Edward Young Clarke was an advertising executive from Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 and the Imperial Wizard pro tempore

Pro tempore

Pro tempore , abbreviated pro tem or p.t., is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a locum tenens in the absence of a superior, such as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate.Legislative...

of the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 who devised the "kluxing" system of payments to the hierarchy within the Klan. Along with Elizabeth Tyler

Elizabeth Tyler (KKK organizer)

Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Tyler was an Atlanta public-relations professional who, starting in 1920 along with Edward Young Clarke, helped to turn the initially anemic second Ku Klux Klan into a mass-membership organization with a broader social agenda...

, he helped to turn the initially anemic second Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 into a mass-membership organization with a broader social agenda.

Biography

In 1922, he stepped down from his position at the Klan. In March 1924, he pleaded guilty to violating the Mann Act

Mann Act

The White-Slave Traffic Act, better known as the Mann Act, is a United States law, passed June 25, 1910 . It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann, and in its original form prohibited white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”...

. In 1940 he was arrested for failing to pay a $600 hotel bill, cashing a $76 worthless check, and the failure to repay $600 he borrowed from a Chicago woman.