Mainstream, middle-class Americans donned the white robes of the Klan too. Doctors, lawyers and ministers became loyal supporters of the KKK. In Ohio alone their ranks surged to , Even northeastern states were not immune. In Pennsylvania, membership reached , The Klan remained a clandestine society, but it was by no means isolated or marginalized. In the s, the Klan moved in many states to dominate local and state politics.
The Klan devised a strategy called the "decade," in which every member of the Klan was responsible for recruiting ten people to vote for Klan candidates in elections.
In the Klan succeeded in engineering the elections of officials from coast to coast, including the mayors of Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon. In some states, such as Colorado and Indiana, they placed enough Klansmen in positions of power to effectively control the state government.
His passionate speech at the Klan's recruitment session convinced townspeople to support a recolution to condemn the Klan. Ku Kluxism as conceived, incorporated, propagated, and practiced has become a menace to the peace and security of every section of the United States. Its evil and vicious possibilities are boundless. It is nothing more or less than a throwback to the centuries when terror, instead of law and justice, regulated the lives of men.
At first the Klan grew slowly after its rebirth, but the early s witnessed spectacular growth. On July 4, , an estimated , Klansmen, women, and children gathered in Kokomo, Indiana, to hold mass rallies. Some said Klan membership reached 8 million by the mids, but the actual number was somewhere between 2. Still, that was enough to make the Klan an organization to be feared not only when it physically threatened blacks, Catholics, Jews, bootleggers, or local adulterers but also when it burned fiery crosses on deserted hillsides or on the front lawns of its opponents including future radio demagogue Father Charles A.
During the decade, it even exercised great power at the ballot box, helping to elect governors in Alabama, California, Oregon, and Indiana. An estimated 75 House members took their seats with KKK assistance in the s. They included Earl Mayfield, as U.
Just as quickly as the Klan rose in membership and influence, however, it collapsed. There were many reasons. Others were repulsed by its violence or its hypocrisy. The organization claimed to stand for morality, but its leaders provided the worst possible examples. For example, Edward Y. Then, with millions of dollars rolling in, infighting for control grew fierce, and Klan founder and Grand Wizard Col. William Simmons found himself ousted by Houston dentist Hiram W. In April , however, the year-old Stephenson forced his aide, year-old Madge Oberholtzer, onto a Chicago-bound train, where he assaulted and raped her.
She attempted suicide, but her death a few weeks later was ruled to have followed from infection of the wounds Stephenson had inflicted on her. A jury found Stephenson guilty of rape, kidnapping, and second-degree murder. The Klan imploded after that. Although popular anti-Catholicism flourished in when Catholic New York Governor Al Smith unsuccessfully ran for president, the second Klan had long since declined.
Its revival after World War II was related to opposition to the growing civil rights movement. Compared to the original Ku Klux Klan, which existed only in the South, the s Klan was centered in the. He believes religiously that a betrayal of Americanism or the American race is treason to the most sacred trusts, a trust from his fathers and a trust from God.
He believes too that Americanism can only be achieved if the pioneer stock is kept pure. Racial integrity is a very definite thing to a Klansman.
It means even more than good citizenship, for a man may be in all ways a good citizen and yet a poor American, unless he has racial understanding of Americanism, and instinctive loyalty to it. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true. There were KKK-inspired aprons, costumes and regalia that glorified the defunct organization.
The way the film was made, with innovating editing techniques and close-up action shots, was captivating. The film bolstered the idea that the Klan was there to save the South from savage Black men raping white women, a racist myth that would be propagated for years, Lehr adds. Members of the N. As described in a journal article by historian Maxim Simcovitch, Simmons put a plan in motion once he learned the film would be released on December 6, in Atlanta.
Just 10 days before the film premiered, Simmons gathered a group and climbed Stone Mountain, outside Atlanta, to burn a large cross. Something was going to happen in town Atlanta the next week the premiere of The Birth of a Nation that would give the new order a tremendous popular boost. As planned, word spread about the burning cross.
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