History That Doesn't Suck - 152: The Second Ku Klux Klan: Racism, Anti-Semitism, & Anti-Catholicism in the 1920s

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

“Every official except one elected yesterday at the first municipal election of this borough had been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.” This is the story of the Second Ku Klux Klan. It’s been nearly half a century since the Third Enforcement Act killed off the Klan in 1871. But amid Jim Crow segregation in 1915, the lynching of a Jewish Georgian Leo Frank, coupled with a new film, The Birth of a Nation, inspires William Simmons to resurrect the Klan.  This new Klan has a longer list of enemies. While still opposed to Black Americans fully integrating into American society, this KKK also targets Jews and Catholics. It’s also more politically connected than the first Klan. While Klansmen will participate in violence–including the near annihilation of the Black quarter of Tulsa, Oklahoma–most Kluxers are more focused on politics. As membership swells into the millions, the Klan’s endorsed candidates will win seats in Congress, state houses, and city councils across the nation. Yet, the Klan will come crashing down almost as quickly as it rose in the 1920s. We’ll find out why. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette  come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Say it. Alright. Let's save Christmas. There it is. Only in theaters November 15th. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and as in the classroom, my goal here is to make rigorously researched history come to life as your storyteller. Each episode is the result of laborious research with no agenda other than making the past come to life as you learn. If you'd like to help support this work, receive ad-free episodes, bonus content,

and other exclusive perks, I invite you to join the HTDS membership program. Sign up for a seven-day free trial today at htdspodcast.com slash membership, or click the link in the episode notes. This episode includes stories of racial and religious based hate crimes, including violence and murder, targeting Black Americans, Jews, and Catholics. Listener discretion is advised. It's about 10 p.m., August 16, 1915, and Leo Max Frank is fast asleep in his cell at the state prison farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Lean, handsome, and only 31 years old, Leo is about two years into a lifelong prison sentence. Let me fill you in on his heartbreaking situation as the man gets some much-needed rest.

Back in 1913, when Leo was the superintendent of the National Pencil Company's factory in Atlanta, Georgia, a jury found him guilty for the rape and murder of a child then under his employ, 13-year-old Mary Fagan. But many Americans reading about this story in newspapers across the states don't buy it. Some say that the prosecution relied on deceitful, coached testimony and anti-Semitism to falsely ensnare this Cornell University graduate, loving husband, and president of the Atlanta chapter of the Jewish service organization,

B'nai B'rith. Found guilty and sentenced to death, Leo sought one appeal after another, but every court upheld the verdict, including the Supreme Court. Georgia Governor John Slayton commuted Leo's sentence from death to life imprisonment two months ago, but even that small mercy has enraged some locals, including fellow inmates. One sliced Leo's throat with a butcher's knife. He's still recovering from that near-death experience. So like I said, right now, weak and recovering Leo is getting some much-needed rest. But he won't for long. Racing along the rough roads of Milledgeville, eight cars carrying a total of 25 men approach the prison. Some stop at the warden's home. Others pull up in front of the almost disturbingly beautiful red brick penitentiary.

Clamoring up the stairs of the main entrance, the men burst through the doors. They effortlessly subdue the three guards in the front office, take their keys, then send two of their company to Leo's cell. In absolute silence, they open the cell door. Leo doesn't stir, until a flashlight clicks on, throwing blinding light into his eyes, that is. Thin, frail, still on the mend, Leo lacks the strength to yell, let alone fight back, as the men handcuff his wrists, tie up his ankles, then drag him off of the bed and onto the floor.

He only manages to speak as they reach the front office. Members of this mob cut him off. Shut up! Another pipes up in a cold, cruel tone. only manages to speak as they reach the front office. Members of this mob cut him off. Shut up. Another pipes up in a cold, cruel tone. You'll get justice. Never fear. A mob leader then announces their intentions as he menacingly addresses the guards. Leo Frank will be taken to Marietta.

He will be hanged over the grave of Mary Fagan. If you try to follow us or interfere with us in any way, you will be killed. Take this as a solemn warning. And with that, the mob carries Leo out of the prison, down its stairs, and throws him into one of their cars. Rejoined by those who subdued the warden, the eight-vehicle mob speeds off. For several hours, and across bumpy country roads, Leo endures the 140-mile drive from Milledgeville to Marietta, to Mary Fagan's hometown and final resting place.

Sometime after sunrise, the men take their handcuffed and bound victim into the woods near Mary's once home. We only have the perpetrator's version of events, but even they will later admit that he meets his end bravely and stoically. He refuses to beg for mercy as they tie a three-quarter inch manila rope into a hangman's knot. They then toss the rope over a sturdy branch, place the noose around his still injured throat, and lift Leo four feet off the ground.

It's now mid-morning. Nearly every resident of Marietta and countless others from Cobb County have come to see Leo's dead, dangling corpse, still dressed in his shredded, monogrammed silk pajamas. But while most are here to gawk, Judge Newt Morris moves through the crowd with purpose. The rotund 46-year-old Marietta native can't undo this lynching, but he hopes to yet stop any mutilation. A voice calls out,

Don't move the Jew's body until we shoot it full of holes. Good God, there's no time to lose. Jumping on a stump, Newt bellows out, boys, just a moment. Listen to me. Whoever did this has done a complete job and there's nothing more to be done. He is dead. This man has a mother and a father and a wife. They are guilty of nothing. They are entitled to his body and not a mutilated body. At this point, a man named Robert Howell interrupts the honest law-abiding judge. That goddamn thing, have a mother and a father? We'll send him to no mother and father. We won't leave a piece of him as big as a cigar. We're going to burn him. Undeterred, Newt continues his stand.

Oh, no, you're not. To prove it, we'll take a vote on it. Boys, all those of you who want to let those sorrow-stricken old people have their son's body and who don't want it said that Cobb County kept it from them, raise your hands. Every hand goes up, save Roberts. Now seemingly backed by the crowd,

Newt cuts the rope. But the moment that Leo's body is on the leaf-strewn ground, the vote is forgotten. Mobbing men pull knives and slash at Leo's body for souvenirs. Robert and others stomp their boot-shot heels heels into Leo's once handsome face and chest. Finally, a few brave men help the judge rescue Leo's body, but as they whisk the corpse away into the undertaker's wagon, the mob follows. Hurriedly, Newt places Leo's body in a car. The judge drives as fast as he can toward Atlanta as the mob, soon in innumerable vehicles, gives chase and tries to overcome him.

Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. Judge Newt Morris succeeds in outrunning the mob. Two policemen on motorcycles, initially intending to arrest the judge for speeding, end up providing him an escort to Atlanta. Frank's intact remains do make their way to his family. He's laid to rest at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York City. Regretfully, the anti-Semitism that drove Frank's arrest,

framing, and miscarriage of justice was not as great of an outlier as we might like to think. As the Baltimore Sun puts it two days after his murder, The mobs which threatened Frank were not, to be sure, composed of the best people of Georgia, but the mobs and the criminal who cut his throat in jail had the silent assent of the best people of Georgia, but the mobs and the criminal who cut his throat in jail had the silent assent of the best people. Close quote. Yes, during the years of the Great War in the early 1920s, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, and other nativist fears are all hitting a high point, and today we'll see how a resurrected Ku Klux Klan rides those fears to immense power for a brief few years. We'll start this tale of the second KKK with a quick refresher on the original so we can fully appreciate the nearly half a century that separates the two. We'll then

return to 1915 to see how a new film romanticizing the original Klan, called Birth of a Nation, and the lynching of Jewish Georgian Leo Frank, inspire William Simmons to bring the Klan back from the dead. It struggles initially, but two PR pros will take this second Klan to a whole new level as they depict it as a patriotic, law and order, prohibition-supporting group, all while leaning into the nation's peaking racism and heavy prejudices. Like its predecessor, this clan uses violence.

Yet, like the fears of this era, we'll find that the clan fits in better than is comfortable for us to acknowledge. That dynamic will certainly prove true as a thriving black community is put to flames in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But then again, why rely so heavily on violence when you're winning at politics?

Entering 1923 and 1924, we'll meet a politically savvy clan that's making serious inroads with both Republicans and Democrats at all levels of government. That said, celebration of their political power will go awry in South Bend, Indiana. It seems those tough, all-American and Catholic Notre Dame students aren't afraid to use their fists and football skills to let the Klan know what they think about them. Go fight an Irish. Finally, we'll watch the Klan crash as millions of Kluxers abandon it just as quickly as they came.

And I'll explain why. A very full episode. And we begin by returning to the 1860s. Rewind. So, the first Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, or simply, the Klan. I gave you the broad strokes on the first Klan back in episode 75, but here's our quick refresher. Shortly after the Civil War's end, six former Confederates in Pulaski, Tennessee, decide to form a social group. A fraternity,

really. This is the Ku Klux Klan. But let's recall that this is the mid-1860s, the post-war era known as Reconstruction. This is a time of rebuilding the war-torn South, and that includes restructuring society without slavery. Ah, now what does that look like? Check out episodes 73-76 for the details, but in extreme brevity, that's a major fight, with Republicans largely looking to treat Black Americans as full citizens while Democrats, particularly Southern Democrats, try to hold on to the old antebellum

power structure as best they can despite the slavery-ending 13th Amendment. It's in this context that the Klan rapidly morphs from a fun social club into, well, let me quote renowned Reconstruction historian Eric Foner here, quote, in effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy, close quote. The fight over Reconstruction is vicious, both physically and legislatively. The Klan intimidates, assaults, and murders Black Southerners, asserting their citizenship. Republicans fight back, passing the Citizenship and Vote Protecting, 14th and 15th Amendments, as well as a series of enforcement acts. The third of these really gave the Grant administration the teeth needed to fight the Klan,

hence its nickname, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. This effectively kills the KKK. Other paramilitary, white supremacist groups arise. By the mid-1870s, the White League, the Red Shirts, and others formed to serve as the Democratic Party's muscle. They bring an end to Reconstruction and open the door, as we know from episodes 101, 120, and 138, to a new era of second-class citizenship for Black Americans under segregated Jim Crow laws. Of course, the fact that the Klan is no longer around doesn't make the limiting, intimidating, or lynching of Black Americans during the Jim Crow era any better. But given today's tale, let me again emphasize that,

as the last decades of the 19th century give way to the 20th, as black leadership passes from Frederick Douglass to Booker T. Washington, then to Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, the Klan is dead. It does not exist. But let's not move too hastily into the next century. Even before Jim Crow defeats Reconstruction, a Civil War narrative known as the Lost Cause is spreading. According to the Lost Cause, the North, or the Union, was an unjust aggressor that brought war against the rightfully seceded Southern Confederacy as it fought a heroic battle for states' rights and independence with no concern for the preservation of slavery. In fact, the Lost Cause even romanticizes slavery in the antebellum South as a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship between master and slave. We heard CSA President Jefferson Davis propagate the Lost Cause in episode 66.

We also heard U.S. President Abraham Lincoln flatly contradict it by that same episode's end, calling slavery, and I quote, somehow the cause of the war in his second inaugural address. The vast majority of 21st century historians will agree with the Illinois rail splitter, but in the immediate aftermath of the war, the lost cause is very attractive to grieving, hurting ex-Confederate families. That, in turn, makes it appeal to some Northerners as it looks like a face-saving, healing balm for the South that can

help with post-war reconciliation. Thus, by 1871, before Reconstruction has even ended, civil rights champion Frederick Douglass notes, quote, a deeply rooted, devotely cherished The Lost Cause gains more traction nationally in both public and academic history during the following decades. Formed through the merger of several Southern women's memorial groups in 1894, the United Daughters of the Confederacy pushed the Lost Cause through monuments to Confederate heroes and the display of Confederate flags. Meanwhile, Columbia history professor William Dunning teaches the Lost Cause to legions of graduate students who become professors themselves and perpetuate the Lost Cause in their teaching and writing. Indeed, Princeton professor and future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson never studied at Columbia, yet he too learns the Lost Cause narrative. He likewise perpetuates it in his early 1900s multi-volume, History of the American People.

But successful as Woodrow's work is, it doesn't hold a candle to the impact of his college buddy, Thomas Dixon Jr. Born in North Carolina during the Civil War, Thomas studies at Wake Forest, then Johns Hopkins, where he befriends PhD student Woodrow Wilson, enters the ministry, but ultimately realizes his gift for storytelling and turns to writing. He writes stories that attack ideologies he finds troublesome, like socialism, women's rights, and racial equality. And that brings us to his 1905 novel, The Klansman. It's a smashing success. So much so that it's adopted as a nationally touring stage play. But hey, if it's doing well on the stage,

Thomas can't help but wonder, how would it do in that new medium spreading like wildfire since the turn of the century, motion pictures? The North Carolinian approaches his fellow southerner in the burgeoning business, D.W. Griffith. The tall, thin, and handsome director is all too happy to accept Thomas' script. He spares no expense making the biggest, most visually impressive, and longest production Hollywood has ever seen as of 1915. Thomas is thrilled. Still, even he and EW can see the potential controversy of their film. It could use a ringing endorsement. Perhaps from an eminent historian and national leader. Thomas knows just the man.

He reaches out to his old college buddy, the President of the United States. It's the evening of February 18th, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson, his daughters, and some close friends are getting seated in the East Room of the White House. They're about to watch a special screening of a new motion picture based on his friend Thomas Dixon's book, The Klansman. They're considering a different title for the film, though. It might be called The Birth of a Nation instead. Either way, Woodrow isn't terribly interested. Frankly,

the professorial president, still mourning the death of his wife Ellen, is only watching as a favor to Thomas. But enough background. The movie is starting. While D.W. Griffith has commissioned a full score for the three-hour film, it plays silently tonight. Except for the click of the projector, of course. But that doesn't mean the audience isn't engrossed. Telling the story of two fictional families on opposite sides of the Civil War, the North's Stonemans and the South's Camerons, the film uses special effects, practical explosions,

and literally thousands of actors to bring the Civil War to life on the silver screen. It shows the epic scale of the war's battles in wide shots and the war's devastation with close-ups on injured men and their heartbroken families. The film tints in different hues to convey emotion. This is cutting-edge, mind-blowing, revolutionary filmmaking. Everyone is amazed. Following a dramatic depiction of Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater, the film's second part tells the story of Reconstruction. A lost cause narrative of Reconstruction, that is.

A title card announces not Republican control in South Carolina, but, quote, the Negro Party in control in the State House of Representatives, 101 blacks against 23 whites, close quote. The next scene is the South Carolina legislature of 1871. Using black actors and white actors in blackface, the film depicts black state legislators drinking from flasks, eating turkey legs, and one with his unshod feet on the desk, Black legislators then leer at two young white women in the gallery. Another title card follows. Quote, Passage of a bill providing for the intermarriage of blacks and whites.

Close quote. The black legislators' leers give way to raucous cheers. The girls flee. The film's hero, Confederate veteran Ben Cameron, knows he must do something. He forms the Ku Klux Klan to fight off what the film depicts as the violent menace of black men. The White House audience is at the edge of their seats as Gus, a zombie-like black man played by a white actor in blackface, chases young and innocent Flora Cameron. Wanting to make her his wife, Gus pursues Flora into the woods until she's

trapped on a cliff. Rather than lose her purity, the southern bell jumps to her death, crashing onto the rocks below, just before her heroic brother Ben could reach her. Seeing Gus run away, Ben gathers the clan. Together, these white-hooded knights capture Gus, try him, and lynch him. Soon after, the northern family, the Stonemans, see the error of their pro-reconstruction ways when a mulatto man asks to marry Elsie Stoneman. She cries out for rescue, and in the end, former Union boys and Confederates join together as the Klan, riding in like Valkyries to rescue Elsie and the South. The movie ends not with interracial marriage, but marriages between the two white Northern and Southern families. Meanwhile, the Klan intimidates black voters, allowing the South, and frankly, the nation, to be reborn.

I know, that's a pretty uncomfortable film by our 21st century sensibilities. But what does the president think? It's later said that, as soon as the film ends, Woodrow exclaims, It's like writing history with lightning. My only regret is that it is all so terribly true. That, however, is a dubious quote. One woman present later says that the square-jawed bespectacled president simply left without ever really paying attention to the movie at all.

Whatever the truth is, Thomas and D.W.'s hope that Woodrow watching the film would help to fend off criticism from the NAACP and others proves more true than they could ever have hoped. While the White House does release a statement saying that Woodrow, quote, has at no time expressed his approbation of it, close quote. It's easy for people to assume support when they hear that Woodrow watched it at the White House and see that the professorial president's history of the American people is quoted on three title cards in the film. Americans flock to its screenings. Over a million see the film at the Liberty Theater on Broadway during its first year alone. Yes, this movie is crushing it. Despite the controversy, The Birth of a Nation is gaining

significant acceptance. Thomas Dixon writes gratefully to his old college buddy turned president saying, quote, this play is transforming the entire population of the North and West into sympathetic Southern voters. There will never be an issue of your segregation policy. Ah, we should note that Woodrow Wilson is a staunch supporter of segregation. He opens the path for Jim Crow segregation to seep into the federal government by allowing his cabinet members to segregate their departments. This will destroy the careers of many black federal employees. But as Americans flock to see the birth of a nation in 1915, another event captures the whole country's attention. And that's the murder with which we started this episode, the lynching of

Leo M. Frank. But more specifically, let's hone in on how this film and Leo's murder capture the attention of William J. Simmons and merge in his mind. See, although Leo wasn't black, he was Jewish and that's enough for William, who's a failed minister and anti-Semite with a passion for fraternal organizations, to view the Klan lynching Gus in The Birth of a Nation and the Georgian mob lynching Leo in the same light, a supposedly heroic and patriotic light. Thus, almost half a century after its death, this film's romanticization of the Klan, coupled with Leo's very real, brutal, and nationally reported on lynching,

inspire William Simmons to raise the Ku Klux Klan from the dead. He'll do so before the year is out. It's a warm autumn night. Thanksgiving night, in fact, November 25th, 1915. We're about 16 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia, where William Simmons, aka the Colonel or Doc as he's also known, is leading 15 flashlight-wielding men as they scuffle along a craggy, jagged path up to the top of a smooth gray granite dome known as Stone Mountain. William had hoped for a larger turnout of 34, but that's fine. The smooth-shaven, six-foot-two southerner won't let that get in the way of this ceremony. Once they reach the top, the colonel has each man roll a granite boulder to the mountain's smooth summit, then stack them near a massive kerosene-soaked wooden cross.

He empties a canteen of spring water across the boulders, then drapes an American flag over them. This will be their altar. Placing a Bible on the water-christened, flag-covered stones, the colonel opens to Romans chapter 12, which begins, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. With all the materials gathered, towering and balding William strikes a match and lights the wooden cross. It roars into flames, illuminating the whole granite hillside and the faces of all 16 men as William administers the oath. He'll later recall with relish that in this moment, quote, the invisible empire was called from its slumber of half a century to take up a new task and fulfill a new mission for humanity's good.

And just what does humanity's good mean to William Simmons, the now self-proclaimed imperial wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to quote in part from his forthcoming proclamation, to all nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues, and to the lovers of law and order, peace and justice of the whole earth, greetings. We invite all men who can qualify to become citizens of the invisible empire, to share with us the glory of performing the sacred duty of protecting womanhood, to maintain forever white supremacy in all things, to bless mankind, and to keep eternally ablaze the sacred fire of a fervent devotion to pure Americanism. Growth is essential for every entrepreneur.

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And Jenny. From Ancient History Fangirl. We tell you true stories and tall tales of the ancient world. Sometimes we do it tipsy. Sometimes we have amazing guests on our show, historians like Barry Strauss, podcasters like Liv Albert, Mike Duncan, and authors like Joanne Harris and Ben Aronovich. We take you to the top of Hadrian's Wall to watch the Roman Empire fall at the end of the world. We walk the catacombs beneath the temple of the feathered serpent under Teotihuacan. We walk the sacred spirals of the Nazca Lines in search of ancient secrets.

And we explore mythology from ancient cultures around the world. Come find us at ancienthistoryfangirl.com or wherever you get your podcasts. While William Simmons did his homework on the original clan, the Imperial Wizard is not overly worried about making sure he holds to the original Ku Klux Klan's ways. The refounding ceremony that we just witnessed is proof of that. The flaming cross wasn't a thing in the first KKK. It's an old Scottish practice, called Cran Tara in Scottish Gaelic, used in bygone days to call the Scottish clans together. Clansman author Thomas Dixon simply thought it was an awesome way to give his fictional version of the KKK an ancient feel.

William Simmons agreed and ran with it. Likewise, the use of a flag is a novel and film addition, though Williams specifically chooses to use an American, not Confederate flag. Frankly, accurate history isn't the goal. As Williams later writes, quote, in the execution of such ceremonies, the Klan evidences its practical nature. The language of symbolism is the language of the ceremonies, the Klan evidences its practical nature. The language of symbolism is the language of the soul. Close quote. The new Klan is riding a lost cause wave of nostalgia for the mythical American South encapsulated in the birth of a nation, and William Simmons knows it.

That's why he was so particular about the timing of that November 25, 1915 refounding in Georgia. It was only a few months after the lynching of Leo Frank happened, which happened in that very same state, and just a week before the birth of a nation premiered in Atlanta. But don't mistake the new ceremonial trappings or well-planned timing of the Stone Mountain ceremony for any genius on the part of William Simmons. A perennial failure and poor organizer, he attracts few recruits. By 1920, KKK membership is only a few hundred. So, William turns to the Southern Publicity Association's Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clark. From a business perspective, Elizabeth and Edward see immense potential in a reborn Ku Klux Klan.

The birth of a nation has given it positive and national attention. Controversy remains, absolutely, but these PR pros see enough Klan acceptance to know that with the right sales pitch and proper organization, there's a fortune to be made. They tell William that they can grow the Klan, but want to keep $8 out of each recruit's initial $10 membership dues. Wow, that is a lot, but 20% of something is better than 100% of nothing. William agrees. Elizabeth and Edward immediately get to work.

They turn William into a dynamic public speaker. They also build the clan positively while holding to the terms of William's proclamation as a patriotic social club supporting a lot of mainstream bipartisan issues. The Klan opposes gambling and prostitution. It supports law and order, and naturally, that means supporting Prohibition's ban on alcohol. In short, a good kluxer is a good citizen. Ah, but the proclamation also stated clearly its goal of white supremacy, and so the PR duo will also lean heavily on the era's many fears and prejudices, which exceed those of the original Klan. Why go further?

Well, frankly, even though half a million Black Americans have left the South for other parts of the country by 1919, a movement known as the Great Migration, their national presence still isn't enough to serve as a national boogeyman for the KKK. If the Klan is going to grow across the country then, it needs to exploit other fears. Thus, this Klan 2.0 is riding the red scare we heard about in the last episode. The KKK is anti-socialist, anti-Marxist, anti-anarchist, basically is anti-anything that ends in "-ist". The KKK is also anti-immigrant, which, in this era of Eastern and Southern European migration, essentially means anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. Using these fears to preach an Anglo-Saxon Protestant America-protecting Klan, Elizabeth and Edward achieve great success. By summer 1921, Klan membership is allegedly at 850,000. And between

regalia and dues, the money is pouring in. Let's go just a touch deeper on how the Klan's expanded hit list gives it national appeal. When it comes to the far left, we know from the last episode that 1919 to 1920 is the height of the nation's Red Scare. Trusting you caught that episode, I'll leave it there. As for anti-Catholicism, fears that the Pope can undermine democracy are still around as we enter the 20th century. In fact, one newspaper dedicated to nothing but Catholic hate, called The Menace, boasts 1.5 million subscribers in these post-war years. That brings us to anti-Semitism. The Klan's targeting of Jews is no surprise, given that the 1915 lynching of Jewish Georgian Leo Frank helped inspire its rebirth. But by 1920,

the KKK is gaining a lot of traction off of this specific brand of hate. For one thing, anti-Semitism goes hand in glove with the Red Scare. In these Bolshevik-fearing times, anti-Semites the world over are successfully selling the contradictory idea that Jews are communists and money-obsessed masters of capitalism at the same time. Moreover, as of 1920, Henry Ford is pushing his own national anti-Semitism campaign through his newly acquired newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. I mentioned this in episode 121, but I'll remind you that the worst of this newspaper's 91 anti-Semitic articles will ultimately get republished under the title, The International Jew, and will see

nationwide distribution in Henry's nation-dotting Ford dealerships. Henry's words will also get translated into German. That Germanic thread is one for another day, but in short, the father of the Model T is fanning the flames of the second Klan's burning cross. That all said, I by no means want to give the impression that the Klan's expanded list of enemies means black Americans are any safer in the post-World War I years. Hundreds are lynched, burned, shot, or otherwise murdered during 1919's race riot-filled Red Summer.

Yet, the worst single post-war race riot or massacre isn't that summer. It happens two years later in Oklahoma. It's about 9.30 at night, Tuesday, May 31st, 1921. We're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just outside the county's gorgeous stone and column courthouse at 6th and Boulder. But it's hard to appreciate this magnificent work of architecture given the tension on the streets. 2,000 white Tulsans have gathered here and they intend to lynch a young black man currently being held in

custody on the top floor of the courthouse. Okay, here's the deal. It all started yesterday when a clerk at Renberg's clothing store accused 19-year-old Rick Rowland of assaulting 17-year-old elevator operator Sarah Page. Sarah has not pressed charges nor corroborated this accusation, nor does anyone who knows Dick think the young black man is capable of such an act. But in segregated Tulsa, a city where hooded Klansmen occasionally march about by the hundreds and where vigilantes lynched a white murder suspect just last year, the mere accusation of a black man touching a white girl or woman is enough to incite a mob. Dick was arrested this morning.

The crowd formed by this afternoon, then later armed itself. Meanwhile, Sheriff Willard McCullough, whose entire police force is a mere 75 men, has tried to reason with the now 2,000 outside his building. The crowd answered his calm words in a chorus, shouting, let us have the. It's now 10 p.m. Several cars filled with 75 young black men pull up at the courthouse. They're armed,

and many, if not all of them, are Great War veterans. No strangers to the risk of an armed engagement, these well-trained former doughboys proceed, weapons shouldered and single file, to the courthouse's west entrance to offer the grossly outnumbered sheriff their services as reinforcements. As earlier, the sheriff thanks them, but declines. The black veterans reform ranks and begin walking back to their vehicles, but as they do, an old, short, frail, and unnamed white man approaches one of them,

a veteran named O.B. Mann. What are you going to do with that pistol? I'm going to use it if I need to. No, you give it to me. Like hell I will. Flustered, the old man grabs at OB's gun. The gun goes off as a result, and in this tense environment, that single accidental discharge makes all hell break loose. Men, women, and children flee as the crack of countless guns reverberate through the streets and 20 or more Tulsans, both black and white, including the old man, fall dead.

The fighting spreads and is particularly fierce along the Frisco tracks, dividing Tulsa's white neighborhood from its northern black neighborhood of Greenwood. While the battle calms around 2 a.m., it proves a deceitful pause. At 5 a.m., that June 1st morning, thousands of white Tulsans attack Greenwood, some even in airplanes. Countless families, over 10,000 black men, women, and children flee, and up to 300 people die as the once beautiful 35 blocks making up Tulsa's Greenwood District, known as the Negro Wall Street of America, burns to the ground. Klansmen participated in the Tulsa Race Massacre, but they did not mastermind it. As I said before,

the Klan is less the driver of this era's racial violence than a manifestation of this era's spike in racial, religious, and ideological prejudices, all of which is making such hate and violence more acceptable to American society on an alarmingly higher level. Indeed, Tulsa of 1921 is a strong example of this hateful spike and Klan acceptance. Far from being an underground organization, the Klan claims 3,000 of the city's 72,000 residents as members, including nearly every influential Tulsan. Tulsa's Klan has a women's organization, a junior Klan for teenage boys, and, as of 1922, builds an incredible meeting house.

Kluxers usually call these Claverns, spelled with a K, naturally, but this massive, three-story structure is better known as Benno Hall. While that's likely an abbreviation of the Tulsa clan's preferred term, the Tulsa Benevolent Association, Tulsans opposed to the clan quietly say that Benno stands for be no n****, be no Catholic, be no Jew. I wish I could say that early 1920s Tulsa is a complete outlier. It isn't. Despite congressional investigations, the Klan has managed to spin itself in the public eye, claiming that it doesn't hate those who aren't white and Protestant, but rather is expressing pride in Anglo-Saxon heritage. Meanwhile, its many mainstream politics, coupled with hosting public gatherings like picnics,

very much in the sort of way you'd expect to see a church or civic group do, gives the Klan remarkable success in the Jim Crow segregated 1920s. When it comes to segregation, Kluxers have also found a very unlikely ally, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey. You might recall that we met Marcus briefly in episode 150 as he tore into Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois after the 1919 Pan-African Congress. He accused Dr. Du Bois of caving to the U.S., French, and British-controlled League of Nations. Marcus also called on Black people across the globe to leave predominantly white nations and move to Africa. Now, Marcus of course rejects the clan's belief

in white supremacy and will indefinitely remain a hero to many for his work, but as he pushes black people to create their own nation, he finds himself curiously on the same page as the clan. Okay, a little background. Born in 1887 to a working-class family on the British West Indies island of Jamaica, young Marcus found himself in England by 1912. There, the 20-something Jamaican subject of the British Empire studied, worked, but most importantly, had two formative experiences. First, he read Booker T. Washington's autobiography, Up from Slavery. Revisit episode 120 if you need to brush up on Booker's story, but in brief, Marcus was profoundly inspired by this black American who bootstrapped his way from enslavement to founding the Tuskegee Institute and teaching employable skills to other black Americans.

Second, Marcus met an Afro-Caribbean missionary who taught him about colonialism in Africa. Both of these intellectual seeds soon bore fruit. Returning to Jamaica in 1914, Marcus founded the United Negro Improvement Association and the African Communities League, or the UNIA, and wrote to Booker T. Washington of his desire to found a Tuskegee-like school. Booker died soon thereafter, but not without first inviting Marcus to the states. The Husky Jamaican came to New York in 1916. He gave speeches and UNIA chapters spread across the nation. Black American leaders embraced Marcus Garvey's sense of dignity and pride in

blackness. That embrace starts to fade around 1920. Black leaders begin to see Marcus as too radical. Where Dr. Du Bois and other NAACP leaders want the new Negro to reject Jim Crow segregation and fight for an integrated America, Marcus is calling for black people around the world to leave predominantly white nations and immigrate to Africa to create a great black empire. It's hardly a new idea. The African nation of Liberia exists because of it, but the globe-trotting Jamaican is reviving it. Marcus envisions his 1919-founded ocean liner company, the Black Star Line, helping black families emigrate.

Meanwhile, Marcus has also dubbed himself, provisional president of Africa. Ah, and this is how a black nationalist oddly finds agreement with the Klan. Again, Marcus rejects the Klan's white supremacy, but his plan is global segregation. In fact, on June 25th, 1922, Marcus has a two-hour sit-down with the Klan's acting imperial wizard, one of its two PR geniuses, Edward Young Clark, and sure enough, they find themselves on the same page, both believing that the United States should be white

and Africa should be black. The next month, Marcus doubles down on this by endorsing Jim Crow, saying, I am not vexed with the white man of the South for Jim Crowing me because I am black. I never built any streetcars or railroads. The white man built them for his own convenience. And if I don't want to ride where he's willing to ride,

then I'd better walk. Black American leaders are outraged. They start the Garvey must go campaign. Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois uses the NAACP's crisis magazine to expose the Black Star Line's shoddy financial state, while also attacking Marcus personally, writing that he suffers, quote, from serious defects of temperament and training, close quote. But Dr. Du Bois doesn't stop there. He goes on, calling the Jamaican, and I quote again, a little, fat, black man, ugly, with a big head. Close quote. Marcus answers in kind, attacking Dr. Du Bois' mixed race heritage,

calling him, and once more, I'm quoting, a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro, a little mulatto. And he ends by saying, to quote some more, he is a monstrosity. Damn. But Dr. Du Bois isn't the only one looking to get rid of Garvey. J. Edgar Hoover, who is now the head of the Bureau of Investigation's General Intelligence Division, writes a memo about the black nationalist, saying,

Unfortunately, he has not as yet violated any federal law. It occurs to me, however, that there might be some proceeding against him for fraud in connection with his Black Star Line. Following up on this lead from Edgar and the NAACP's encouragement in January 1923, Attorney General Harry M. Doherty, who'd already begun prosecuting Marcus for mail fraud due to misrepresentation in Black Star Line brochures, throws the book at him. Marcus is found guilty later that same year. After a few years behind bars, he's deported in 1927. Marcus will never set foot on U.S. soil again.

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Kluxers are facing a bit of their own internal strife and drama. Remember when I told you that Klan founder William Simmons isn't the best organizer, a failed minister, and, well, generally not the sharpest tool in the shed. Some of the more capable and ambitious within the Klan can see that his poor leadership and love for the drink, which directly defies their pro-prohibition stance, are holding them back. That's why, in late 1922, four individuals carry out a Klan coup. Hiram Evans of Texas, David Stevenson of Indiana, and the Klan's two PR pros, Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clark, convince William to take the new title and lifelong role of the Klan's emperor. Sounds impressive. He bites, but soon realizes that, as emperor,

they've actually deposed him, relegating the founder to a mere figurehead position. Hiram Evans now takes the real power and mantle of imperial wizard, and one of the first things he does is fire the PR duo. That's right. The clan has gone full-on Game of Thrones. These internal power struggles and challenges will yet take their toll, but not immediately. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan is

now approaching its zenith as an invisible empire. Between 1923 and 24, the Klan controls some 150 magazines and newspapers, and though undoubtedly a grossly exaggerated figure, claims to have between 4 and 6 million members nationwide. It's also immensely powerful in politics. The KKK helps 11 governors, 16 senators, and as many as 75 congressmen get elected, Republican and Democrat alike. Nor should we forget local elections. Consider, for instance, the New York Times coverage of Renardsville, New Jersey's election in May 1924. Quote, every official except one elected yesterday at the first municipal election of this borough had been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. The exception is James J. McGurk, Jr., a Roman Catholic. Close quote. While James manages to make it through, Catholics across the

country are fighting uphill battles against the Klan's now impressive and influential political machine. 1924 Indiana serves as a prime example of this. At this point, 350,000 Hoosiers, or roughly one in three of the state's white residents, are Kluxers. Since the Midwest's Catholics and Jews tend to vote Democrat, here the Klan's influence rests more with Indiana's Republican Party. In fact, the Klan pretty much owns it. On May 6th of that year, five of the KKK's endorsed candidates win the primaries in St. Joseph County's elections, including the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Klansman Ed Jackson. Among those defeated is public prosecutor Frank Coughlin. Popular as the Catholic is, it isn't enough to overcome the Klan. Now, Indiana's KKK is in the midst of a power struggle between the new imperial wizard, Hiram Evans, and his former Klan takeover ally, the state's recently resigned Grand Dragon, David Stevenson. But that won't stop the political

power-wielding Kluxers from celebrating their achievements in St. Joseph's County. They plan to hold a parade in the county seat of South Bend. In fact, the Klan is so determined, or at least David Stevenson is so determined, that parade plans go forward even as South Bend Mayor Eli Siebert denies the supposedly law and order organization a permit. What's the deal with that? Are they trying to pick a fight? Maybe. Protests and violence against the Klan has actually increased support for it in the past.

Well, if it's a fight they want, the anti-Catholic Klansmen are about to get a little more than they bargained for by parading in the University of Notre Dame's backyard. While University President Father Matthew Walsh has urged his 2,000 undergrads not to engage the Klan, that won't stop them from teaching the Kluxers a valuable lesson. Don't mess with the fight in Irish. It's Saturday morning, May 17, 1924. Thousands of Klansmen and their families from across Indiana are descending upon the city of South Bend for their well-publicized parade. Some took the train, others drove here. Either way, all are grateful as their local, hooded, and robed brethren stand in the streets directing traffic, helping them to find downtown's Island Park. But as the morning wears on, some visiting Kluxers make the mistake of asking the city's

young college boys where to go. The students lead them down an alley, where classmates give the Klansmen a fright, steal their robes, and send them back on their way. Elsewhere, the football-loving Notre Dame students form a flying wedge and crash into their robe-wearing foe. They take on every kluxer in sight, disrobing two who flee shirtless into a nearby gas station. By 1130 a.m., there isn't a white robe to be seen in South Bend's business district. Seizing on their victory, Notre Dame students and anti-Klan South Benders throng the Klan's local headquarters at the corner of Michigan and Wayne.

With Klansmen hiding inside their clavern, the students look up to the third story, where they see a cross covered in red light bulbs defiantly casting its electric flame at them so very far from their reach. But luckily for these Catholic and football-loving students, the building's ground floor is a grocery store, and its potatoes are very much within reach. Mounted police choose not to intervene as the boys throw potatoes, shattering one hot glowing bulb after another. Angry Klansmen come to the windows,

but retreat as potatoes pelt them and break the glass. Soon, only one bulb remains at the very top of the cross. Too high for these exhausted youth to reach. Well, too high for most, that is. A student yells out, Harry! Yes, Notre Dame quarterback Harry Stuhldreher has arrived. All grow silent as Harry selects his potato of choice. He then takes careful aim and launches it into the air. In a perfect spiral, the potato flies above the cross, then descends toward it in a dead-on arc. The last bulb explodes, and in the perfect words of Notre Dame versus the Klan author Todd Tucker, quote, the crowd cheered for their quarterback

as happy as if he had thrown a game-winning touchdown against Michigan, close quote. The students are feeling confident, powerful. A hundred or so decide to storm the clavern. They burst through the first floor's door and charge up the stairs, but stop dead in their tracks at the top as a Klansman points a revolver at them. The man hollers, I am the Reverend Jack Horton of the Calvary Baptist Church, and I demand that you leave this building immediately. The boys retreat, but around 2 p.m., four white flag-bearing Notre Dame seniors return to the clavern for a parlay. They come to terms. The Klan may march

if they disarm and do so without robes. Later that evening, 2,000 Klansmen gather in the park while Notre Dame students gather at Hooley and Mike's Pool Hall, ready to rally their university's 2,000 students to fight if needed. At the same time, the mayor and police chief again tell David Stevenson that he will not receive the permit. The ex-grand dragon rages at them. The city and county officials have utterly failed to protect the law-abiding Klansmen in South Bend. But as rain begins to fall, David uses the foul weather as a face-saving excuse to call off the parade. Clansmen drive away from South Bend, and as they do, some Notre Dame students dent their fenders, smash instruments, and otherwise damage or destroy clan property.

If you're imagining most South Benders praising the heroic Notre Dame students for standing against an organization dedicated to hate, you're wrong. Once again, the Klan is riding this era's prejudices as much as it is stoking them. Little surprise then that many see the students as hooligans, troublemakers. Even some South Bend Catholics are upset as some of their private property, like that of many in the community, becomes casualties in the clash. Of the day's eight arrests, six were anti-Klan protesters, and many see Police Chief Larry Lane's leniency toward the Catholic kids as his failure to maintain order. Newspapers report on the bad behavior of the students, and of course, the Klan's media, including the Minnesota Fiery Cross, makes the Klan the victim with headlines such as,

South Bend anti-Klan mob beats women and children, and lawlessness is result of Notre Dame education. Seems that ex-Grand Dragon David Stevenson is getting just the press that he wanted. Nor is the conflict over. That following Monday night, May 19th, the South Bend Klan lights their repaired red-bulbed cross. In response, 500 Notre Dame students come charging out. But to their surprise, the police are waiting, and this time on the Klan's side. Or at least they are until Klansmen start throwing bottles and rocks at the students. The evening turns into a melee. Thankfully, Father Matthew Walsh intervenes, urging his boys not to give into passion and emotion.

Not to let the Klan's false claims about their faith or patriotism bring them down to the Kluxer's level. The students listen. They leave. Living up to everything we could expect from a Great War veteran, scholar, and man of God, Father Walsh undoubtedly saved lives that night. Indiana is but a taste of the Klan's national power in 1924, which manifests at both major parties' national conventions that year. When the Republicans convene in Cleveland that June, an attempt by some delegates to add an anti-Klan plank to the party platform utterly fails. Time magazine pokes fun at this with its

June 23, 1924 article entitled Ku Klux Klan Cleveland Convention. And yes, Time uses a K to start every one of those words. A few weeks later, the Klan wields influence at the Democrats convention in New York too. Here, delegates try to add an anti-Klan plank to the platform as well. It's a nail-biter finish, but the Klan's supporters win, defeating the proposed anti-Klan plank in a complicated vote count of 546.15 to 542.15. The Klan also successfully derails Catholic New York Governor Al Smith's nomination as the party's presidential candidate. Pro-Klan delegates push William Gibbs McAdoo, cheering, Mac, Mac, McAdoo, while anti-Klan delegates register their disapproval by firing back, Coo, Coo, McAdoo. An insane 103 rounds later, John Davis is the compromise candidate.

But is the convention a quote-unquote clan bake? Well, in these peak days of the Klan, articles about the Kluxers often add a K to the front of words for some tongue-in-cheek alliteration. And in that spirit, the New York Daily News invents and uses the term clan bake on June 25th, 1924. No one thinks twice about the word and it drops from use for almost eight decades until the New York Daily News again uses the term in the year 2000, reporting mistakenly that its own made-up word for the 1924 DNC was popular back in the day. Let that air mix with lazy internet use, social media, and boom. 21st century Americans confidently think everyone in 1924 called that year's democratic convention a clan bake.

In reality, though, the 1924 term was an obscure blip on the radar. A one-off. Kind of like the Klan's power. As remarkable as the Klan's power appears in 1924, it then drops like a rock. Membership plummets. Attendance at its 1925 and 26 Washington, D.C. parades show this. The first drew 30,000 to 50,000 people. The next year, only 15,000 participated. The Klan gets a little bump in interest when Al Smith does clinch the Democratic nomination in the 1928 presidential election and thereby becomes the first Catholic

presidential candidate for a major party. But that renewed interest dies as Al fails to make it to the White House. The following year, when the Great Depression strikes, the Klan's numbers drop into the low thousands, where it will stay until the KKK dissolves in 1944. And yes, it will revive again, but that's a story for a much later day. So why did the Klan die so fast? I'll give you three reasons. One, it didn't produce results. For instance, bootleggers outsmarted Pro prohibition better than the Klan helped enforce it.

Two, internal corruption. As Kluxers learned that their leaders were socking away the cash on what was basically a multi-level marketing scheme, and as their leaders didn't live up to the virtues they preached, like Indiana's Grand Dragon David Stevenson, who later did serious time for rape and second-degree murder, Kluxers ran for the Clavern doors. Three, hate is a shallow and poor foundation.

The Klan capitalized on a wave of fear aimed at Black Americans, the far left, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics. And when push came to shove, most of the KKK's millions of members weren't prejudiced enough to sustain this in the long run or to get violent. As historian Kenneth Jackson explains, The notion must be dispelled that Klansmen were essentially sadists reveling in murder and torture. Some hoodlums signed up in order to participate in knight riding. But it is safe to say that 90% of the total membership never indulged in such practices. Thus, when this early

1920s wave of fear and hatred faded, so too did Klan membership. And many of those associated with the Klan during its 1920s heyday later look back in shame. As historian Todd Tucker puts it, a typical former Klansman would say in later years that when he joined the Klan, he didn't know what it was about, or that the Klan back then didn't represent the kind of intolerance it represents now. Close quote. While Tucker is speaking specifically about Indiana, this applies well to many repentant Klan-affiliated Americans, like Senator-turned-Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. We'll get to his story later, but in 1954, he'll proudly vote with the rest of the court and Brown v. Board of Education to rule that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. And so, we close today's chapter on the Klan. But don't think that we're done facing the anxieties and fears of early 1920s America. Next time, we're visiting the coalfields turned battlefields of Appalachia.

History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Will King. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Bach. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources, HTDS is supported by premium membership fans.

You can join by clicking the link in the episode description. I gratitude you kind souls providing additional funding to help us keep going. And a special thanks to our members, whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Thank you. Jordan Corbett, Joshua Steiner, Justin M. Spriggs, Justin May, Kristen Pratt, Karen Bartholomew, Cassie Conecco, Kim R., Kyle Decker, Lawrence Neubauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark Ellis, Matthew Mitchell, Matthew Simmons, Melanie Jan, Nick Seconder, Nick Caffrell, Noah Hoff, Owen Sedlak, Paul Goeringer, Randy Guffrey, Reese Humphries-Wadsworth, Rick Brown, Sarah Trawick, Samuel Lagasa, Sharon Thiesen, Sean Baines, Steve Williams, Creepy Girl, Tisha Black, and Zach Jackson. Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation,

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