Ku Klux Klan And The National Resurgence Of The 1920s

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the oldest and most famous white supremacist American hate groups that emerged in 1865 and terrorized African Americans, but lost support during the 1870s due to the passing of the Congressional Ku Klux Act that declared martial law and imposed heavy penalties and military force against the KKK. However, during the 1910s and 1920s, the KKK experienced a national resurgence where it became the peak of its years with approximately five million supporters. The resurgence of the KKK in the 1920s had many radical changes to it, which is most notable in the ideology of the KKK. The ideology of the KKK during the 1920s was not just simply based on the notion of hating African Americans, but had a complex ideology that was …show more content…
The most important ideological principle of the KKK during the 1920s was the religion of Protestantism, where every member was required to be of the Protestant faith. The reason Protestantism played such an important role in the KKK is because it acted as the driving force behind the ideological justification of the KKK’s establishment and the heinous acts they carried out. William Simmons who was the first imperial wizard and started the re-birth of the KKK in 1915 required that all members to be Protestant and preached that the KKK were the successors of the Reformation that would cleanse the church and provide Protestantism as a foundation for both democracy and religious freedom. The KKK adopted the ideology of Protestantism and transferred over its ideals into the racial tensions of America, whereby the KKK believed that the fight to maintain the purity of the White race in the U.S. and the fight against African American’s was justified because they were doing the work that was passed on to them from the …show more content…
From the begging of the Klan’s renewal in 1915 the ideological doctrine of Protestantism can be seen with William Simmons who was the first imperial wizard of the KKK. In 1915, William Simmons led a group of Klansmen up Stone Mountain, Georgia where they set blaze to a cross and built a temple claiming that they were re-enacting the pilgrims that committed themselves to the U.S. constitution and the Protestant religion. The re-enactment on Stone Mountain done by William Simmons and KKK members illustrates that Protestantism was heavily idealized as one of the KKK’s main tenants because they believed that the pilgrims that came to the United States worshiped the religion of Protestantism. The KKK idealized the Pilgrims that came to America as a symbol of White purity that brought Protestantism with them. Therefore, the KKK worshiped Protestantism as one of the tenants because they thought that they needed to uphold the religion of Protestantism just like the Pilgrims did in order to keep the purity of the White race. Historian Kelly J. Baker argues that the second incarnation of the KKK during the 1920s was transformed and dressed in Christian virtue and metaphor where Protestantism served as a key component of the KKK’s mission. The ideology of Protestantism was interwoven with Americanism because