1. The Ku Klux Klan

2. The Great Migration
During World War I, African Americans served as soldiers.
Thanks to wartime industries, 600,000 African Americans left the South and moved into Northern cities.
They got wartime jobs and settled down in communities like Harlem in New York City.

3. Race Riots When World War I ended, many men were unemployed.
There were race riots in northern cities.
Desperate, unemployed white men attacked black neighborhoods.
It was called the “Red Summer of 1919.”

4. Resurgence The Ku Klux Klan was a violent organization.
It was founded in 1866 for the sole purpose of terrorizing African Americans in the U.S. South.
Race hatred and religious hatred
The KKK had always stirred up racial hatred.
But in the 1920s, it began stirring up religious hatred.

5. KKK, W. Virginia, 1920s

6. Record Membership During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was reborn:
They had a new slogan: Patriotism, religious fundamentalism, and white supremacy.
They attacked African Americans - plus immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.
They elected Klansmen to political office.

7. KKK, Nebraska, 1923

8. Not Just in the South
By 1924, the Klan was in its heyday: It had four million members.
The KKK was not just a big deal in the South (Georgia, Alabama).
It had millions of members in the Midwest (Indiana) and the West (Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon).

9. KKK, Oklahoma, 1920s

10. The “Invisible Empire”
Members were often the guy next door - the pharmacist, the dentist, the real estate salesman.
They often dominated local and state politics.
Why?
During the 1920s, small-town America was intolerant of anyone they considered to be “un-American.”
They terrorized anyone who was not a WASP - a White Anglo Saxon Protestant.