Ku Klux Klan In The 1920's

In the 1920's the Ku Klux Klan emerged during the aftermath of the U.S. being involved in World War I. It was founded by William J. Simmons, a Methodist circuit preacher who had fifteen followers. The movie The Birth of Nation was Simmons inspiration and recruiting tool for the Klan. From 1915 to 1920 Simmons was able to earn a living by attracting several thousand members to the Klan who agreed to pay membership fees. In the beginning, the Klan had only 4,000 to 5,000 members throughout Georgia and Alabama, however when Simmons signed a marketing contract with Edward Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler, 85,000 men joined the Klan within a year. The Klan of the 1920's was founded on traditional ideals and ignorance. Members viewed themselves as guardians
Previously, Klan membership was advertised in the newspaper, however, Williams Joseph Simmons "Ordered members to keep their membership in the Klan a secret from everybody, except each other" (Wade). By keeping the Klan membership a secret, it allowed its leaders to be more selective about who they allowed in the Klan. Therefore, the secret terrorist group made sure to stress white Protestant supremacy in order to keep their ideas hidden from their enemies. "To those recommended membership, Simmons sent out an anonymous letter that stated that one had to believe in, "The Tenets of the Christian Religion, White Supremacy, Protection of the Pure American Womanhood….to become a member of the most powerful, secret, non-political organization in existence" and upon agreeing and believing in these ideas one was admitted into the Klan (Wade). In order to keep the Klan's principles intact and exclusive, an applicant had to fully believe in the prejudice philosophy of the KKK and not simply spread their ideas to their enemies. The KKK and its leaders made sure to keep the plans of the Klan intact while upholding the mission of the terriosts group. While avoiding their enemies, the KKK kept membership a secret which portrays the extreme measures the group went to in order to uphold the mission of the
"In D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of Nation, the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager, in Atlanta, Georgia. Frank was convicted in 1913 for the murder of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old girl employed by his pencil factory. There were a series of appeals, but all failed. The final appeal, was a 7-2 decision by the US Supreme Court. After Governor John Slaton commuted Frank's sentence to life imprisonment, a group of men, calling themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan, kidnapped Frank from a prison farm in Milledgeville in a planned event that included cutting the prison's telephone wires. They transported him 175 miles back toMarietta, near Atlanta, where they lynched him in front of a mob" (Wade). Most white audiences in 1915 loved the film and members of the Klu Klux Klan saw nothing wrong with the actions that took place in the movie and in real life. They enjoyed the film because it embodied the ideas of white supremacy and allowed many people to see the Ku Klux Klan in a heroic manner. William Brown vividly remembers seeing a horrifying lynching take place where the Klan, "Had a big cross [and] they burned a Negro right at the stake there. And oh, it was a terrible thing. You could smell his burning flesh five miles and it was a terrible thing. And do you know, those Klu Klux Klan after the flames were over, and he was burnt to a crisp, go around and cut things off of him—off