The Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization; apart from a few top leaders the members never revealed their membership and wore masks in public. Investigators in the 1920s used KKK publicity, court cases, exposés by disgruntled Klansman, newspaper reports, and speculation to write stories about what the Klan was doing. Almost all the major newspapers and magazines were hostile. Published accounts exaggerated the official viewpoint of the Klan leadership, and repeated the interpretations of hostile newspapers and the Klan’s enemies. There was almost no evidence regarding the actual behavior or beliefs of individual Klansmen. The resulting popular and scholarly interpretation of the Klan from the 1920s into recent decades, based on those sources, says Pegram, emphasized the Southern roots, and violent vigilante-style actions of the Klan in its efforts to turn back the clock of modernity.
On July 4, 1925, about 3,000 Ku Klux Klan members from all over Michigan marched though Grand Rapids.
On July 4, 1925, about 3,000 Ku Klux Klan members from all over Michigan marched though Grand Rapids.
The Klan funeral of Charles Rice on May 3, 1925, in Hesperia.
Ku Klux Klan marching through town during a parade in Lincoln, Maine, in the summer of 1924.
Female Ku Klux Klan members in the 1920s march through Binghamton, N.Y., holding American flags.
Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington
Ku Klux Klan parade in Chicago
Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington
Ku Klux Klan parade
Ku Klux Klan ceremonial meeting near Los Angeles, Calif. when 800 applicants swelled the ranks of this realm to 4000 members. A crowd of people witnessed the ceremonial, February 13, 1925. (AP Photo)
A Klan parade in Virginia in 1922.
Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington
