The Story of Johnny Lee Clary Trivia Quiz

Answer: His father's brother - Harold

Johnny was born in Martinez in California, on June 18, 1959. According to Johnny, his uncle Harold (his father's brother), was a member of the KKK in Macon County in Georgia. He recalls his uncle bragging about being a member, and bragging about shooting an African-American man. He said that he was taught that the KKK was "kind of like some type of a patriotic Mafia that looked out after the white people. And that's all I really knew about it. And it wasn't until years later that I found out what the Klan was all about".

Johnny says he was about five years old when he first saw a black person, and he said to his father "Daddy, look, there's a chocolate-covered man". His father started mocking the man, using vile language, and told Johnny to call him derogatory names. His father made Johnny go to an all-white church, but as his father was a Catholic, he could not be a member of the KKK, as the KKK were also an anti-Catholic group.

Johnny has often said that we are not born with hate - we are taught to hate. Hate is a learned response. And as a young and impressionable child, it was natural to listen to your parents and believe what they told you.

Answer: His mother threw him out, and completely abandoned him

As soon as his mother moved into his father's house, she told him and his brother to leave. His younger brother went to live with his grandfather, but he said his grandfather wouldn't let him live with them. With no other option left open to him, he went to live with his sister and her boyfriend in a gang-ridden area of East Los Angeles.

His sister and her boyfriend (who was twenty years older than her) were both drug addicts. His sister verbally abused him constantly, and her boyfriend beat him up.

They took all the money left to him by his father, and spent it on narcotics. Consequently, Johnny found himself spending most of his time on the streets of Los Angeles.

Answer: He saw David Duke, then Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the KKK, preaching on television

David Duke was, at that time, the 'Grand Wizard' of the White Knights of the KKK. Essentially, this is the head honcho. The name was later changed to 'National Director' when the Klan wanted to change their propaganda campaign, and seem less intimidating to the public. When Johnny was fourteen, he saw David Duke on television, and remembered his uncle talking about the KKK. He decided to write to the KKK and express his interest.

Shortly after, a representative from the KKK visited him. Johnny told of how nice this man was to him, and that he said "Son, you've had a horrible life. No kid should have to go through what you've been through. What you need is a family". And of course, this is exactly what Johnny had sought, for so long: a family, and sense of kinship, and a sense of belonging. And this is what he thought the Klan would give him. It was, he said, the first time that anyone had shown an interest in him, or told him he could become something worthwhile, or told him he was a part of their family; and he said "Man, that really got my attention".

Answer: Imperial Wizard

When Johnny became the 'Grand Dragon' for the KKK in the state of Oklahoma, he was the youngest person ever to have been given that position thus far. There is one 'Grand Dragon' for each state.

'The White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan' are considered the real Klu Klux Klan, and have a history of violence and murder, especially throughout the 1960s. Johnny became the 'Imperial Wizard' - head of the 'White Knights of the KKK' - largely because he was open and very vocal about his involvement with the Klan, and they hoped he would change their image and thus bring in many new members. Johnny made countless television appearances, including 'Oprah' and the 'Morton Downey, Jr Show', and was unafraid to make his racist opinions clearly known. Many members of the KKK are secret members, and always hide behind the Klans' infamous white masks, not wanting their identity to be known.

Johnny admitted that after such a disturbed beginning to his life, he felt a great sense of power, that at such a young age, men older than him were calling him "Sir", and appeared to have huge respect for him. This was especially gratifying to him when it was someone who had been mean to him as a child; or when it was someone in authority, like a police officer. He said it made him feel important.

Answer: He was thrown out in the middle of the live show

Whilst on 'The Morton Downey, Jr Show" Johnny and a fellow KKK member voiced their racist views in the clearest way possible. The vast audience was outraged, upset, and seemingly turning volatile. The host tried valiantly to be heard over the crowd, and the loud protestations of Johnny and his colleague.

In response to Johnny's colleague saying "You don't know me. No one here knows me", Morton Downey said "I know you. When you revere a man like Adolf Hitler, when you would revere that, I know you are slime".

In the end, he asked the audience "May I suggest we throw their **** outta here?" Johnny Lee Clary became the only person in history to be thrown off the show.

Answer: Johnny Angel

"Buddy 'Bad Man' Savage" was the wrestling name of Johnny's brother Terry. For a while, Johnny wasn't a professional wrestler; he was his brother's manager. He and his brother were trained by Danny Hodge, a previous World Heavyweight Champion. At first his brother fought under the name 'Sugar Boy', while Johnny managed him under the name "Der Kommissar". During one particular fight in Oklahoma for the 'World Junior Heavyweight Title', his brother was wrestling Danny Hodge. Johnny tried to interfere with the match by slipping a stick underneath the ropes, causing Hodge to fall and lose the match. His brother's title lasted only minutes, when the Special Commissioner, Mark Mason, realized what had happened, and the decision was reversed and it was announced that Hodge would now win by default.

Johnny then gave up managing, and became a professional wrestler, changing his name to 'Johnny Angel'. At one point, he fought his brother - now known as "Buddy 'Bad Boy' Savage" - in a match. Johnny won the match.

Another time, during a match in Miami, Oklahoma, against the town hero - 'Oklahoma Outlaw' - Johnny tried to win the match by smuggling brass knuckles into the ring in the middle of the fight. Before he could use them however, they fell out onto the floor, and 'Oklahoma Outlaw' saw them, picked them up, and smashed Johnny in the face with them. As the referee was handing 'Oklahoma Outlaw' his champion belt, he saw the knuckles in his hand, and reversed the decision, making Johnny the winner. Fans were outraged, and Johnny needed a police escort out of town, and received a warning not to come back.

Answer: Yes

Johnny has told this story many times, of the first day he met the man who would end up having the biggest impression on him. He met Reverend Watts at a radio debate in 1979, and Johnny tells of how he was expecting to meet someone who would surely hate him.

Instead, Reverend Watts approached him, held out his hand, and said "Hello there, Mr Clary. I'm Reverend Wade Watts. I just want to tell you I love you and Jesus loves you." Johnny said he was so shocked, that he shook his hand "without thinking".

In the middle of shaking his hand, he "realized" what he was doing, and whipped his hand away. The Klan rules that "the physical touch of a non-white is pollution." He looked at his hand, horrified, intending it to be an insult to the Reverend, at which point Reverend Watts laughed and said "Don't worry, Johnny.

It don't come off." Johnny said that for the first time in his life he was speechless, and he didn't know how to handle it.

Answer: He picked up the chicken and kissed it

Johnny was becoming increasingly irate at the fact that the Klan's persecution seemed to be having no effect on the Reverend. In fact, the day that Johnny and members of the Klan dressed up in their robes and masks, and stood outside the Reverend's house, the Reverend came out to them and said "Boys, Halloween's four more months away. I got no trick or treat in here for you. Come back in October." And he went back into his house.

Another time, Johnny and the Klan burnt a cross outside the Reverend's house, and the Reverend came out to them and offered them "hotdogs and marshmallows for their barbeque".

By the time they entered the restaurant, Johnny was fed up with having no effect on the Reverend. When Johnny promised the Reverend that they would do to him whatever the Reverend did to his chicken, the Reverend picked it up, and kissed it. Johnny said that the whole restaurant started laughing, and he turned around, and saw that the Klan were also laughing. The Klan never bothered him again, and Johnny said "and that's how one old black man defeated the entire Ku Klux Klan. Because he used this (Johnny points to his head) instead of brawn".

Answer: These are all reasons he left

Johnny discovered that his then girlfriend was actually an informer for the FBI. He was informed of this in a secret Klan meeting, and he knew he was in trouble. They didn't believe he was unaware of this. Because his girlfriend had had access to his mailing list, several Klan members had had visits from the FBI and had been arrested. The Klan thought that Johnny must have known, as he himself hadn't been arrested.

He also told of a friend of his who was a police officer and a Klan member, who told him that he knew of an FBI plan to plant drugs on Johnny, so that he could be sent to prison, and be kept off the streets.

Johnny talks often of the profound effect Reverend Wade Watts had on him. He said that he had never encountered anyone like him before; someone who continually told him that he would love him and pray for him whatever he might be. It unnerved Johnny, and he couldn't stop thinking about him. Gradually Johnny began to realize just how much hate he had been taught to feel, and, perhaps, he could equally be taught to love. Johnny will now always stress that if a child is a bully, the chances are that they are having a hard time in their lives. He asks us not to retaliate with anger and hate, but with understanding and compassion.

Answer: 'Elder Minister' under the Church of God in Christ, America's largest African-American denomination

When Johnny had made up his mind to end his life and join his father, he said that he caught sight of a bible, and his only intent in reading it, was to find some passage that would offer him forgiveness for doing this. He then tells of how he read every passage in the Bible until the dawn came up, and then he got on his knees and begged God to show him a way to make the right choice, vowing to spend the rest of his life serving him.

Immediately after this, Johnny called Reverend Watts. He said "I've got to get out of the Klan". The Reverend said "Oh, I knew you were going to", and asked him to come to his church to speak to his all-black congregation. A friendship was born, and they became best friends until the Reverend's death on December 13, 1998. The Reverend said of Johnny "I always wanted to leave this old world in a better condition than I found it; and I thought that maybe everything I'd done was in vain. But to have converted Johnny Lee over into Christianity - the right part of Christianity - I think that's one of the best jobs I've done in my life".

Today, Johnny is an Elder Minister for America's largest African-American denomination church - "The Church of God in Christ" - and is an Honorary African-American. He travels the world speaking in churches, schools, universities, and pretty much anywhere, dedicating his life to Christ, and converting people out of racist extremist groups. He lives in Miami, Oklahoma, with his wife, Melissa, who was once his manager in his professional wrestling days, then known as "Miss Becky Star". He does many television and radio appearances. Johnny's motto is: "I can't do anything about the past; but I can certainly do something about today, to make a better future for tomorrow".

In a television interview with Australian presenter Andrew Denton, Denton asks Johnny if he feels he finally "belongs to something":
JOHNNY: "Yeah, I feel like I belong to the human race. And I know now why I walked the road that I walked. And it's because of who I used to be, that I get this opportunity to be the person I am today."
DENTON: "On behalf of the human race, welcome back.
"
JOHNNY: "Well, thank you."