time, weaved the fairy tale that AHEPA was founded to counter the Klan.  Senator Paul Sarbanes unwittingly entered Scofield’s fairy tale into the Congressional Record, and the AHEPA fraudsters now cite that fairy tale as proof for their big lie.  They know it’s a lie, but they perpetuate it because the truth does not suit them and believe no one will notice or even care.

In 2014, AHEPA also abandoned its Klan-inspired anti-Semitism and formed a partnership with B’nai B’rith, which it affectionately calls the “Jewish AHEPA.”  That, Father Samuel, is another story that is complicated by financial investors and politicians, well outside the scope of the damage they inflicted on you, on us, and on a church that is under siege.

Jun 13, 2026,  www.helleniscope.com

DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.

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