During the summer of 1922 Marcus Garvey had a secret meeting with Edward Y. Clarke, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The New York Times reported Garvey's comments about meeting on 10th July, 1922

"The Ku Klux Klan is going to make this a white man's country. They are perfectly frank and honest about it. Fighting them is not going to get you anywhere."

"I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying about."

~ Marcus Garvey, Negro World (September, 1923)