Free Essays on Americanism
On February 8th, 1915 in Los Angeles, D.W. Griffith's new film, The Birth of a Nation, based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, premiered. A portion of the audience left the theatre in disgust, but the majority enjoyed and applauded the film, much like other viewers that followed in other cities. The film, situated during and after the Civil War, glorified the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic group of Americans that saved and regained control of the South from evil blacks, who raped white women, sat in Congress in bare feet and picked their teeth, and oppressed the Southern white population following their rise to power through the North's Reconstruction policy. Despite protest from several groups, including the NAACP and some cities banning the film from playing in their theatres, the film continued to be shown, even gaining approval from President Woodrow Wilson, whom it brought to tears. The film did well because of Northern fears over continued black migration from the South, Jim Crow laws that had been passed legalizing segregation, the frequent lynchings and racial violence that pervaded the nation, and it's portrayal of the white race as pure and patriotic. Acting on Americans' increased sense of white pride, William Joseph Simmons, an Alabama minister who was inspired by the film, led a group of followers in November 1915 to the top of Stone Mountain in Georgia. There they recited the Ku Klux Kreed of the original Klan, adorned white hoods and robes, lit a wooden cross, and revived the KKK.
Early twentieth century America witnessed a period of intense change. With dizzying technological advances, rapid urban growth, mass immigration of Eastern and Southern Europeans, particularly Catholics and Jews, the continuous migration of blacks northward, the increasing power of the Federal government and the dissolution of traditional morals, the average citizen, unable to cope with such changes, felt powerless, isolated and trapped in society. It was this group of common working men the newly revived Klan appealed to, appearing as an organized means for them to resist the new social, cultural and economic forces that had transformed their communities and undermined traditional values, while offering them the opportunity to regain their sense of security and respectability. By exploring the Klan's ability to manipulate the public through its power and influence, its exploitation of American nativism and patriotism through its “one-hundred percent Americanism” policy, and its crusade against immorality, this essay will demonstrate how the KKK was able to rapidly rise and fall from power in 1920s America.
One of the main factors contributing to the Klan's uprising in 1920s America was the way in which it was able to manipulate the American public. After experiencing a war, the country undergoing immense cultural, economic and ethnographic change, and the government growing increasingly powerful, most white Americans, unsure how to adjust, became vulnerable to such manipulation. Adding to their vulnerability was the popularity of Griffith's Birth of a Nation, which sparked interest in the Klan through its positive portrayal of the organization. Although Simmons had revived the KKK in 1915, membership remained very exclusive and limited until 1920. It was then that Simmons, living in poverty and seeking more members who would pay the ten dollar initiation fee, signed a publishing contract with Edward Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler to raise public awareness of the Klan's revival through a propaganda campaign that displayed the Klan as a fraternal social organization that protected public morality. To do this, Clarke and Tyler began publishing ads in local Atlanta newspapers and created their own publication called “The Searchlight.” The paper appealed to the average citizen, the basis of Klan membership, by claiming to be a “one-hundred percent American” publication, supporting wage increases, public aid to dependent children and the deportation of “undesirables” while encouraging Klan membership, citing it as the best means of ensuring such aspirations. Although the paper propaganda campaign was effective in Atlanta and the surrounding area, it did not attract members in other states, forcing Clarke to expand the campaign through the use of recruiters, called Kleagles. The Kleagles, sent to select locations in each state, promoted the KKK in whichever way most appealed to each unique community. If, for example, the town was against labour unions, they pushed the Klan's position against alien-inspired strikes, if it was full of unwanted immigrants, they stated its commitment to “one-hundred percent Americanism,” and so on. Thus, by offering a scapegoat for every local problem and promising to combat the influences of immorality and immigration and return each community to traditional American values, recruiters were able to gain widespread Klan membership and establish branches all across the country.
Once established in a community, in order to retain members and appear as a legitimate and non-discriminatory organization, Klan leaders held meetings, during which they would convince members and sometimes the local press that the organization did not stand for racist ideologies. This was indicated in a speech made by the Great Titan of Illinois: “Klansmen must understand that the Ku Klux Klan is not anti anything,” he stated at the first meeting of Klan state leaders, “the Klan from its first inception has denied its intention to destroy anyone, or anything, and that policy has not changed.” Through such manipulation of its members the Klan was able to keep them enrolled, but to gain widespread acceptance in a community, it had to disguise itself as a charitable organization, whose only interest was aiding the inhabitants. Often to appear as a caring Christian group and manipulate local congregations, the KKK frequently held church visitations, with members appearing unannounced in full robes, marching down the aisle and interrupting sermons to hand the priest a large donation of money. This strategy was usually effective, as was the case in Indianapolis during a sermon by the Reverend E. J. Bulgin, where after receiving a donation, the Reverend praised the Klan while the congregation applauded its charity. Outside of churches, local Klan chapters manipulated their communities by holding social events like barbeques, picnics, parades, and fundraisers, donating all the proceeds from them to a local organization or cause. An example of this was when the Dallas chapter, after holding a picnic fundraiser, financed the construction and opening of a local orphanage called “Hope Cottage” in 1923 with an $80,000 donation, gaining community approval and new members in the process. Hence, by appearing as a caring, non-discriminatory and charitable organization, the Klan was able to grow quickly in America, with membership estimated as peaking anywhere between two and eight million. Indeed, the Klan's popularity was easily seen during its many parades with members in full robe, such as the picture of a 1922 parade in Virginia.
With such a mass following that only continued to grow, the Klan quickly came under scrutiny, being reported by civil rights groups and anti-Klan newspapers as evil, hateful of blacks, immigrants and anyone that was not white, much like the original Klan. After numerous newspaper reports of Klan participation in violent attacks against minorities, including lynchings and murders, Congress launched an investigation and held hearings on the Klan in 1921. It was during these hearings that Klan founder Joseph Simmons was able to show the extent of the Klan's ability to manipulate vulnerable Americans. When questioned about the Klan, Simmons stated he had revived the organization as a fraternal, secret and patriotic order to teach fraternity and encourage patriotism to its members, thereby creating a “great American solidarity and a distinctive national conscience with which [the] country surely stood in need of.” Although he was technically telling the truth, by stating his intentions this way Simmons was able to hide the fact the Klan was a hateful and racist organization, determined to enforce white supremacy and punish anyone foreign, black or “un-American.” After further questioning, Simmons was able to convince Congress that the Klan was a legitimate group that was not anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, or anti-black with the statement: “the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are not anti anything but wrong.” With that, the Committee was convinced the Klan was not a hateful organization and concluded the hearings. Due to all the publicity the KKK received through the newspaper reports that fueled Congress's investigation and reports covering the hearings, membership increased, indicating how appealing the Klan was, as even negative press became a membership generator.
Perhaps the greatest indicator of the KKK's power over society was the way in which so many of its violent activities and disruptive marches went unchallenged, made possible because many police officers, politicians and influential individuals were members themselves. Indeed, many in power had the Klan to thank, for it used its influence to put many mayors, sheriffs, and governors into office, even senators and congressmen! Therefore, by using its powers of manipulation and influence over vulnerable Americans, the Klan was able to rapidly rise in 1920s America, even gaining power in government. Although this power over the American people was important to gaining membership and approval, it was the Klan's “one-hundred percent Americanism” nativist approach that allowed it to retain its power and continue to grow.
During the 1920s, American patriotic and nativist feelings were widespread among whites across the country. With World War One over and America victorious, patriotism flourished and a distrust of all things foreign remained, while the Bolshevik revolution and Red Scare that followed, coupled with the continued immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans who spoke unfamiliar languages, followed strange customs and religious practices unfamiliar to Americans and hence would not easily assimilate, as well as the continued migration of blacks northward all contributed to a fear of losing Anglo-Saxon domination and rising nativist anti-immigrant sentiment among whites. It was through this sense of patriotism and nativism that the Klan was able to gain power and membership, with its calls for “one-hundred percent Americanism” and white supremacy. The Klan's appeal to American patriotism was best indicated in its creed: “We, the Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan […] recognize our relation to the government of the United States of America; the supremacy of it's Constitution; the union of the states thereunder […] and shall ever be devoted to the sublime principle of a pure Americanism.” With the inclusion of this passage in the creed, the Klan not only appealed to Americans' patriotism, but also connected itself to the government and Constitution, thusly appearing to be recognized and approved by the government.
With the arrival of millions of immigrants to the United States and the migration of over 750,000 blacks to the North by the 1920s, as well as the recession that resulted from the war and fear of unemployment that accompanied it, racism became a staple of white society, as the average man feared losing his job to these groups, who often worked for lower wages. It was for this reason that the majority of Klan members belonged to the working class, as the organization enforced their nativist and racist attitudes, while offering them a means to cope with their situation through the use of violence against these groups with their identity protected under a mask. The Klan's honest view of immigrants was displayed not only through the acts of violence members committed against them, but also in its meetings, as indicated by Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans at one: “let us fix [the immigrant problem] so American citizens will have to be born into their heritage and will have superiority by law. You own this country - it is yours.” It was speeches such as this that instilled a sense of white pride and nativism in Klansmen, encouraging them to commit acts of violence against immigrants and blacks alike, while leaders continued to publicly deny the Klan was racist or discriminatory. A large reason the Klan's call for “one-hundred percent Americanism” and anti-immigrant and black sentiments were so widespread in 1920s America was because they were enforced by popular literature such as Madison Grant's 1916 The Passing of the Great Race, which warned that the United States' Anglo-Saxon heritage was being polluted by the admission of inferior aliens, as well as children's schoolbooks. According to a report by historian Ruth Elson, in common schoolbooks each race and its nationalities were defined by inherent mental and personal characteristics, which children were forced to study. The American race, which was portrayed as the ideal, was white, of Northern European ancestry, and Protestant. So, with adults reading about, and children learning such beliefs in school, it is not surprising that the Klan's anti-immigrant, white supremist approach was so widely accepted and fostered membership.
Although anti-immigrant and white supremist as a whole, the Klan's main targets of persecution during this period were Jews and Catholics, not blacks like the original Klan. The Jewish population was targeted due to its members' tight racial and religious cohesiveness, which made them unwilling to assimilate or convert to Christianity, and because Jewish storeowners kept their businesses open on Sundays, when Protestant competitors were closed, giving them an economic advantage. By far, however, the majority of Klan nativist hatred was directed against Catholics, not solely because of their religious beliefs, but also their foreign connection. With a number of early twentieth century immigrants being Catholic, many new churches were built for them, thereby making Catholicism a perceived threat to the dominant Protestant faith, which one was required to follow to join the Klan. Compounding this new “threat” was the fact that by being a Catholic, one swore allegiance to the Pope, an Italian and therefore a foreigner, above the United States. It was on this fact that the Klan based its hatred of Catholics, believing that because they owed allegiance to a foreign leader over the United States government, Catholics were un-American. The Klan also persecuted those of the Catholic faith because it believed they were responsible for the removal of the Bible from public schools and due to the religion's insistence on its own parochial schools, which took available funds and students from public schools, which the KKK believed were the most efficient institutions for assimilating immigrant children. Exploiting the nation's nativist sentiments, the Klan spread its anti-Catholic convictions by circulating rumours that the Pope was coming to take over the country and of Protestant girls being held captive by Catholic organizations, and insisting that the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal order, was storing arms under cathedrals in preparation to overthrow the government. So, by targeting the Catholic faith, which was widely believed to be a serious challenge to Protestantism, and exploiting Americans' sense of nativism and patriotism with its “one-hundred percent Americanism” policy, while portraying itself as the best defense against foreign and African-American pressure, the Klan was able to further rise in power. Although the Klan's “one-hundred percent Americanism” policy allowed it to remain powerful and grow, it was through its crusade against the immorality of the 1920s that ultimately led to its rapid rise, and downfall.
The United States underwent significant social and moral transformation during the “Roaring Twenties,” something many citizens neither welcomed nor agreed with. Using the widely available automobile, the nation's youth were able to free themselves of parental control and attend jazz clubs, where they drank bootlegged liquor, danced in a manner their superiors would not approve of, and experimented with various sexual acts and drugs. In greater society, traditional female roles were challenged as female sexuality became more open, evident through the “flapper” lifestyle, Prohibition was continuously violated, and church attendance fell. Many traditional, Protestant Americans saw this deterioration of morality as a serious threat to the nation, as did Klan members. As a result of the organization's traditional American values beliefs, the Klan launched a crusade against immorality, pledging to protect the traditional role of motherhood and female purity, punish adulterers, wife-abusers, those who skipped church and drug users, and to combat the new youth culture it viewed as a threat to traditional family morals, as it drew teens away from their parents and encouraged participation in immoral activities. It was through this crusade that the Klan gained the majority of its members, because it stood for what the average American believed in, offered them the opportunity to fight the vices they perceived as eroding traditional values, and enabled them to punish those who committed said vices with their identity protected. A central reason for the crusade was that the Klan, after repeatedly pressing for police action, became convinced that the law moved too slowly, especially in its enforcement of Prohibition, forcing Klansmen to take matters into their own hands. The best example of how this was done was in Indiana, where Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson resurrected the Indiana Horse Thief Detective Association as a Klan law enforcement agency. This was made possible by the Horse Thief Act, a law still in place from after the Civil War, designed to prevent horse theft by authorizing the organization of volunteer constables that could arrest criminals and hold individuals in custody without a warrant. Klan forces such as this attracted membership due to their effectiveness in the crusade against immoral acts, most notably through their upholding of Prohibition. Indeed, the Indiana Klan alone was credited with assisting in the prosecution of over three thousand Prohibition cases from June 1922 to October 1923.
Prohibition, in place since 1920 with the passage of the eighteenth amendment and frequently violated by bootleggers and speakeasies, was the KKK's first priority to enforce in its battle against immorality. Most Klansmen, like prohibitionists and women's temperance groups, saw alcohol as the primary cause of the erosion of traditional family values, and argued Prohibition could end crime and illiteracy, promoted the Americanization of immigrants, as alcohol consumption was viewed as a distinct part of most foreign cultures, and improved public health and family stability. Thus, by promising to battle and defeat the social ills of the 1920s Americans saw as threatening to their traditional moral standards, Klan membership multiplied exponentially and the organization appeared to the average citizen as a necessity and community protectorate. However, the Klan's crusade against immorality also led to its downfall, thanks to chapter leaders like D.C. Stephenson.
Indiana Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson was a powerful Klan leader and respected individual who could be credited for the growth of the Indiana Klan into the largest chapter in the country. He was also responsible for the resurrection of the Horse Thief Detective Association and promoted numerous Klan community events and fundraisers for the betterment of the state. Although he appeared as the ideal Klansman, Stephenson also violated many things the Klan stood for. He was an alcoholic, repeatedly engaged in pre-marital sex, and assaulted women. In April 1925, he singlehandedly caused the Indiana chapter Klan to fold and the national Klan to begin its rapid demise when he raped his date, Madge Oberholtzer, on a train travelling from Indianapolis to Chicago. Leaving deep bite wounds and bruises all over her body, Stephenson drove Oberholtzer to attempt suicide by consuming poisonous mercury pills. Although she did not die immediately, the combination of pills and bite wounds, which became infected, caused her considerable agony, burned her throat, and caused her to vomit blood. Refusing to take her to a hospital unless she married him, which Oberholtzer refused to do, Stephenson abandoned her at her home, where she later died. As a result of Madge's testimony, Stephenson was charged and convicted of second degree murder. As the story made headlines across the country, Klansmen read about one of their organization's most influential leaders and the indecent acts he had committed, acts they had sworn to fight against. This left many feeling disgusted with Klan leadership and wishing to distance themselves from it, resulting in their resignation from the organization. Stephenson further eroded membership when he exposed some of the Klan's numerous scandals, deals with crooked politicians, and overall corruption in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence. These acts, combined with the fact that none of the social ills the Klan promised to combat disappeared, proving its inability to end them, as well as the continued opposition to the organization by black, Catholic, Jewish, and immigrant groups, led to millions of members leaving the Klan and its subsequent collapse in the latter portion of the decade.
Thus, the resurrected Ku Klux Klan, one of the most powerful organizations in American history, was able to rapidly rise and fall in a span of less than a decade. By using its power, money and connections to manipulate the general public, taking advantage of the American patriotism that emerged from the war, as well as exploiting the anti-immigrant nativist sentiment of white, Protestant, working-class Americans through its call for “one-hundred percent Americanism,” and embarking on a campaign to end the immoralities of 1920s America, the Klan was able to attract followers across the U.S. and establish branches in every state. However, these same actions led to the Klan's downfall, as its growth made many of its violent activities and racist practices visible to the public, generating opposition, it proved unable to fulfill its promises to end immorality, and the organization's leaders themselves frequently took part in the immoral acts they pledged to defeat. Had the organization been able to remain cohesive and keep its leaders' indecent acts hidden, perhaps the Klan could have become powerful enough to run the country, filling the seats of both Houses with men in white hoods, maybe even situating one behind the Resolute Desk.