# Second Ku Klux Klan (1915–1944) The most successful mass white supremacist movement in American history. At its 1924 peak, the Second KKK claimed **4–6 million members** — approximately 15–20% of the eligible adult white male population — and controlled the governments of at least eight states. Unlike the [[First Ku Klux Klan]] (a paramilitary insurgency against Reconstruction) or the later Third KKK (a terrorist resistance to civil rights), the Second Klan was a **mainstream political organization** that held governors' mansions, state legislatures, U.S. Senate seats, and nearly controlled the 1924 Democratic National Convention. This is the Klan that matters most for understanding how white supremacy operates as a mass political movement rather than a fringe terrorist organization — and its organizational model (fraternal lodge, political machine, economic network, cultural identity) is the template that later movements have repeatedly tried to recreate. ## Founding William Joseph Simmons, a failed Methodist minister and fraternal organizer, refounded the KKK on **Thanksgiving night, 1915**, atop [[Stone Mountain]], Georgia. Simmons's timing was calculated: D.W. Griffith's *The [[Birth of a Nation]]* — a film glorifying the First KKK as heroic defenders of white civilization — had been released earlier that year and was a massive cultural phenomenon (screened at the White House for [[Woodrow Wilson]]). Simmons rode the wave of [[The Lost Cause]] mythology into a new organization. The refounded Klan expanded its target list far beyond Black Americans: | Target Group | Rationale | |-------------|-----------| | **Black Americans** | Continuity with First KKK; racial hierarchy | | **Catholics** | Anti-papist nativism; "foreign" loyalty to Rome | | **Jews** | Antisemitic conspiracy theories; economic competition | | **Immigrants** | Southern/Eastern Europeans; "diluting" Anglo-Saxon stock | | **Bootleggers/vice** | Moral enforcement; Prohibition-era social control | ## The Growth Explosion (1920–1924) The Second Klan grew slowly under Simmons until 1920, when he hired **Edward Young Clarke** and **Elizabeth Tyler** of the Southern Publicity Association to professionalize recruitment. Their innovation: a **multi-level marketing structure** where recruiters ("Kleagles") kept $4 of each $10 initiation fee, with escalating commissions up the hierarchy. This aligned financial incentives with growth — the same structural logic as modern MLMs. The result was explosive: from a few thousand members in 1920 to an estimated **4��6 million by 1924**. ### Geographic Reach Contrary to popular understanding, the Second KKK was **not** primarily a Southern organization. Its strongest chapters were in: - **Indiana:** Arguably the Klan's strongest state; controlled the governor, both U.S. senators, the legislature, and most city governments - **Oregon:** Klan-backed governor; passed anti-Catholic school legislation - **Colorado:** Klan controlled the governor, U.S. senators, and the state Supreme Court - **Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana:** Strong political influence The Second Klan was a **national** movement that was particularly strong in the Midwest and West — not just the South. ## Political Power | Level | Klan Influence | |-------|---------------| | **State governors** | Klan-affiliated governors in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas | | **U.S. Senate** | Multiple Klan-backed senators; Earl Mayfield (TX) elected with open Klan support | | **State legislatures** | Klan majorities in Indiana, Oregon, Colorado, and others | | **1924 Democratic Convention** | Klan influence so strong that the convention could not pass an anti-Klan resolution; deadlocked for 103 ballots | | **Municipal government** | Klan-controlled city councils, school boards, sheriff's offices across hundreds of communities | By 1924, neither major party was willing to formally denounce the Klan — the organization was too powerful. This is the closest the United States has come to a white supremacist organization functioning as a de facto third political party. ## Organizational Model The Second Klan's organizational sophistication far exceeded its predecessor: - **Fraternal lodge structure:** Robes, rituals, ranks, secret handshakes — the same fraternal appeal as the Masons, Elks, or Odd Fellows - **Economic network:** "Buy Klan" campaigns encouraged members to patronize Klan-affiliated businesses; economic boycotts of Catholics, Jews, and immigrants - **Women's auxiliary:** The Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) had 500,000+ members — a mass mobilization of white women around nativist domesticity - **Youth organizations:** Junior Klan chapters for children; intergenerational ideological transmission - **Charitable front:** Public works, charity drives, church donations — respectability infrastructure ## Collapse (1925–1930s) The Second Klan's collapse was swift and driven by scandal: - **D.C. Stephenson case (1925):** Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of Indiana and the Klan's most powerful state leader, was convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer, a state education official. The case exposed the gap between the Klan's moralizing rhetoric and its leaders' actual behavior. Stephenson, enraged at being abandoned by Klan allies, released evidence of widespread political corruption, bringing down the governor and much of Indiana's Klan political machine. - **Financial scandals:** Multiple Klan leaders enriched themselves through the dues structure - **Internal power struggles:** Clarke and Simmons fought for control; rival factions splintered - **[[Immigration restriction]] achieved:** The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) — which the Klan strongly supported — dramatically restricted Southern and Eastern European immigration, removing one of the Klan's primary mobilizing issues By 1930, membership had fallen to an estimated 30,000. The organization formally dissolved during World War II, though remnant groups persisted. ## Significance for the KB The Second KKK is the critical missing link between the [[First Ku Klux Klan]]'s paramilitary terrorism and the modern white nationalist movement. Its lessons: 1. **White supremacy as mass politics:** The Second Klan proved that explicitly white supremacist ideology could command millions of adherents and control state governments — not through terrorism but through political organizing, economic networks, and cultural identity 2. **The MLM recruitment model:** The financial incentive structure for recruitment was an organizational innovation that later movements (including modern dark-money donor networks) would echo 3. **The scandal vulnerability:** The movement collapsed when its leaders' personal behavior contradicted its moral claims — a pattern repeated with every subsequent movement 4. **Beyond the South:** The Second Klan's strength in Indiana, Oregon, and Colorado demolishes the narrative that white supremacy is exclusively Southern. It was and is a national phenomenon. 5. **Anti-Catholic + antisemitic + anti-immigrant + anti-Black:** The Second Klan's target list is essentially the same coalition of hatreds that animates the modern far right — with "anti-Muslim" added and "anti-Catholic" largely dropped ## See Also - [[First Ku Klux Klan]] — Predecessor (1865–1871) - [[David Duke]] — Later KKK Grand Wizard who attempted the Second Klan's political legitimization strategy - [[The Lost Cause]] — Ideological foundation; *Birth of a Nation* as recruiting tool - [[Reconstruction and Its Overthrow]] — The historical context the Klan mythology draws from - [[Great Migration]] — Black population movement that intensified white racial anxiety nationally - [[Father Charles Coughlin]] — Contemporaneous antisemitic mass movement via radio - [[Civil Rights Era Backlash Ecosystem]] — Third KKK context - [[Christian Identity]] — Many third-era KKK factions adopted Identity theology - [[Aryan Nations]] — KKK factions attended Butler's World Congresses - [[Tom Metzger]] — KKK Grand Dragon who broke with Klan structure to found WAR - [[Third Ku Klux Klan]] — The civil rights-era successor (~1950–present) - [[Louis Beam]] — Texas KKK Grand Dragon; leaderless resistance author - [[Militias and Extremist Groups Ecosystem]]