EXAM 3 - 6A - The Ku Klux Klan’s Political Influence in 1920s Georgia

Joseph Simmons

Atlanta businessman who re-founded the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 after being inspired by D.W. Griffith’s racist film The Birth of a Nation.

Birth of a Nation (1915)

Racist film by D.W. Griffith that glorified the original Ku Klux Klan and inspired its rebirth in the 20th century.

Stone Mountain cross-burning (1915)

Event held on Thanksgiving 1915 where Joseph Simmons and others reestablished the Ku Klux Klan with a cross-burning ceremony atop Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Edward Young Clarke

Publicity agent who partnered with Simmons in 1920 to expand Klan membership through nationwide recruitment campaigns.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler

Publicity agent who, along with Clarke, helped the Klan grow rapidly by organizing paid recruiters (“Kleagles”).

Kleagles

Klan recruiters who earned ten dollars for every new member they enrolled, contributing to the Klan’s explosive growth in the early 1920s.

“Imperial Palace”

The Ku Klux Klan’s lavish headquarters, a Greek Revival mansion on Peachtree Road in Atlanta purchased with membership funds.

Georgia (1920s)

Considered one of the states where the Ku Klux Klan made the deepest political and social inroads during its 1920s resurgence.

Lanier University

Former Baptist college in Atlanta taken over by the Klan in 1921, with Simmons briefly serving as “professor of southern history.”

Thomas W. Hardwick

Georgia governor and former disenfranchisement leader who opposed Klan violence; defeated in 1922 by Klan-backed candidate Clifford Walker.

Clifford Walker

Open Klan supporter who became Georgia governor in 1922 after defeating Thomas Hardwick in the Democratic primary.

Julian Harris

Editor of the Columbus Enquirer-Sun; the only journalist in Georgia who openly attacked the Klan, exposing Clifford Walker’s membership and participation in Klan events.

“Klonvokation” (1924)

National Klan convention held in Kansas City, Missouri, where Clifford Walker was revealed to have spoken while hooded.

Walter Sims

Atlanta mayor supported by the Klan, who also benefited from Klan-backed allies on the Fulton County Board of Education.

William J. Harris

U.S. Senator from Georgia (elected 1918) revealed to be a Klan member during his 1924 reelection campaign but still defeated Thomas Hardwick in a landslide.

1925 Klan scandal

Period when revelations of the Klan’s corruption and embezzlement caused public outrage and mass membership decline.

Membership decline (1925–1930)

Georgia Klan membership plummeted from about 156,000 in 1925 to only 1,400 by 1930 due to scandals and waning influence.

1926 Democratic primary

Election in which every Klan-backed candidate was defeated, including their choice for governor, marking the end of the Klan’s political power in Georgia.