[Ads-l] Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"

[Shapiro, Fred]

In the 1960s and early 1970s, American leftist radicals often spelled "America" as "Amerika" or "Amerikkka."  "Amerika" was a reference to the German spelling, "Amerikkka" was a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.. It is difficult to search disambiguously for the English-language "Amerika" in online databases.

The OED's citations for "Amerika" begin with Tom Hayden in November-December 1969.  The earliest cite for the spelling "Amerikkka" is dated 1970.  The OED's definition is "American society viewed as racist, fascist, or oppressive, esp. by African Americans."

A search in JSTOR yields an 1969 occurrence of "Amerikkka" in the Berkeley Barb, in an article about Black Panther leader Bobby Seale:

1969 Berkeley Barb 7-13 Mar. 6/2  Seale's statement to the press contained a lot of heavy ideological rap.  He claimed that the larger issue in the strike at Cal is the University's role of "developing the technical tools to sustain and defend AmeriKKKa, the haven of oppressive capitalism and imperialist exploitation throughout the world."

A search in Newspapers.com pulls up a strange early usage.  The World-News newspaper (Roanoke, Va.) ran a small item in its 21 Nov. 1923 issue (page 6, column 8).  In its entirety it consisted of the following:

REVISING SPELLING.
AmeriKKKa.
Konstitution.
Okkklahoma.
KKKansas.
KKKanada.

It is not clear whether the newspaper item is mocking the Klan or supporting it.  Elsewhere in the issue the paper does not seem to be anti-Klan.

Fred Shapiro

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