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Kleagles and Cash: The Ku Klux Klan As a Business Organization, 1915-1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Charles C. Alexander
Charles C. Alexander
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, University of Houston
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Abstract

The promotional, financial, and manufacturing enterprises of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. are examined in this study of its most prosperous years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1965 , pp. 348 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 New York Times, January 5, 1926, p. 13.

2 The Klan was so described in the preliminary charter granted by the state of Georgia in December 1915, reproduced in Jones, Winfield, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (New York, 1941), pp. 223–26.Google Scholar

3 Constitution and Laws of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Atlanta, 1921), Article 2, Section 1.

4 Klan charter in Jones, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, p. 223; Shepherd, William G., “How I Put Over the Klan,” Collier's, vol. LXXXII (July 14, 1928), p. 34.Google Scholar This article and two others by Shepherd were based on interviews with Simmons some years after he had ended his association with the Klan. In many respects the three articles were more valuable for the events surrounding the founding and early history of the Klan than Simmons' testimony in U. S. House of Representatives, Committee on Rules, The Ku Klux Klan, Hearings, 67th Cong., 1st Sess. (1921), pp. 67–185.

5 Shepherd, “How I Put Over the Klan,” pp. 7, 32.

6 Ibid., pp. 32, 34–35. On the technological and social importance of “The Birth of a Nation,” see Carter, Everett, “Cultural History Written with Lightning: The Significance of The Birth of a Nation,” American Quarterly, vol. XII (Fall, 1960), pp. 347–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Shepherd, “How I Put Over the Klan,” P. 35.

8 Simmons' testimony, Ku Klux Klan Hearings, p. 87.

9 Shepherd, William G., “Ku Klux Koin,” Collier's, vol. LXXXII (July 21, 1928), p. 9.Google Scholar The contract agreed to by Simmons, Clarke, and Mrs. Tyler is reproduced in Fry, Henry P., The Modern Ku Klux Klan (Boston, 1922), pp. 38–40Google Scholar; and Ku Klux Klan Hearings, p. 32.

10 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 39.

11 Fry, Modern Ku Klux Klan, p. 16. Henry P. Fry was a journalist who joined the Klan in 1921, during its initial expansion, became a Kleagle, and used his experiences in the order as the basis for writing one of a number of “exposés” of the Klan appearing in the 1920's.

12 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 9; New York Times, September 1, 1918, sec. IV, p. 5.

13 During the 1920's and in the years since many writers have tried to “psychoanalyze” the Klan and Klansmen, to account for the amazing expansion of the order. Among the best efforts are Higham, John, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (New Brunswick, N. J., 1955), pp. 234–99Google Scholar; Mecklin, John M., The Ku Klux Klan (New York, 1924)Google Scholar; Tannenbaum, Frank, Darker Phases of the South (New York, 1924)Google Scholar, Chapter I; Bohn, Frank, “The Klux Klan Interpreted,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. XXX (January, 1925), pp. 385–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rice, Arnold S., The Ku Klux Klan in American Politics (Washington, 1962), Chapter IIGoogle Scholar; and Chalmers, David M., Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan (Garden City, 1965).Google Scholar

14 Simmons' testimony, Ku Klux Klan Hearings, p. 87; “The ‘Invisible Empire’ in the Spotlight,” Current Opinion, vol. LXXI (November, 1921), p. 561; Duffus, Robert L., “Salesman of Hate: The Ku Klux Klan,’ World's Work, vol. XLVI (May, 1923), p. 33.Google Scholar

15 On Klan vigilantism in the southwestern states in the fall of 1921, see Alexander, Charles C., The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest (Lexington, Ky., 1965), Chapter III.Google Scholar

16 Ku Klux Klan Hearings, pp. 67–185; New York Times, October 2–18, 1921.

17 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 38.

18 “For and Against the Klan,” Literary Digest, vol. LXX (September 24, 1921), p. 34; Frost, Stanley, “When the Klan Rides: The Giant Clears for Action,” Outlook, vol. CXXXV (December 26, 1923), p. 717.Google Scholar

19 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 38; Fry, Modem Ku Klux Klan, p. 7.

20 Ibid., p. 8; Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, Held in Kansas City, Missouri, September 23–26, 1924 (Atlanta, 1924), p. 90.

21 Fry, Modern Ku Klux Klan, p. 31; Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 39.

22 Loucks, Emerson H., The Ku Klux Klan in Pennsylvania: A Study in Nativism (Harris-burg, Pa., 1936), p. 27.Google Scholar

23 On Klan political successes in various parts of the nation in 1922, see Rice, Klan in American Politics, pp. 58–64; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism; Alexander, Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest, Chapters VI, VII; and Alexander, , Crusade for Conformity: The Ku Klux Klan in Texas, 1920–1930 (Houston, 1962), pp. 40–53.Google Scholar

24 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 38; Houston Post, March 11, 1925.

25 New York Times, December 15, 1922, p. 12.

26 Shepherd, William G., “Fiery Double Cross,” Collier's, vol. LXXII (July 28, 1928), pp. 8–9Google Scholar; testimony of Robert L. Henry, Senator from Texas, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, United States Senate, 68th Congress, 1st and 2nd Sessions (1924), p. 46; Alexander, Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest, Chapter VI.

27 Shepherd, “Fiery Double Cross,” pp. 47–48.

28 Ibid., p. 48.

29 Rice, Klan in American Politics, p. 10.

30 Klan Constitution, Article 8, Section 1.

31 Shepherd, “Fiery Double Cross,” p. 47.

32 Tulsa Tribune, March 25, April 1 and 5, 1923; Fort Smith (Ark.) Southwest American, May 13, 23, and 25, 1923; New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 10 and May 25, 1923; “The Clash in the Klan,” Literary Digest, vol. LXXVII (April 21, 1923), p. 13; Minutes of the Imperial Kloncilium, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Meeting of May 1 and 2, 1923…. (Atlanta, 1923); New York Times, September 16, November 6, November 7, 1923, January 12, February 13 and 25, 1924.

33 Shepherd, “Fiery Double Cross,” p. 48; “Colonel Simmons and $146,500 from K. K. K. to K. F. S.,” Literary Digest, vol. LXXX (March 8, 1924), pp. 36–40; Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, p. 178.

34 Monteval, Marion (pseud.), The Klan Inside Out (Claremore, Okla., 1924), pp. 62–63.Google Scholar This small book was written by a former Klansman who left the Klan and took a fair collection of documents from Imperial headquarters with him.

35 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 38.

36 Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, p. 88.

37 Klan Constitution, Article 15, Sections 2, 3, Article 18, Section 18.

38 Ibid., Article 15, Section 3.

39 Ibid., Article 4, Section 4, Article 18, Section 18.

40 Two mysterious explosions followed by fire destroyed the Fort Worth Klan's meeting hall in November 1924. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 7, 1924.

41 On the political activities of the Dallas Klan in 1922, see Senator from Texas, Hearings, pp. 364, 373–75, 380, 399–402, 466–77, 533–35.

42 Colonel Mayfield's Weekly (Houston), May 26, 1923; Dallas Morning News, October 28, 1923, September 11, 1925; Texas 100 Per Cent American (Dallas), March 21, 1924; interview of the writer with an ex-Klansman who asked to remain anonymous, Dallas, May 18, 1959.

43 American Citizen (Fort Worth), April 13, 1923; Shreveport Journal, July 13, 1923; Tulsa Tribune, September 25, 1924.

44 Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, pp. 131–32; interview of the writer with an ex-Klansman, Dallas, May 18, 1959.

45 Loucks, Klan in Pennsylvania, pp. 96, 180–182.

46 New York Times, October 30, 1923, p. 22, February 14, 1924, p. 16.

47 Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, pp. 87, 90–91, 183–85.

48 Loucks, Klan in Pennsylvania, Chapter X; Alexander, Charles C., “Defeat, Decline, Disintegration: The Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas, 1924 and After,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, vol. XXII (Winter, 1963), p. 323.Google Scholar

49 Proceedings of the Second Imperial Klonvocation, p. 112; Alexander, “Defeat, Decline, Disintegration,” pp. 323–26.

50 Washington Post, November 3, 1930.

51 New York Times, June 11, 1939, p. 47, April 18, 1940, p. 48, June 5, 1944, p. 21; Broun, Heywood, “Up Pops the Wizard,” New Republic, vol. XCIX (June 21, 1939), pp. 186–87Google Scholar; Rice, Klan in American Politics, Chapters VIII and IX; Randel, William P., The Ku Klux Klan: A Century of Infamy (Philadelphia, 1965), p. 222.Google Scholar

52 On the post-World War II career of the various Klan organizations in the South, see Velie, Leslie, “The Klan Rides the South Again,” Collier's, vol. CXXII (October 9, 1948), pp. 13–15, 74, 75Google Scholar; Cleghorn, Reese, “The Segs,” Esquire, vol. LXI (January, 1964), pp. 74, 134Google Scholar; Martin, Harold H. and Fairly, Kenneth, “The K. K. K.: ‘We Got Nothing to Hide,’” Saturday Evening Post, January 30, 1965, pp 27–33Google Scholar; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism; Randel, Ku Klux Klan, pp. 233–62.

53 The best scholarly treatment of Stephenson's career is Weaver, Norman F., “The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan” (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1954)Google Scholar, Chapters IV and V. But see also Harrison, Morton, “Gentlemen from Indiana,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. CXII (May 1928), pp. 676–86Google Scholar; and Coughlan, Robert, “Konklave in Kokomo,” in Leighton, Isabel (ed.), The Aspirin Age, 1919–1941 (New York, 1949), pp. 105–129.Google Scholar

54 Shepherd, “Ku Klux Koin,” p. 38.