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DIVISIONS

1. Ku Klux Klan

Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. In the guise of protecting community morals, it expanded its victims of vigilante justice to those it deemed lawbreakers, bootleggers, unfaithful spouses, corrupt politicians, etc.—all with no judge or jury beyond the local secret "klavern." Whippings, tar-and-featherings, threats of violence, and for black victims, lynching, became common practice in some regions of the South, Southwest, and Midwest (Indiana was the stronghold of Klan power in the decade).

As the Klan marketed its message nationwide through paid "kleagles" and Klan membership climbed into the millions, many groups came to resemble community fraternal organizations rather than bands of masked nightriders. They sponsored public picnics, parade floats, and free speakers (and for the members, of course, secret nighttime cross-burnings), and they promoted Klan sympathizers for political office. Many eschewed violence, while yet fostering suspicion and prejudice toward local minority groups (e.g., French Canadians in Maine, Japanese in California, Native Americans in the southwest). "Such blending of the extreme and the ordinary was common in the Klan of the 1920s," writes historian Nancy MacLean; "indeed the blurring proved a source of strength."1 The resulting "overlap with the mainstream" led to several years of explosive growth and relative acceptability for the Klan, visible in its widespread political influence. After its heyday in the mid-1920s, the Klan fueled its rapid demise through internal feuding, financial scandal, and the sensational 1925 murder trial of Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson. By 1930 the Klan had virtually disappeared from the American political landscape, its membership less than 50,000. The Fiery Cross had self-immolated.

• Collected commentary on the Ku Klux Klan. To provide an overview of the 1920s Klan, this collection offers contemporary commentary from newspapers, magazines, Klan and anti-Klan publications, novels, political cartoons, and a sociological study. How did local communities and the nation as a whole respond to the phenomenon of the 1920s Klan? Selections can be divided among students for research and classroom discussion. (12 pp.)

  
  


• Political cartoons on the Ku Klux Klan. Sixteen cartoons on the Klan from general circulation (white-owned) and African American newspapers, and from Klan publications, are presented with guidance for analyzing and discussing the cartoons. How did the publications differ in presenting the Klan? What did each find important to emphasize? Study the cartoons with the five other cartoon collections in DIVISIONS, and complete the cartoon analysis chart. (Cartoons: 15 pp., Chart: 2 pp.)

  
  

• Newsreel: Klan parade in Washington, DC, 1925. "40,000 Ku Klux Klansmen—clad in full regalia—make wonderful spectacle" reads the title frame in this brief British Pathé silent newsreel of the first Klan parade in Washington, DC, on August 8, 1925. Footage includes marchers on Constitution Avenue and at the Washington Monument; at 2:27 appears footage of women marchers. While some footage is repeated (this is probably a draft version), the repetition is helpful for studying the marchers, their demeanor, costume, and signs, and the visual effect of their unmasked parade in the nation's capital. (3:06) BRITISH PATHÉ NEWS

• "Timely Topics," humor monologue by Will Rogers, 1923, SOUND RECORDING (3:09); TRANSCRIPT. Renowned as the "cowboy-philosopher" of the 1920s and 1930s, Rogers began a nationally syndicated column of witty yet pungent news commentary in 1922. Becoming popular across the partisan divide, he traveled nationwide delivering his humorous take on the day's events. In this brief recording, released as a 78 rpm vinyl record, Rogers jokes about "timely topics" including crime, divorce, Prohibition, and the parking problem. It concludes with a telling comment on the power of the Klan at the time. (Audio clip online; transcript, 1 p.) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/NHC

See also Black & White, Native & Foreign, and "Reds" & "Americans."

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