Around the same time as Ragtime was set, the Ku Klux Klan was reviving. The Klan began reviving after racist films like Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915), which “fed prejudice with its celebration of the Klan and its demeaning depiction of blacks”(A People and a Nation: A History of the United States). “Between 1914 and 1920, 382 blacks were lynched, some of them in military uniform”(A People and a Nation: A History of the United States). The new Ku Klux Klan went beyond targeting blacks; however, it broadened its message of hate to include Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. The Klan promoted white superiority and patriotism (Pbs.org). The Ku Klux Klan worked to keep African Americans and “inferior” people in subjection. In order to do so, the Klan would harass inferior peoples, such as African Americans, by raping and beating them. Doctorow alludes to the Ku Klux Klan in Ragtime because white men based on him being African American harass Coalhouse. The firemen had no reason to vandalize Coalhouse’s property; however, they did so because they felt like Coalhouse was inferior to them, which gave them justification to target him. The firemen mirror the beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan because they harassed a man solely based on his race. The firemen’s representation of American beliefs develops racism because they harassed a man based on his race, which is exactly what the Ku Klux Klan
Around the same time as Ragtime was set, the Ku Klux Klan was reviving. The Klan began reviving after racist films like Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915), which “fed prejudice with its celebration of the Klan and its demeaning depiction of blacks”(A People and a Nation: A History of the United States). “Between 1914 and 1920, 382 blacks were lynched, some of them in military uniform”(A People and a Nation: A History of the United States). The new Ku Klux Klan went beyond targeting blacks; however, it broadened its message of hate to include Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. The Klan promoted white superiority and patriotism (Pbs.org). The Ku Klux Klan worked to keep African Americans and “inferior” people in subjection. In order to do so, the Klan would harass inferior peoples, such as African Americans, by raping and beating them. Doctorow alludes to the Ku Klux Klan in Ragtime because white men based on him being African American harass Coalhouse. The firemen had no reason to vandalize Coalhouse’s property; however, they did so because they felt like Coalhouse was inferior to them, which gave them justification to target him. The firemen mirror the beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan because they harassed a man solely based on his race. The firemen’s representation of American beliefs develops racism because they harassed a man based on his race, which is exactly what the Ku Klux Klan