Ku Klux Klan In The 1920s Essay

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During the 1920s many things happened, but the most important was the fact that one of the most feared groups in America reemerged for a second time. In the 1920s there was a feeling of nationalism as the United States had just won World War 1 in 1919, as a way to intensify that feeling the Ku Klux Klan reemerged and tried to help unify America. Not all Americans were happy with the idea of the Ku Klux Klan because they discriminated against differences regarding race, economic background and religious views. As the 1920s came to a close so did the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan with the trial of Grand Dragon Stephenson on account of attempted kidnapping and murder of Madge Oberholtzer.
In 1915 William J. Simmons gathered a group of fifteen men and set out with a burning cross to announce the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. “It wasn’t until after the end of World War I that the organization experienced a national resurgence. Membership in the KKK skyrocketed from a few thousand to over 100,000 in a mere ten months (“Reemergence”).” Simmons hired two publicists to recruit members and charged each person …show more content…

“More than 50,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan paraded through Washington, D.C. Some walked in lines of 20, while others created formations of the letter K or a Christian cross. Many held American flags. Men and women alike, the marchers carried banners and their procession lasted for more than three hours down a Pennsylvania Avenue lined with spectators (Buchanan).” The Ku Klux Klan felt threatened over the new political changes that were happening in the world, so as a way to protest was to gather and unmask themselves because they are not afraid of what could happen. They were not protesting anything in particular, the purpose of the protest was to unmask themselves to show that they are normal people. Since they went out in front of millions people and acted this way people lost

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