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The Ku Klux Klan in Madison, 1922-1927
By Robert A. Goldberg
A Wisconsin Klan member's
button, from the Society's
Collections.
0
|N THANKSGIVING night, 1915, William Joseph Simmons, a former fraternal organizer and ex-Methodist circuit rider, led sixteen men to the summit of Stone Mountain in Georgia. There, under a fluttering American flag and a burning wooden cross, the group knelt and proclaimed its allegiance to the revived Ku Klux Klan. The inspiration for this event Simmons traced to a vision he experienced upon his return from the Spanish-American War. Look¬ ing up at the sky one day, he had seen the clouds transform themselves into charging white-robed horsemen, which he interpreted as a sign from God to re-create the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
However, unlike its predecessor of the Re¬ construction period, this Klan was not con¬ fined to one section of the nation, nor was it primarily white supremacist. Instead, the Klan of the 1920's posed as a defender of Americanism and Protestantism against their supposed detractors—Catholics, Jews, blacks, radicals, immigrants, bootleggers, and evolu¬ tionists. Perhaps as many as five million men throughout the United States responded to the many-sided program expounded by its re¬ cruiters, but despite the size and importance of the organization, its character is still largely shrouded in mystery.
In its first five years the Ku Klux Klan grew slowly. By 1920 the Invisible Empire consisted of only 5,000 to 6,000 men in scat¬ tered Klans throughout Georgia and Alabama.
Depressed by the Klan's slow growth, Sim¬ mons turned for help in promoting the order to E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler of the Atlanta-based Southern Publicity Asso¬ ciation, who on June 7, 1920, signed a con¬ tract with Simmons, stipulating that the Asso¬ ciation would propagate and enlarge the Klan. In order to conduct the membership drive, the Association ceased all non-Klan activities and became the Propagation Department of the Invisible Empire. Clarke and Tyler en¬ listed more than 200 organizers, or kleagles, and directed them to exploit any issue or prejudice that could be useful in recruiting men for the movement. The kleagles worked on a commission basis, and thus sought to secure as many new members for the Klan as they possibly could. The sharp rise in the secret order's membership reflected their suc¬ cess, for between June, 1920, and October, 1921, 90,000 to 100,000 men became Klans- men.*
When representatives of the Ku Klux Klan first entered a state, they established a net¬ work of provisional Klan chapters, over which the Klan Propagation Department in Atlanta exercised strict control. In order to organize a state fully, the Propagation Department ap¬ pointed an individual from a previously or-
^ Charles C. Alexander, The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest (Lexington, Kentucky, 1966), 6-8; Henry P. Fry, The Modern Ku Klux Klan (Boston, 1922), 39; Kenneth T. Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930 (New York, 1967), 10.
31
Object Description
| Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 58, number 1, autumn, 1974 |
| Article Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 58, number 1, autumn, 1974 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | State Historical Society of Wisconsin |
| Series | Wisconsin Magazine of History ; v. 58, no. 1 |
| Format-Digital | xml |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol58no010000 |
| Description | This issue includes articles on the fur trade in the upper Mississippi Valley, American radical Thomas R. Amlie, and the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Madison. |
| Volume | 058 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Year | 1974-1975 |
Description
| Title | 31 |
| Page Number | 31 |
| Article Title | The Ku Klux Klan in Madison, 1922-1927 |
| Author | Goldberg, Robert Alan, 1949- |
| Page type | Article home; Image |
| Format-Digital | jpeg |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol58no010033 |
| Description | The Ku Klux Klan in Madison, 1922-1927: Unlike its primarily southern and white supremacist predecessor in the 19th century, the renewed KKK of the early 20th century was more widespread and posed as a defender of Americanism and Protestantism against Catholics, Jews, blacks, radicals, immigrants, and evolutionists. In Madison, the Klan found success in its promise to clean up the city, focusing in particular on the culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood known as "Greenbush" or Little Italy, an area reputed for violence and bootleg liquor. Most members were ordinary working men bewildered by changes in the city who longed for more tranquil times and who found companionship in the organization. The KKK was shortlived in Madison, however, done in by promises it could not deliver and few achievements. (13 pages) |
| Volume | 058 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Year | 1974-1975 |
| State/Province | Wisconsin |
| County | Dane County |
| Community | Madison |
| Decade | 1920-1929 |
| Organization Name | Ku Klux Klan |
| Subject | Crime; Demonstration; Prohibition; Race relations; Religion; Italian Americans; Social conflict; |
| Full Text | The Ku Klux Klan in Madison, 1922-1927 By Robert A. Goldberg A Wisconsin Klan member's button, from the Society's Collections. 0 |N THANKSGIVING night, 1915, William Joseph Simmons, a former fraternal organizer and ex-Methodist circuit rider, led sixteen men to the summit of Stone Mountain in Georgia. There, under a fluttering American flag and a burning wooden cross, the group knelt and proclaimed its allegiance to the revived Ku Klux Klan. The inspiration for this event Simmons traced to a vision he experienced upon his return from the Spanish-American War. Look¬ ing up at the sky one day, he had seen the clouds transform themselves into charging white-robed horsemen, which he interpreted as a sign from God to re-create the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. However, unlike its predecessor of the Re¬ construction period, this Klan was not con¬ fined to one section of the nation, nor was it primarily white supremacist. Instead, the Klan of the 1920's posed as a defender of Americanism and Protestantism against their supposed detractors—Catholics, Jews, blacks, radicals, immigrants, bootleggers, and evolu¬ tionists. Perhaps as many as five million men throughout the United States responded to the many-sided program expounded by its re¬ cruiters, but despite the size and importance of the organization, its character is still largely shrouded in mystery. In its first five years the Ku Klux Klan grew slowly. By 1920 the Invisible Empire consisted of only 5,000 to 6,000 men in scat¬ tered Klans throughout Georgia and Alabama. Depressed by the Klan's slow growth, Sim¬ mons turned for help in promoting the order to E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler of the Atlanta-based Southern Publicity Asso¬ ciation, who on June 7, 1920, signed a con¬ tract with Simmons, stipulating that the Asso¬ ciation would propagate and enlarge the Klan. In order to conduct the membership drive, the Association ceased all non-Klan activities and became the Propagation Department of the Invisible Empire. Clarke and Tyler en¬ listed more than 200 organizers, or kleagles, and directed them to exploit any issue or prejudice that could be useful in recruiting men for the movement. The kleagles worked on a commission basis, and thus sought to secure as many new members for the Klan as they possibly could. The sharp rise in the secret order's membership reflected their suc¬ cess, for between June, 1920, and October, 1921, 90,000 to 100,000 men became Klans- men.* When representatives of the Ku Klux Klan first entered a state, they established a net¬ work of provisional Klan chapters, over which the Klan Propagation Department in Atlanta exercised strict control. In order to organize a state fully, the Propagation Department ap¬ pointed an individual from a previously or- ^ Charles C. Alexander, The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest (Lexington, Kentucky, 1966), 6-8; Henry P. Fry, The Modern Ku Klux Klan (Boston, 1922), 39; Kenneth T. Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930 (New York, 1967), 10. 31 |