Claim:   Colonel Sanders left instructions requiring KFC to donate money to the Ku Klux Klan or feed the homeless for free.

Status:   False.

Examples:

[Collected via e-mail, 2000] I heard today that Colonel Sanders' will devotes 10% of KFC's yearly profits to the Ku Klux Klan. Since it's a legal document this is unbreakable!   [Collected via e-mail, 2000] My brother swears that Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, bequested in his will over a million dollars to the KKK.   [Collected via e-mail, 2005] I heard that the name [of Kentucky Fried Chicken] was changed because KFC didn't want to give out a free meal to a hungry person seeking some help. Supposedly, somewhere back in time, the Colonel had put a preposition in his business statement that Kentucky Fried chicken would supply any broke hungry person with a meal free of charge per day if they asked. Someone had read or heard this and demanded it, and sued them. Once word had gotten out, they would be subject to the masses doing the same thing, so they changed their name to KFC — that's the way I heard it ...   [Collected via e-mail, 2006] I heard a rumor that the Colonel from Kentucky Fried Chicken had a policy to serve any homeless person that entered his restaurants who was hungry and had no money. Once he passed away the new executives allegedly changed the name to "KFC" so they could do away with that policy.

Origins:   One of the curiosities of urban legendry is that nearly every founder of a fast food chain who is publicly identifiable by virtue of having appeared in his company's advertisements has become the subject of rumors associating him (and his company) with some of the most publicly vilified groups society has to offer, such as satan worshippers and the KKK. Such rumors have dogged, at one time or another, Ray Kroc of McDonald's, Carl Karcher of Carl's Jr., Dave Thomas of Wendy's, and Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Why this class of legend has been so assiduously linked to the fast food industry is something we haven't yet fathomed: fast food founders don't seem to be, as a group, of any particular religious, geographic, or political affiliation. And the specific linking of Kentucky Fried Chicken's founder, Harland Sanders, with the Ku Klux Klan doesn't seem to have any basis in fact, other than a vague, naive assumption that a businessman who epitomized the popular image of a 19th century Southern gentleman — a distinguished, elderly man with white hair, moustache, and goatee who wore white suits and black ties, posed with a cane, and affected the honorary title of "Colonel" — must be a Klan sympathizer.

What rumors such as the claim that "Colonel Sanders' will devotes 10% of KFC's yearly profits to the Ku Klux Klan" reflect is the misperception that Harland David Sanders owned KFC until the day he died. In fact, Sanders sold his interest in Kentucky Fried Chicken long before his death, agreeing in 1964 to a $2 million buyout by a group of investors (who took the company public a few years later), so even if Sanders' will had contained a "KKK donation" bequest (which it didn't), it wouldn't have been legally enforceable. Sanders did continue to serve as KFC's spokesperson and appear in their advertising for many years after the 1964 sale, a participation that undoubtedly led many consumers to believe that he was active in the chain's ownership and management until he finally passed away in 1980.

Ditto for the claim that Kentucky Fried Chicken was legally required to provide free meals to the homeless until they cleverly ducked the responsibility by changing their name to "KFC." Although it's possible the Colonel occasionally took pity on some down-and-out types and offered them food at no charge, he neither left any mandate obligating the Kentucky Fried Chicken company to engage in the practice nor had any standing to do so. And, in any case, the company couldn't have evaded that imperative simply by changing their name. (Imagine what a shambles the business world would be if people and businesses could discharge debts and other legal obligations merely by filing some change of name documents!) As we detail in another KFC-related article, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their corporate name to KFC in 1991 for several reasons, foremost among them that increasingly health-conscious consumers were becoming wary of foods advertised as "fried."

As detailed in the book Secret Recipe, Harland Sanders did make a significant charitable contribution of profits he derived from the sale of Kentucky Fried Chicken, but his philanthropy had nothing directly to do with providing food to the homeless:

"When I finally signed the papers [to sell my interest in Kentucky Fried Chicken], it was clear as hell to me that Canada was to be my area of operation," the Colonel said. "But it wasn't long before I heard the company talkin' about goin' into Canada. They said the lawyers interpreted the wording of the contract to mean that I was the only one who could process chicken in Canada, but that the company had the right to merchandise it. I didn't care how the lawyers interpreted it, that wasn't what I meant when I signed the agreement.

"Anyway, when they paid me the first installment of $500,000 on the $2 million sale price, they gave me the remaining stock of the company to hold as collateral for their note on the rest of the money to be paid. Then, with the rapid growth of the company, they decided to go public with the corporation. Their only problem was they needed the stock that I had in my safety deposit box in the bank.

"'Colonel Sanders,' they said, 'we need to have that stock so we can enlarge the business.'

"'You won't get the stock until you give me a clear-cut contract to operate Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada,' I told them.

"So the lawyers got together — theirs and mine — and clarified the wordin' in the contract so that I had the right to process and merchandise, and do anything else with Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada.

"So when that was clear, I went to my safety deposit box and gave them the stock."

Shortly afterward, the Colonel founded a nonprofit charitable foundation, Harland Sanders Charitable Foundation of Canada, then deeded all of his stock in Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken of Canada, Ltd. to the foundation. All profits over administration expenses were to be donated to charity.

Last updated:   28 May 2007

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  Sources:

    Darden, Robert.   Secret Recipe.

    Irving, TX: Tapestry Press, 2002.   ISBN 1-930819-12-9   (p. 86).

    de Vos, Gail.   Tales, Rumors and Gossip.

    Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1996.   ISBN 1-56308-190-3   (p. 140).

    Turner, Patricia.   I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

    Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California, 1993.   ISBN 0-520-08185-4   (pp. 99-101, 167, 171).