Course

First Year Honors

Document Type

Student Paper

Publication Date

Fall 2024

Disciplines

English Language and Literature

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

The Klu Klux Klan of the 1920s, known as the second Klan, built its three to six million members quicker than any previous group. The Klan continued the traditions of earlier generations, including the notorious robes, masks, and racist attitudes toward African Americans. In addition, anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism grew, which further increased animosity and reshaped what it meant to be a terrorist in America. Through the leadership of Hiram Wesley Evans, a small-practice dentist, who quickly rose in the ranks to later become Imperial Wizard of the Klan in 1922, the Klan was altered in a way never seen before. No longer hiding meetings and agendas, the second Klan carried messages in newspapers and radios open to the public. Without the influence of Evans, the Ku Klux Klan would not have gained the traction crucial to the rise of Klan emotion and ideology in the 1920s. Evans made the Klan something new, a White nativist, nationwide group as well as a segregationist group, creating a lasting impact over a hundred years later.