The second Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1915 by William J Simmons. The new Klan had a wider programme than its forerunner, for it added to “white supremacy” an intense nativism and anti-Catholicism (it was also anti-Semitic).
Professing itself as non-political, the Klan nevertheless controlled politics in many communities and in 1922, 1924 and 1926 elected many state officials and a number of Congressman. Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Oregon and Maine were particularly under its influence. ###
Its power in the Midwest was broken during the late 1920s when David C. Stephenson, a major Klan leader there, was convicted second-degree murder, and evidence of corruption came out that led to the indictment of the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis, both supporters of the Klan. The Klan frequently took extra-legal measures, especially against those whom it considered its enemies. As was the case with the earlier Klan, some of these measures, whether authorized by the central organization or not were extreme www.historylearning/kkk-1920s-usa.html An explicit version of the anti-immigrant and racist ideology of the Klan is in this speech which has probably been delivered by Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans: “Our unity is threatened by hordes of immigrants… who bring foreign ideas into our land. Two things must be done: first, we must stop influx of foreigners; second, we must through education, bring all people to common programme of acting and thinking.”
Article title: The Ku Klux Klan, 1920 - 1930
The Klan did not overlook children in its drive for membership. In Grand Island boys were urged to join the junior Klan and the girls, Tri-K clubs. Klan women, especially active in Lincoln, York, Norfolk, Fremont and Weeping water, participated in discussions on Christianity, womanhood, separation of church and state, prohibition, strikes and white