Witness Johnny Reeves Analysis

Cover letter Why I chose the topic Johnny Reeves is the best witness because he has seen and experienced the most in this story. I picked this because Johnny has been in the Klan, experienced life out of the Klan, and has been persecuted by the Klan. In my mind this makes him the best witness because he has both been persecuted people as a part of the Klan, and has been persecuted by the Klan. Witness Essay I believe that Johnny Reeves was the most involved person with the KKK in the story, “Witness”. Here is some background information about Johnny Reeves that will help you understand my thesis. Johnny Reeves had a lot of power, as he was a minister and many of the people in his congregation were Klansmen. Johnny Reeves believes that

Johnny Reeves shows us this when he said “we shall form a great fist and we shall still those who oppose us, we shall strike them out, wipe them out blot them out together we cast a long shadow neighbor and with our shadow we cast our foes in darkness we cast those who are not like us into the arms of Satan” (Witness page 31). Johnny said this because he feels that everyone outside of the Klan is controlled by Satan, and are trying to stop him and his followers. Johnny feels this way even though he may have not ever talked to the person he just bases it off of what race and gender that person is. Also Reynard Alexander was sent a threat in a letter that said “advising me to be careful what I print and what I say, or the day would come when I would not print or say anything again” (Witness page 108). The reason this action was taken is because Reynard Alexander was talking about what the Klan did, and to Johnny Reeves and the Klan they thought what they did was what God wanted. After Johnny Reeves was kicked out of the Klan, Johnny said, “there is only one way to redeem myself with my Klan brothers. Only one way to redeem myself with God” (Witness page 116). Johnny Reeves called the Klan members his brothers which showed me that he greatly cared for them and thought they were good people, and he wanted back in the KKK so bad that he would do

Johnny showed us his love for the Klan, and its beliefs when Johnny said, “in the summer morning with the bees humming in the clover they prayed with me as I declared the Klan a movement of God” (Witness page 70). This example shows us how much Johnny cared about the Klan that he called the Klan a movement of God, and God is one of the most important things to Johnny Reeves. So to me it shows us how important the Klan really is to Johnny sense he called the Klan a movement God. Johnny Reeves also said, “if a dog dies between night and morning neighbor it is blamed on the Klan” (Witness page 107). By Johnny saying this you can see that Johnny is willing to stick up for the Klan for any reason big or little, and especially if it is something the Klan didn’t do. Most likely you wouldn’t stand up for something or someone if you didn’t care for it like Johnny stood up for the Klan. Also Johnny Reeves said, “I’m afraid of the Klan” (Witness page 140). When Johnny got kicked out of the Klan, he thought they were coming after him so this shows us that his whole life revolved around the Klan. These examples from the story “Witness” show us how important the Klan really was to