INVISIBLE EMPIRE, KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

The name, rituals, and some of the attitudes of the original Ku Klux Klan were adopted by a new fraternal organization incorporated in Georgia in 1915. The official name of the new society, which was organized by a former preacher, Colonel William Simmons, was Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Ku Klux Klan. Membership was open to native-born, white, Protestant males, 16 years of age or older. Blacks, Roman Catholics, and Jews were excluded and were increasingly made targets of defamation and persecution by the Ku Klux Klan.

Until 1920 the society exercised little influence. Then, in the period of economic dislocation and political and social unrest that followed World War I, the Ku Klux Klan expanded rapidly in urban areas, and expanded beyond the South.

The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s was active in many states, notably Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Although the defense of white supremacy remained a core issue for the Ku Klux Klan, it focused its attack on what it considered to be alien outsiders, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, which it believed was threatening traditional American ways and values. All non-Protestants, aliens, liberals, trade unionists, and striking workers were denounced as subversives.

Like its prototype, the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses to frighten its victims. Masked Ku Klux Klansmen marched through the streets of many communities, carrying placards threatening various persons with summary punishment and warning others to leave town. Many persons were kidnapped, flogged, and mutilated by the Ku Klux Klan; a number were lynched or murdered. Few prosecutions of Ku Klux Klansmen resulted, and in some communities they were abetted by local officials.

Journalistic disclosures of crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan and of corruption and immorality in its leadership led to a congressional investigation in 1921, and for a time the Ku Klux Klan changed its tactics. After 1921 it experienced a rapid growth in membership and became politically influential throughout the nation. One estimate of its membership, made in 1924, when the Ku Klux Klan was at the peak of its strength, was as high as 3 million. In that year a resolution denouncing the Ku Klux Klan, introduced at the national convention of the Democratic Party, precipitated a bitter controversy and was defeated.

In the mid-1920s, inept and exploitive leadership, internal conflict, and alleged Ku Klux Klan immorality and violence greatly damaged the Ku Klux Klan's reputation, and political opposition increased.

By 1929 the Ku Klux Ku Klux Klan had been reduced to several thousand members. During the economic depression of the 1930s it remained active on a small scale, particularly against trade union organizers in the South. It also threatened blacks with punishment if they tried to exercise their right to vote. In 1940 the Ku Klux Klan joined with the German-American Bund, an organization financed in part by the government of Nazi Germany, in holding a large rally at Camp Nordland in New Jersey.

After the entry of the United States into World War II, the Ku Klux Klan curtailed its activities. In 1944 it disbanded formally when it was unable to pay back taxes owed to the federal government. Revival of Ku Klux Klan activities after the war led to widespread public sentiment for the suppression of the organization.

It suffered a setback in its national stronghold, Georgia, when that state revoked the Ku Klux Klan charter in 1947. With the death of its strongest postwar leader, the obstetrician Samuel Green of Atlanta, Georgia, Ku Klux Klan unity broke down into numerous, independent, competing units.