Do most people know that the Ku Klux Klan pretty much owned the state of Indiana in the 1920s?

[arcadian]

I was talking to my wife and she had never heard this information and was shocked by it. This was at a time when the Klan's rosters were at something like 4,000,000. The Governor of Indiana himself was a klansman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#The_second_Klan_1915-1944

The Klan had major political influence in several states and was influential mostly in the center of the country. The Klan spread from the South into the Midwest and Northern states, and into Canada where there was a large movement against Catholic immigrants.<69> At its peak, Klan membership exceeded four million and comprised 20% of the adult white male population in many broad geographic regions, with 40% in some areas. Most of the membership resided in Midwestern states.

The KKK controlled Southern legislatures and the governments of Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon. In Indiana, Republican Klansman Edward Jackson was elected governor in 1924.

In another well-known example from the same year, the Klan decided to make Anaheim, California, into a model Klan city. It secretly took over the City Council, but the city conducted a special recall election and Klan members were voted out.

[firedupdem]

1. I've been seeing them all week at the RNC n/t

[cliffordu]

2. Still do according to my dead father in law - shortly before his death a couple

years ago ..

He moved there after he got out of prison in '73 or '74 to join up.....

[patrice]

3. I knew they were REAL big in some places sometime around WWI, but didn't know where.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Maine, too

There were lots and lots of KKK members in Maine in the 1920s.

[EFerrari]

5. Yep. USA! USA!

Scratch a nationalist but have an anti-septic handy.

[entanglement]

6. The KKK marching down Pennsylvania Avenue

[elfin]

7. As a history teacher, I knew it

but it is a HUGE surprise to many. Klanners OWNED that state, and their residual influence is still felt - especially in the southern regions.

[norepubsin08]

8. And they pretty much own the GOP right now!!!

[entanglement]

9. The modern Klan(s) has a much bigger tent...they're ok with white catholics

like Irish and Italians. Jews are still a no-no though, maybe Michael Savage could be the first member :)
Quite similar to how events forced the Nazis to reverse their positions on those they considered "untermensch"(like Ukrainians) and even recruit them.

[alfredo]

10. Marion Indiana has the distinction of being the last confirmed lynching in

the north. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion,_Indiana

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

11. My maternal grandfather was a vet of WWI and he was very

active in the VFW. My grandmother told me that he wouldn't take her on trips to downstate Indiana and the southern states because she was a Catholic. Grandpa was gassed twice and won two purple hearts. He died in 1960 at the age of 63. He was also a delegate to the 1952 and 1956 Democratic Conventions.

[myrna minx]

12. Please read about Steve Stephenson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._C._Stephenson

He had ambitions for the Presidency, but his aspirations were foiled when he was convicted for the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer. Very chilling history.

[fishnfla]

13. Follow-up question: how did Superman help break up the KKK?

brilliant

[davsand]

14. We live in east central Illinois and the Klan was pretty big around here at one time.

We are fairly close to Danville, Illinois which is close to the Illinois Indiana line. The KKK was a big deal for a while--especially in a lot of the rural areas. Every so often there will be an oldster that dies and the family will find some KKK stuff hidden away in that attic or basement.


Laura