HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Thaddeus Stevens, Leo Frank, Flapper
8 Jun 2018
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HIUS 131 – Lecture 19 – The Second KKK
Introduction
• Ways in which heterosocial culture and consumerism developed in late 19th century and exploded
in 1920s
• Image of the flapper embodied new youth culture tied to consumerism, new social relations
between men and women
o Flapper a youth cultural ideal
o Symbol of beauty, modernity, fun, liberated gender relations
• By mid-1920s young urbanites were going to the movies together, going to dance halls, enjoying
blues and jazz halls
• Heterosocial youth culture began in WC, but spread to MC
o Coed colleges
o More MC women were entering labor force
• Blues and jazz becoming interracial phenomenons
o Elites going to blues halls in Harlem
• Intergenerational conflict between parents and their children
• Intense cultural and political reaction
• The most popular social movement during this decade was KKK
Founding of the Second KKK
• Two events sparked the founding:
o Birth of a Nation
o The Leo Frank Case
• Lots of sympathy in the public and in government
Birth of a Nation
• Based on novel called the Klansman, written by Thomas Dickinson
• Author friendly with Wilson, and Wilson loved the film
• South in 1860s, after CW
• Villain: Austin Stoneman
o Stand-in for actual congressman named Thaddeus Stevens, who was a radical pushing for
full equality for former slaves
o Portrayed as a Frankenstein character, a madman attempting to play God by making black
men into citizens
o Takes advantage of chaos following Lincoln’s assassination to push his policies in
Washington
• Result in the south is the pillage and rape of white women by black men
• Hero is a member of the KKK who rescues a woman from rape by a black man
• Heroine a blonde, doll-like woman who is completely dependent on the hero who rescues her
from a fate worse than death
• Protests from blacks, but didn’t prevent the film from being a mega-hit in 1915/1916
The Leo Frank Case
• Jewish businessman living in Georgia, manager of textile mill, who was accused of raping a young,
white millworker
• Victim of lynching
• No evidence to suggest that he actually did it, and there was a lot of evidence pointing to black
janitor
• One very enthusiastic viewer of the film and enthusiastic supporter of Leo Frank thought he had
an epiphany from God to recreate 20th century KKK
The Second KKK
• William J. Simmons
o Southerner
o Veteran of War of 1898, though by the time he arrived in Cuba, the war was over
o When he returned from Cuba, he became traveling Methodist minister, but the church fired
him for some reason
o Salesman, then teacher
o Starting reading up on the First KKK after Leo Frank case, and wanted to revive organization
o Heavy drinker
o Not much of an organizer
• 1915 Simmons began posting advertisements inviting men to join new KKK, which he referred to
as “a classy order of the highest class”
• Simmons appointed himself grand wizard of the KKK
• Renewed clan was confined to the south until 1920 when Simmons joined forces with 2 people
who ran public relations firm in Georgia: Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clarke
o Clarke son of man who ran southern newspaper, was a rich
o Tyler came from poor family, but worked her way up and became partners with Clarke
o Deployed modern techniques of advertising and publicity to grow the organization and
make money for Simmons, themselves, and leaders in the new KKK
o Within a few years, Tyler and Clarke sidelined Simmons because heavy drinker and wasn’t
doing much good for the clan, and found another man to serve as the public face of the
organization: Hiram Wesley Evans
• Knew that Evans was ambitious, confident, well-educated
• Evans demonstrated what they saw as toughness/manliness
▪ Evans organized in ‘Black Squads’ in Texas, which kidnapped and tortured at
least one black man, but probably more
• Hiram Wesley Evans
o Texas dentist
• Advertised himself as a dentist to say that he was an average American
o Son of a judge
o Graduate of Vanderbilt
o Became imperial wizard (leader) of the clan and made the KKK the most popular
organization in the US by the mid-1920s
• Clan that came into being in 1915 was distinct from the first KKK
o First KKK entirely southern phenomenon, Second a national organization
• Began in the south, but spread through the efforts of its leaders
• By mid-1920s majority of Klansmen lived in Midwest and NE, 1/3 lived in big cities
(urban movement)
o Second KKK drew strength from white WC
o Second KKK 2-3 million members at high points
• Claimed they had 5-6, but exaggeration
• Many people who weren’t members of the Klan thought the organization was fine
▪ Lots of support from the population, and not just in the south
o Both KKK white supremacist organizations, but 2nd also targeted Jews, Catholics,
immigrants
• In some areas, 2nd clan was more concerned about Jews, Catholics, immigrants than
blacks people
• Clarke and Taylor invented a system where they would study territories and find what
groups white people were anxious about, and would pitch the klan to these areas
based on this research
▪ Bureaucratic structure, paid researchers
▪ 2nd was flexible, and would go after whichever group white, Protestant men
were concerned about
o 2nd KKK wasn’t secret
• Public recruitment advertisements in newspapers
• Members bragged about affiliation
• Owned/controlled 150 magazines/newspapers
• Held rallies all over the country
• Sometimes, didn’t bother to wear their masks
• Openly advertised parades
• Sometimes carried out lynchings with spectators/people watching
▪ Sometimes people would bring their children to watch
• Operated in the open to suggest power and that it was ok
▪ Suggests that there was so much approval in society at large for what the Klan
was doing
o 2nd concerned with black political activism, restricting immigration, containing and
demonizing immigrants (especially Jews, Catholics, sometimes Mexicans), obsessed with
maintenance of female sexual purity
• Gender relations and sexual control of women
• Agenda much broader than 1st
• Klan youth groups
• Secret rituals and secret codes known only to members
o Secret names for the days of the week
o Secret handshakes
o Gave members a sense of being special, being a part of something special
The First KKK
• Emerged in south after CW (late 1860s)
• Received support from white southern landowners who wanted to tie former slaves to the land,
• Former Confederates wanted to crush black political activism after CW
• Targets were black political leaders and activists
