Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition reveals a piece of history I had little known. I write about it because of its striking similarity to much of what we see today.
At its heart, the success of the second KKK during the decade of the 1920s was based on grievance: a feeling of being looked down on by the so-called “elite” and the power of being part of an anointed group seeing itself committed to patriotism and America in its purest form. In modern parlance, committed to Making America Great Again.
The suspicion of intellectuals and elites was vividly conveyed. The Imperial Wizard, the leader of the Klan, declared proudly: “We are demanding a return of power into the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualized but entirely unspoiled and not De-Americanized every citizen of the old stop.”
The book reveals the crowd-pleasing spectacles the KKK held, similar to the Trump rallies today.
As today, the Klan used criticism of their movement as “more evidence of victimization.”
Their animus toward and fear of immigrants echoes what we see today in the far right movement. As one Klan article iterated: “Strange, shoddy has lately crept into the loom on which we weave our destiny…ominous statistics proclaim the persistent development of the parasite mass within our domain—our political system is clogged with foreign bodies.”
What is most remarkable about this statement is that it appeared not only in Klan publications but in McClure’s Magazine-- a popular mainstream monthly known for its progressive era muckraking, publishing Mark Twain, Lincoln, Steffens and Jack London, among other distinguished writers.
So why you might ask, haven’t we heard more about the second Klan? Partly, because it faded quickly over a period of only about ten years.
The reasons for its demise, writes Gordon, include the heavy involvement of its leadership in corruption and scandal. People also finally got tired of the rituals and bombast.
In truth, the leaders brought themselves down.
Turning to today, will Donald Trump and his far right MAGA supporters bring themselves down? Not so far, despite the innumerable scandals. Particularly as far as Trump is concerned, it would be hard to conceive of more, but so far they haven't brought him down or significantly undercut the loyalty of his still large base.
However, it is worth remembering that the second KKK movement did not dissipate overnight. Indeed at its peak in the mid to late 1920s, Governors from many states and mayors from many major cities remained open, proud members of the Klan. They played a major role in denying the democratic nomination in 1924 to Al Smith, a Catholic, following their strong, viral, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish fervor.
As I say, it took a decade but the American people finally woke up to what was happening, as they also did 70 years ago in finally turning aside the crude and malicious assertions of the once-very popular Senator Joseph McCarthy.
While I may be too optimistic I believe that provided we continue to push back against the demagoguery of Donald Trump and his congressional supporters, truth will out and we will find our way back closer as we have before to the essence of what our Nation stands for at our best.
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