Ku Klux Klan - A Secret History

...

As the 20th Century dawned,
the Ku Klux Klan was a fading memory.

Recollections of the hooded order
were tainted by popular literature,

which portrayed the invisible
empire as a heroic force.

Simply battling to maintain
the proper social order.

This fanciful remembrance would
help fuel the Klans revival.

On Thanksgiving Eve 1915,
16 men gathered on top

of Stone Mountain in Georgia.
As night fell,

a towering cross was ignited
and the Ku Klux Klan was reborn.

The organizer of the spectacle
was a preacher turned salesman

named William Joseph Simmons.

(David Chalmers)
William J. Simmons was a failed

Methodist Clergyman
who had left, left the cloth

in order to become
a fraternal organizer.

Simmons claimed the idea of
starting a new klan

came to him in a vision.

The birth of the group was simply
a matter of timing.

The moment arrived with
the release of one of

the greatest cinematic
achievements of its time.

[music]

Just days following
the Stone Mountain cross burning

the Birth of a Nation was
released in the south.

D.W. Griffiths film was played
to sold out theaters.

The film making was flawless.

The history was not.

(Julian Bond)
In the Birth of a Nation,
the clan is a heroic force.

It is the defender
of white womanhood

against the ravages
of the newly freed slaves,

these animals, these beasts
whose main purpose in life

was to ravage white women.

It's a heroic force,
it's a noble force.

(narrator)
In the films climatic scene,
a group of hooded Klansmen

ride to the rescue
of the film's imperiled heroin

as she threatened by
lust crazed, black men.

(Julian Bond)
Black Americans reacted to
Birth of a Nation

with horror, with protest,
with demonstrations.

It was an assault on Black America
at a time when there were

no depictions of black people
as human being.

This depicted us as beasts

and depicted these criminals
as heroes and saviors.

(narrator)
Despite it's historical
inaccuracies,

the gained legitimacy after
President Woodrow Wilson

screened the epic
in the White House.

"It is like writing history with
lightening", the President said,

"my only regret is that it is
all so terribly true."

(Wyn Craig Wade)
The effect of the film
was enormous.

Um, it increased hatred toward
blacks, it made people believe

in the history that
was portrayed in it.

Even ministers endorsed it
and it just had a great effect

on changing peoples
attitudes towards blacks and

convincing them that these people
really do need to be controlled.

(narrator)
At his Atlanta home,
Simmons mapped out

the vehicle of control
in a manual called, the Kloran.

The handbook described the Klan's
secret rights, rituals, and oaths.

It defined the meanings
of strange names

created for Klan ceremonies,
regence and officers.

Simmons bestowed upon himself
the title of Imperial Wizard,

Emperor of the invisible empire.

As Simmons set forth to build
his kingdom,

he found recruits hard to come by.

But Klan publicist devised a
sales pitch based on the slogan

100% Americanism.

The new Klan would be a
patriotic organization for

American born,
white Protestants only.

It was no longer enough for
the Klan to be antiblack,

it now added Jews, Catholics,
and immigrants to its

list of enemies.

The recruitment strategy was
a spectacular success.

Within 15 months the Klan enrolled
more than 100 thousand new members.

The Klan had tapped a fear in
millions of Americans.

(Wyn Craig Wade)
In the 20's, a strong portion
of American felt invaded.

They felt invaded by immigrants,
Catholics were growing in number,

and they felt America was
no longer the America they knew.

And so there was strong feeling
that they wanted to restore America

and the Klan
promised them that too.

(narrator)
But as the Klan grew,
so did its problems.

Rumors spend about Klan leadership
misappropriating funds.

Rank and file Klansmen took to heart
the fiery rhetoric being used

to increase membership and
acts of violence began to occur.

The Klan was rocked by bad press
in 1921 based on information

supplied by a former Klan recruiter.

The New York World Newspaper
ran a scathing expose,

the paper detailed Klan atrocities
and financial irregularities.

In response, Congress held
hearings into Klan actives.

The star witness,
Imperial Wizard Simmons

denied all accusations
and dazzled the Senators.

The committee adjourned
without taking any action.

Amazingly, the investigation
had the opposite effect

from which they were intended.

Simmons claimed the publicity
was instrumental in the growth

of the Klan.

(voice of Simmons)
It wan't until the newpapers
began to attack the Klan

that it really grew.
Certain newspapers aided us by

inducing Congress
to investigate us.

The result was that Congress gave
us the best advertising we ever got.

Congress made us.

The History Channel returns to
Ku Klux Klan, a Secret History.

[music]

(narrator)
Riding a wave of publicity
from the newspaper exposes

and Congressional hearing,
the Klan bursts out of the South

in an incredible surge of growth.

Klaverns arose in
every state of the union.

New members willingly paid
a $10 initiation fee

for the privilege of donning
the robe and hood.

Klan recruiters used the Protestant
church to their full advantage.

They persuaded local ministers
to join the Klan by offering

free membership
and a position of leadership.

Klansmen would then make a
mysterious call on the congregation.

(David Chalmers)
With prior arrangement
by the minister,

they would appear during
the service on Sunday morning,

make a donation to the church,
which the minister

would receive and bless
and then they would withdraw

and the people would know that
the Klan was now in town.

(narrator)
When the Klan wrapped its message

in the sacred symbols
of Christianity

and the hollowed cloth of
the American flag

it found new members
easily induced to join.

(Morris S. Dees, Jr.)
In order to recruit,
the Klan has to have a message

that's palatable and
if the Klan message was

join the Klan and
we'll lynch a black

or we'll burn a building.
Very few people would join the Klan

So the Klan kind of cloaks
its goals in,

good and Christian and right and
moral and just and patriotic purposes.

(narrator)
By 1922, 3 million white American
had joined the hooded order.

The stereotype of Klan members
as unschooled and savage

is inaccurate.

Klan membership in the 1920's
represented a cross section

of the white Protestant community.

At the same time,
American women were demanding

equal rights.
Women who supported klan ideals

demanded entrance into
the invisible empire.

There overtures resulted in the
formation of the

Women of the Ku Klux Klan
and other women klan organizations.

At it heights, 500 thousand women
were members of the Ku Klux Klan.

With millions now counting themselves
as members of the hooded order,

the Ku Klux Klan became
the great social organization

for much of white Protestant
America in the 1920's.

The Klan demonstrated
its popularity

with its own form pageantry.
Main street parades,

the marches were exhibitions
of might and spectacle.

As Klan membership roles grew,
so did its political power.

In the national arena,
the Klan helped to elect

16 United States Senators,
5 of who were sworn Klan members.

One of the five, Hugo Black,
recanted his allegiance

when he later became
a Supreme Court Justice.

From California to New Jersey,
voters elected Klan backed candidates

to a variety of statewide
and local offices.

(Julian Bond)
You couldn't run for
public office in some places

unless you had the
Klan endorsement and Klan support

because it had this
enormous membership and it enjoyed

the sympathy of nonmembers,
who may not have always

condoned the most horrific
and brutal acts

but who thought the Klan serviced
a role in helping tamp down

these disatant elements in society.

[music]

Klan philosophy
was one of exclusion.

The groups on the out, blacks,
Catholics, and Jews,

were subject to intimidation,
economic boycott, and violence.

While the majority of the members
abstained from vigilantism,

the Klan was responsible for
episodes of racial

and religious terror.
Most crimes transpired

in the South but Klan
intimidation was felt nationwide.

Most violence was
directed at Blacks.

They were subject to beatings,
floggings, and at times murder.

But the Klan mission of the 1920's
was broader than

the intimidation
of African Americans.

Portland, Oregon's exalted
Cyclope once observed,

the only way to cure a Catholic
is to kill em.

While few Klansmen advocated
the murder of Catholics,

the anti-Catholic sentiment
was a lure for new members.

Because of their abundant numbers
Catholics bore the brunt of

Klan religious terrorism.

But those of the Jewish faith were
equally despised by the Klan.

The Klan was able to operate
outside the law

because in many communities
it's members were the law.

In the last half of 1922,
Morehouse Parish, Louisiana

was run by the Klan.
Because the hooded order

had infiltrated the law enforcement,
Klansmen were confident

they could get away with anything,
even murder.

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