The actions of the second clan sometimes bordered on farce. In North Manchester, Indiana, rumors spread that the Pope was traveling through the area by train, and a mob formed at a train station to greet him. They were confronted by a man they believed to be the Pope, but the man turned out to be a corset salesman. But their absurdity did not make them any less dangerous. In Ocoee, Florida, Klansmen marched on the eve of the election to warn African Americans not to vote. Some tried anyway, but local Klansmen retaliated by torching houses and killing dozens of people. This incident later became known as the Ocoee Massacre. Although the organization denied involvement in various violent attacks, its members lynched people, publicly beat them, and tarred and feathered them.
The Klan reached its peak in membership and influence in 1925. In a sense, it was a victim of his own success. When Hiram Evans ousted William Simmons as leader in the early 1920s, the organization was rocked by infighting and division. The huge amount of money that flowed into the organization made it a tempting target for corruption. According to Dr. Pegram, “At the state level, as in Pennsylvania, Klan leaders are often criticized by local Klansmen because they are incompetent and appear to be playing games and making money from above.” They’re on trial. This happens in place after place.” In Portland, Oregon, members of a Klan committee were arrested while trying to steal money purportedly to be a construction budget; I resigned. Shortly thereafter, Frederick Gifford, the state-level head of the Oregon Klan, was charged with stealing funds. D.C. Stevenson of Indiana, who commanded one of the most powerful state-level Klans in the country, was ousted when he was charged with the murder and rape of a young woman. All of these scandals combined to reduce the KKK’s membership to a fraction of what it once was.
But it did not disappear completely, and the Klan’s resurgence contributed to the birth of new white supremacist and far-right groups. Florida was the home of his KLAN throughout the 1930s, whose members went after civil rights and labor organizers, going so far as to castrate and murder a man named Joseph Shoemaker. In Michigan and three other states, an offshoot of the Klan called the Black Legion has killed more than 100,000 of his members and committed dozens of murders, including that of a federal worker at the Works Progress Administration. I committed a crime. In San Diego, former Klansmen were drawn to the Silver Shirts, a fascist militant group that attacked Mexican workers and union organizers and stole weapons from the U.S. military.
As we face the rise of a new far-right, looking back at this early history reveals a long legacy of xenophobia, conspiracy theories, and bigotry in American history. The Klan’s influence lingered into the 2000s, long after the group had all but disappeared in some states, which still legally prohibited teachers from wearing religious attire in the classroom. Most dangerous, Pegram says, is the xenophobic America First ideology they championed. I think it’s remarkable that it’s been accepted without question even in the midst of demographic changes in the United States. ”
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