Roy E. Davis

Rev. Roy Elonza. Davis, Sr. was a lifelong leader of multiple white supremacy groups.  He worked directly under William Joseph Simmons as the second-in-command of the Ku Klux Klan after it was rebirthed in Atlanta.[1] Davis helped write the constitution and by-laws of the Klan [2] and was an ambassador in Washington for the Klan.[3] When Simmons was ousted from the Klan, Davis joined him to form the Knights of the Flaming Sword and recruited the largest number of people into the white supremacy group.[4] Davis was the man who baptized William Branham,[5] ordained Branham in the Pentecostal faith,[6] mentored him,[7] and toured with Branham in the snake-handling, poison-drinking sects of Pentecostalism in the South.[8]

In an article published in The Voice of Healing magazine published October 1950, it was advertised that the Reverend Roy E. Davis Sr. was William Branham's first pastor. According to Davis, he could "write more intimately of Billy Branham than any living minister." Also, according to Davis, he was a member of the Fort Worth, Texas Chamber of Commerce, born and raised near Fort Worth, and ordained to preach the Gospel in a well-known Baptist church in Texas. In the letter, Davis made readers of The Voice of Healing aware that Branham's "Life Story" accounts of his Pentecostal conversion were not quite true; Branham had been not only introduced to Pentecostalism in the early 1930s, he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister.

I am the minister who received Brother Branham into the first Pentecostal assembly he ever frequented. I baptized him, and was his pastor for some two years. I also preached his ordination sermon, and signed his ordination certificate, and heard him preach his first sermon.[9]  
Rev. Roy E. Davis.

William Branham, however, acknowledged this several times throughout his ministry, adding titles to Davis such as "doctor" or "lawyer."  From the first years of his ministry until his death, Branham acknowledged, advertised, and promoted Roy E. Davis — especially after Davis gained recognition as holding the highest-ranking office[10] of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. 

When I was first converted and was ordained in the Baptist church, I had a good old teacher by the name of Dr. Roy Davis. He was a lawyer before his conversion, and he took everything from a legal standpoint in the Bible.
Branham, 57-0306 - God Keeps His Word

Roy Davis was raised in Texas. After being caught cheating and swindling the people of Texas in 1917,[11] he fled to Georgia and posed as a traveling evangelist and singer under the alias "Lon Davis."[12] He pastored multiple churches in Georgia under that name, the most interesting of which was in Acworth, Georgia, where he was removed from the congregation for "conduct unbecoming a minister."  As the details began to unfold, it was learned that Davis lived a dual life of bigamy, having multiple wives in multiple states.[13]

After William Joseph Simmons declared himself to be the Imperial Wizard of the second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan and revived the white knights as a fraternal organization, a group of men conspired to sway political ideologies towards white supremacy.  One of those men was Georgia State Congressman William D. Upshaw, a close friend of Simmons. Upshaw described Simmons as "the knightliest, most patriotic man I have ever known" during his defense of the Klan during a Congressional inquiry of the Klan in 1921.[14]  During the inquiry, it was learned that Upshaw was a member of the Klan.[15] Davis later connected Upshaw to Branham as a staged healing.  Upshaw posed as a wheelchair invalid in Branham's healing revivals.

But when I walked to the platform, and it happened to be that he knew the old Baptist preacher that ordained me in the Baptist church, Doctor Roy E. Davis. Doctor Davis told him to come, see me when I come to the coast, to have me to pray for him. And he moved in and was setting in his wheelchair. All of a sudden I saw an old hay frame and a little boy fall, hurt his back, begin to relate just what I was seeing. Someone said, 'That's the old congressman setting there, William Upshaw.'[16]
- William Branham

When the Klan began to implode, and William Simmons lost control of the organization, Roy Davis's criminal record was aired by the Ku Klux Klan.[17] When people began to make the connection, Davis lost both reputation and power in Georgia and the surrounding states. Klan lectures that Davis held with Simmons were canceled.[18] Criminal libel charges were filed for his Brickbat newspaper.[19] Davis was ousted from his position as the head of the Georgia Farmers' Union.[20] He was brutally beaten with a wet rope in Texas.[21] Davis fled to Chattanooga and began working with Simmons to reorganize.[22]

In Chattanooga, Davis and Simmons reorganized under the Knights of the Flaming Sword.  Simmons established the organization in Georgia in 1924,[23] and over 600,000 members joined.[24] Most of the new recruits were signed on by Roy Davis.[25] Davis went on a tour of the world promoting the group, speaking on behalf of Simmons.[26] When it was learned that the group was established as a pyramid scheme and Simmons was financially benefitting from it, Davis found himself to be the target of an angry mob.  In 1925, Davis issued a proclamation asking all members to lay down arms.  In the proclamation, Davis described his history with Simmons, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Knights of the Flaming Sword.[27]

While building white supremacy groups with leaders of the movement, Davis was also building a new sect of Pentecostalism.  Davis was the "General Overseer" of the Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect.[28] It was in this sect that William Branham was ordained, and Davis is the one who signed Branham's ordination certificate.[29] Davis began working with leaders of Christian Fundamentalism, including John Roach Straton[30] and Dr. Caleb Ridley,[31] the Supreme Religious Chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan.[32] When Davis planted the Nashville branch of the sect, both Davis and Ridley held a revival near the Nashville Parthenon in July 1929.  William Branham described being at that event, placing his earliest known connection to Davis and Pentecostalism in the 1920s.[33] The latest known revival for the Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect was June 1953, in Connersville, Indiana.[34]

I was with Brother Davis and was having a—a revival. It might have been Memphis. And we was, went to a coliseum, and they had in there, not a coliseum, it was kind of an art gallery, and they had the—the great statues that they had got from different parts of the earth, of different, Hercules and so forth, and great artists had painted. And then they had the analysis of a man that weighed a hundred and fifty pounds. You know what, how much he's worth? Eighty-four cents. That's all he is. Eighty-four cents is all—all the chemicals you can get out of him. He's just got enough whitewash to sprinkle a hen's nest, and he's got enough, just a little bit of calcium, little potash. It would all sell for eighty-four cents. But we just take care of that eighty-four cents and baby it around.[35]

Davis continued north, eventually planting a Pentecostal Baptist Church of God mission in Louisville, Kentucky[36] at 316 Adams Street.  He also set up the "Holy Bible Mission Hall," located at 711 E. Jefferson Street. In Lousiville, Davis accumulated a number of charges, both civil and criminal.  He was arrested for fraud,[37] racketeering,[38] and, most notably, for violation of the Mann Act for bringing a 17-year-old Allie Lee Garrison (later to be his wife) across state lines for the purposes of sex.[39] Davis was arrested while holding a revival in Jeffersonville, Indiana (William Branham's hometown).[40] Over the next several weeks, as Davis's long list of criminal activity was published in the newspapers, both William Branham and Davis's converts in Louisville and Southern Indiana were certainly made aware of Davis's criminal past. Regardless, both William Branham[41] and his first wife, Hope Brumbach [42] were elders in Davis's Pentecostal sect after the arrest.  (Branham would later change this history for his "Life Story" accounts, claiming that Hope's mother would not permit him to take her around Pentecostals[43] —  which he claimed never to have seen before the mid-1930s.[44] )

After planting the Jeffersonville branch of the Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect, Davis began talks to move the national headquarters of the sect from Jeffersonville to Memphis.[45] Davis had gained national recognition in Gospel music as a singer in the original Stamps quartet [46] and a radio program with Allie Garrison (who posed as his daughter) called "Jack and Granny".[47] The Stamps quartet featured Roy E. Davis, William Jennings Bryan, Congressman Upshaw, and Dr. Caleb A. Ridley. Before he could move the headquarters, however, a series of events led to his incarceration and a transition of power. In 1934, the Pentecostal Baptist Church burned.[48] Davis was extradited to Arkansas [49] and eventually sent to a Huntsville prison.[50] William Branham, who was Davis's assistant pastor at the time, assumed leadership of the church [51] and moved it to a tent on Pratt Street,[52] eventually renaming it Billie Branham Pentecostal Tabernacle[53] and later Branham Tabernacle. 

In 1944, after his release from prison, Roy Davis and William Upshaw teamed up once more in San Bernardino, California, to create the Ussher-Davis Children's Orphanage, an apparent front for funding the Ku Klux Klan. Upshaw connected Davis to the wealthy Elizabeth Ussher [54] and convinced her that Davis was an FBI agent[55] raising money to help children. Upshaw helped set up the institution, assuming leadership in the "department of Americanism"[56] (loaded language for spreading Klan values). The Klan was being revived in California, largely due to the efforts of Gerald L. K. Smith[57] and Wesley Swift and others. It was also being revived on a much larger scale in cities across the United States. Interestingly, the timing of the revival of the Klan coincides with the birth of the Latter Rain, which originated from another children's orphanage that was established at the same time, the Sharon Orphanage, which was funded by the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles.[58] Branham is said to be one of the primary catalysts of the Latter Rain revival.

In 1959, Roy Davis was appointed to be the Imperial Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Dallas by Imperial Wizard Eldon Edwards.[59][60] Using the cover name, "Soldiers of the Flaming Sword", Davis then began working to overthrow Edwards and assume national leadership of the Klan.[61] By 1961, Roy E. Davis was nationally recognized as being the National Imperial Wizard (the highest ranking official) of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.  He held a series of very public displays of power in Shreveport, Louisiana, headquarters of Branham's Voice of Healing magazine, demonstrating the Klan robes and salutes for Shreveport Newspapers.[62] William Branham, who frequently held revivals in the areas where Davis was most active, continued to drop his name in the revivals.  Most participants of the revivals would have been aware that Branham was referring to the Imperial Wizard of the Klan.

Well, I remember Dr. Roy Davis, a—a—a personal friend of mine, who baptized me the only time I've ever been baptized. And he said that John was meaning, I remember this in their school, he said, "John knowed that he had never been baptized, himself, so he... Jesus. John suffered Jesus to baptize him." Well, that, I—I different with the—the great doctor there. 20 Not for controversy, but for the sake of Truth I might say this. No, there was two men, the two leaders of the hour, the Messiah and His prophet met in the water.
Branham, 63-0721 - He Cares Do You Care?