KKK & Black Experience 1920s Flashcards
When was the KKK banned?
1871
Under what laws were black’s subject to discrimination, segregation?
Jim Crow Laws enacted by certain individual states
What suggests that the KKK were on so influential in determining immigration policy?
anti-immigration policies enacted before KKK revival
What X3 aims of the KKK?
- defend American values
- preserve WASP supremacy
- continuation of confederacy
What type of democrat was likely to support the KKK?
Southern Democrats
Who wrote the Birth of a Nation?
Griffiths
What did the Birth of a Nation depict?
- KKK protecting the South
- black man raping white woman
= suggested stereotypical black man disobeyed the law
What was the success of Brith of a Nation?
first ‘block buster” / “epic”
Who re-founded the KKK?
Simmons
Who wrote The Passing of the Great Race?
Grant
When was Birth of a Nation released?
When was Passing of the Great Race published?
Birth of a Nation - 1915
PotGR - 1916
What did Passing of the Great Race preach?
eugenics
pro-Anglo saxon stock
KKK followers;
1921 -
1924 -
1929 -
1921 - 100,000
1924 - 4million
1929 - 200,000
Where was support limited for KKK?
Pacific Coast
What was notable about KKK spread geographically?
more nationwide than 1st wave
Where was major support for KKK?
Midwest and Southwest
strongest in fastest growing cities
What type of person was likely to support the KKK?
those with declining status
e.g minor professionals / clerks
Allegedly the KKK had who under their political influence?
X5 US Senators and X4 Governors Klansmen
(at least)
11/13 elected candidates to US House in Indiana were backed by Klan in 1924
What campaign did the KKK successfully weaken? Why?
Al Smith’s 1928 Presidential
Catholic
What type of rallies / popularity did the KKK hold?
Often 20,000 - 70,000 people marches
e.g “Keep California White”
What was notable about most members and violence?
Most did not engage
most repulsed
Who was the Grand Dragon of Indiana?
Stephenson
When was Stephenson found guilty of the rape of a white woman?
1925
What did Stephenson’s conviction undermine?
the ‘moral crusade’ of the KKK
How many lynchings during 1920s
How many of these were African-Americans?
454
415 African-Americans
What was notable about the lynchings during the 1920s?
Had been declining since their peak in 1890
No lynchings at all in some Klan strongholds
e.g Indiana
Where became the block centre of renaissance?
Harlem
What did the black renaissance of Harlem help create?
“black consciousness”
What did the spread of the culture created from the Harlem renaissance help to spread?
expressed social / economic grievances of blacks
made whites away of the black experience
Who became the KKK’s imperial wizard from 1922?
Hiram Evans
What work did Hiram Evans publish?
“The menace of modern immigration” 1923
What immigration legislation is arguably a result of peak KKK popularity?
1924 Johnson Reed Act
What were individual Klansmen organised into?
Klaverns
Support in New England for the KKK shows that support was not…
confined to the South
What did Indiana have which showed political influence of KKK?
Klan endorsed governor
Profits of KKK in Indiana in 1924
$4.4million
How many Republican senators stepped down following Stephenson’s conviction?
What does this suggest?
16
KKK had mass support within Congress and across both main political parties
Despite the number of political figures backed by the Klan / who were Klansmen, what undermines the Klan’s influence?
Questionable whether these figures were able to pass legislation which furthered the Klan’s goals
Several 1925 proposals unsuccessful
e.g Bible Reading Bill
Rather than a terrorist organisation, what can the Klan more accurately be seen as?
Social organisation with a successful multi-level marketing strategy
which successfully exploited high levels of immigration and communist paranoia at the time
What suggests that the Klan’s popularity was heavily dependent on its marketing strategy
hired X2 publicists who adapted Klan’s message from racial violence to casual racism and condemnation of immigrants
When did the NAACP peak? How many members? How many groups was it organised into?
1919 peak
90,000 members
300 groups
How many sharecroppers in the USA?
How many were African-Americans?
8.5million sharecroppers
3million African-Americans
What was notable about blacks and voting?
subject to literacy tests
meant that many who had the right to access the vote were unable to
When did the UNIA peak? At what membership?
1921 peak
1million members
What undermines the collective strength of the UNIA and NAACP?
Different ideologies
UNIA segregationist and NAACP integrationist
violence between movements
What initiative did Evans try to set up in the late 1920s?
What was this an attempt to do?
Was it successful - what does this suggest?
“social club” initiative
to boost KKK membership
not successful - suggests KKK’s lack of sizeable support
When did Hiram Evans become the Imperial Wizard?
1922
Who led the UNIA?
What does UNIA stand for?
When did it peak / at what membership?
UNIA led by GARVEY
United Negro Improvement Association
Peaked in 1921 at 1million members
Who were the X2 publicists hired by the KKK?
Tyler and Clarke
