In 1922, I was mistakenly diagnosed as having tuberculosis. So, my father, The Reverend Herman Hays, minister in the Southern Methodist Church, accepted a "Call" to a Church in Texas, leaving his Church in Niangua, Missouri. Dad thought that a drier climate might improve my health.

But there was a serious problem.

The power of The Ku Klux Klan was, in 1922, at its greatest. One of the Klan's strategies was to use a fanatical minority to take over some institution, such as a church, before the majority was aware of the danger. If they couldn't do this, they "struck" again when the Anti-Klaners dispersed to their daily concerns.

Now, Dad was "called" by an Anti-Klan group of congregants in this Church. But, before our arrival, the Klan group had "sneaked in and taken over".

Mom later told me that our train was suddenly stopped, at midnight, just outside the town of our destination. Hooded Klansmen on horseback with torches and guns surrounded the engine. The leader demanded that Dad disembark and be brought to him.

Dad was ordered to sign a membership form and take an Oath of Allegiance. But Dad refused to do so.

So the engineer was ordered to take us to the next town.

There, Dad had to work at odd jobs for some time to earn our transportation back to Missouri. He received another Call to a Church, but could not return to Niangua.

And it was later decided that the diagnosis of tuberculosis was incorrect.

After I enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941, my boyhood friend, David Hargis, was rejected because of scar tissue on his lungs from undetected childhood tuberculosis. But my X-rays showed no scar tissue.

By this time, the Ku Klux Klan was an issue only in isolated sections of America.

I, Prototype John, tell you of this happening to me and my family, so you will know it happened to others. What can we Madsters to stop this Happening from happening?