Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

This study analyzes the rise of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Dallas, Texas, in the context of the national Klan. It looks at the circumstances and people behind the revival of the Klan in 1915. It chronicles the aggressive marketing program that brought the Klan to Dallas and shows how the Dallas Klavern then changed the course of the national Klan with its emphasis on politics. Specifically, this was done through the person of Hiram Wesley Evans, Dallas dentist and aspiring intellectual, who engineered a coup and took over the national Klan operations in 1922. Evans, as did Dallas's local Klavern number 66, emphasized a strong anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic ideology to recruit, motivate, and justify the existence of the Ku Klux Klan. The study finds that, on the local scene, the Dallas Klavern's leadership was composed of middle and upper-middle class businessmen. Under their leadership, the Klan engaged in a variety of fraternal and vigilante activities. Most remarkable, however, were its successful political efforts. Between 1922 and 1924, the Klan overthrew the old political hierarchy and controlled city and county politics to such a degree that only the Dallas school board escaped the Invisible Empire's domination. Klavern 66 also wielded significant control of state Klan operations and worked vigorously and with some success to elect Klan officials at the state level. As the dissertation shows, all of this occurred in the face of heavy and organized opposition from political elites and those who opposed the Klan on principle. Finally, the dissertation looks at the complex combination of factors that brought the Klan's influence to an end. National scandals, internal squabbles, political failures, and longsuffering opposition from the mainstream press chipped away at the public's favorable impression of the Klan. Successful immigration restriction, an improving economy, and a lessening of post-war social tensions reduced the Klan's attractiveness. As a result, national and local Dallas membership dropped precipitously after 1924, and the Klan's dominance in local politics faded as well.

No description available.

My Daddy's Farm is a work of fiction about Clement J. Jones, a man, my great-grandfather, who committed suicide on November 19, 1924. In the early nineteen-twenties, this family man was a well respected, wealthy citizen of his county who--like one-third of his peers--had an active membership in the Indiana Ku Klux Klan. The story is narrated in part by a slightly sympathetic omniscient narrator, but mainly by Hazel Louise Jones, his daughter, who was in her teens when the Klan swept across Indiana in the nineteen-twenties; she was sixteen when her father committed suicide on November 19th, 1924.I have used three variations in this writing, based loosely on the style Gloria Naylor uses in Mama Day. These variations are characterized by the titles of their respective sections: "Our Spring," "Our Farm," "Our Family," and "Our Shame" are all narrated in first person, past tense, by Hazel Jones, Clement's sixteen year old daughter who is speaking as a representative of her family; "Clement J. Jones" and "Hazel Louise Jones" are written in third person, limited omniscient narration; and, "To Margaret," and "To Daddy" sections are present tense, with second person narration from Hazel Jones. Starting with "Our Shame," the story is punctuated by "Document" selections posted at the close of each chapter. These documents are nonfiction: they are news articles taken directly from the Indianapolis Star, the Williamsport Review-Republican, and the Williamsport Pioneer dated 1922, 1923, and 1924; and, they are papers taken out of the "United Klans of America" collection located in the Archives and Special Collections department of Bracken Library, Ball State University.Among sources listed on page 71 of this document, there are a few that were most helpful in providing details about the Indiana Klan: Anti Movements in America, edited by Gerald N. Grob, which reprints "Papers Read at the Meeting of Grand Dragons Knights of the Ku Klux Klan at their First Annual Meeting held at Asheville, North Carolina, July 1923"; and Women of the Klan, by Kathleen M. Blee. Exceptionally helpful was William Lutholtz's Grand Dragon, a well researched work of non-fiction about D.C. Stephenson's rise to power in the Indiana Klan and the development of the Indiana Klan.Three works of fiction especially provided creative direction for this thesis: Mama Day, by Gloria Naylor; Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood; and, In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim OBrien. / Department of English

Throughout the 1920s, America was marked by a series of fundamental political, social and economic shifts that defined the decade. The rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan was just one of the many results of the underlying tensions produced by the radical changes of the period. This fervently patriotic and nativist organization has captivated onlookers and academics because of its peculiar customs and its mysterious resurgence following the First World War. Historians have thoroughly analysed this group’s ideology, and have presented detailed case studies of the growth and decline of individual chapters of this vast organization. The 1920s Klan has been studied from practically every possible angle. However, researchers have neglected to study the order’s fraternal traditions and their relationship with other fraternities. This thesis hopes to address this oversight by offering a critical evaluation of the Ku Klux Klan’s role as a fraternity. This thesis will analyse how this order functioned as a fraternity, and how these traditions helped recruit followers to the movement. This study will also discuss how the Klan interacted with other fraternities, particularly the Freemasons. These two fraternities shared a complex relationship with elements of both cooperation and conflict, and their interactions will help us comprehend how the Ku Klux Klan managed to become the foremost fraternal movement of the 1920s. This thesis will analyse a number of different aspects about the Ku Klux Klan, from their ideology and rituals to their sales methods and public relations campaign. This study hopes to re-evaluate a number of key assumptions about this group by critically assessing the Klan from a different perspective. By investigating the response of fraternities like the Freemasons to an intrusive and aggressive order like the Klan, we can gain a better understanding of how the nation as a whole perceived and reacted to this peculiar organization.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how and to what extent Ku Klux Klan constructed a pan-Protestant interpretation of Christianity based on its “myth of America” (Americanism) during the years 1915–30. Using hermeneutic content analysis and a theoretical approach based on Gramscian “cultural hegemony” and historian of religions Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth, I examine the construction through three analytical themes: the Klan and the myth of America, the Klan’s pan-Protestantism, the Klan and religious patriotism. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s advocated a theological position where race and religious confession are intimately entwined, and its members hence believed that the white race is God’s chosen people and Unites States a God-ordained nation. Opposing the idea of multiculturalism, Klan members stressed the notion of America as a nation imagined to be threatened by Jews, Catholics, and blacks. Therefore, every white Protestant American had to unite in order to combat these alleged national and racial menaces. This worldview was permeated by aspects of love. It was mostly because of love to God, race and nation – not primarily due to hate – the Klan constructed its interpretation of Protestant Christianity. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s truly imagined themselves as guard-ians, or Knights, of an endangered culture.

The Oregon School Bill of 1922 would have required all school age children to attend public schools. Beginning as an initiative measure sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons it was passed by the voters in the general election in the Fall of 1922. Shortly after its passage representatives of private and parochial schools began a court battle against the bill which ended in the United States Supreme Court. Affirming the decision of a lower court it declared the Bill to be unconstitutional. While public interest in the Bill was great during the campaign, it soon dwindled and by 1925 the School Bill held little interest but to historians.

Denna C-uppsats bär titeln ”Det står i Bibeln”: Ku Klux Klan och religion över tid och är skriven av Marcus Karlsson. Studien belyser Ku Klux Klans utveckling från bildandet under 1800-talet till 2000-talets början, med hänseende till deras religiösa ståndpunkt i en värld av skiftande religiositet. De frågeställningar som bearbetas ämnar besvara hur Ku Klux Klan motiverar sina åsikter och existens utifrån en teologisk ideologi. Syftet är även att belysa deras ursprungliga förhållande till religion och religiösa institutioner samt eventuell utveckling som har skett över tid. Metoden som har använts i försök att besvara dessa frågor är litteraturstudier. Resultatet visar på att Ku Klux Klans ursprungliga åsikter var väl förankrade i det amerikanska samhällets och den kristna kyrkans värderingar men har över tid förpassats till marginalen. De har gått från att företräda en allmän teologisk hållning till att bli en anhängare av alternativa bibeltolkningar.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: R. Bruce Bickley, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 26, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 355-384).