Kkk's Fight for Americanism

Andrew Rowe

Linda Curtis

History 152

3 November 2010

The Klan's Fight for Americanism

In a 1926 article Hiram Evans, the Imperial Wizard explains the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan. He first says who the Klan is organized for. The only people who are allowed to be members, he says, are the "pioneers" that founded this country of the United States. It is his belief that it was the WASP that brought the world into this modern age, and now his people were being discriminated against.

Evans then goes on to explain how his people are being oppressed. The last twenty years there was a great social reform. During this time, schools started teaching some Darwinism, also saying that the new immigrants were infesting cities. Also "un-American" organizations began being formed to support these new liberal groups.

"We must Americanize the Americans" an immigrant said. This is the thing that Evans wanted to prevent. The Nordic Americans were being forced out of their jobs, not because they were not lazy, but because the new Americans worked for a lower wage. This, the Klan said, led to the "pioneer" reluctance toward bringing more children into the world. This is, therefore, the first

step in the reduction of the true American.

Evans then goes on to explain why the Ku Klux Klan is appealing to the average American person. He says that the people who are in control now are too liberal of people to run the government and that they have betrayed the American people. They think that intellectual leaders have the weakness of overanalyzing problems. They believe the thing that their leaders and they had lacked had been emotion. Emotion, to the Ku Klux Klan, was God inside of them, telling them what has been done and what needs to be done.

In the 1920′s the Ku Klux Klan's membership had soared to new highs. This is because of their emotional appeal to the average American person. The country just fought a war where not all of its citizens were even pulling for the same side. Jobs were becoming more and more scarce, and civil rights, along with other liberal groups were gaining power. Many people saw this all as a threat, gaining themselves a decade or so of prosperity. To lash out at their declining values they turned to the Klan. The Klan's membership also jumped in the 1920′s.