Kenneth T. Jackson\'s Ku Klux Klan in the City

Kenneth T. Jackson's book, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930, is an effective and valuable look at the second Klan movement. In the book, Jackson looks at the Klan's success in capturing political power in urban centers in the South and the North, and describes the Klan's actions in the political sphere. Jackson's book ultimately serves its purpose of describing the unique characteristics of the second Klan movement, and dispels many of the stereotypes of the Klan as a rural, Southern movement.

Essentially, the KKK was relatively successful in capturing political power in urban centers in the South and the North. Jackson notes that the Klan was only active in the southern cities of Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Montgomery prior to 1920, and that the Klan's movement into the north only became established in the north at a later date.

Despite the early success of the clan in the southern states, the Klan had difficulty making inroads into the North. Writes Jackson, "the Invisible Empire remained confined to Alabama and Georgia and as late as 1920 could best be described as just another indolent southern fraternal group" (7-8). At that time, there were less than 2000 members in the Klan, and no real "indication that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, from among hundreds of secret societies and patriotic fraternities, would vault to national prominence" (Jackson, 8).

As the Klan grew in prominence, it moved into new areas of the south, including Knoxville and Dallas. In the north, the Klan made significant inroads into Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis, which soon became the center of Klan activity. In time, the Klan made inroads into California, Portland and Denver.

Importantly, the Klan had over two million new members enrolled between 1920 and 1926, and a large number of these members existed in urban centers of both the north and south.

The Ku Klux Klan had a number of strengths and weaknesses in the political sphere. In the south, the Klan held a fair amount of power, even from the late 1910s, and many of its actions were public. In 1918 the Klan played a role in stopping a strike in the shipyards of Mobile by abducting a labor leader and threatening others. A similar scene played out in Birmingham at about the same time. The Klan's defiant stance against criminal elements in Birmingham carried a great deal of political clout in the south. In Nashville, a local police chief advised authorities to start a Klavern in order to help reduce crime in the area. The Klan even participated in a confederate reunion in Atlanta.

The influence of the Klan grew profoundly as its membership increased. Around 1920, there were close to 2000 members, centered in the south, but by 1926 the Klan had almost two million new members, a great many of them from the North. In this time, the Klan had a great deal of political influence due to its large membership base. It had as much support as organized labor at the time, and Jackson quotes journalist Stanley Frost as describing the Klan as "the most vigorous, active, and effective force in American life, outside business."

The Klan's weaknesses in the political sphere can be largely attributed to its association with racism and intolerance. Jackson notes that the Klan found ample opportunity "to denounce Catholicism, integration, Judaism, immigration, and internationalism as threats to traditional American values." As such, the Klan likely alienated a great deal of the population. In addition, the Klan's frequent "extralegal" actions against its enemies may have alienated a great number of potential supporters, and damaged the Klan's political clout. The Klan eventually collapsed in large part due to state laws that made masks illegal and bad publicity about its non-legal activities.

At the same time, the Klan's heavy emphasis on patriotism and denouncement of crime gave them great popular clout. It was this message that played an important part in the skyrocketing membership in the early 1920s. During this time, the Klan was often seen as an institution that sought to hold together traditional American political ideals and morals against a tide of uncertainty and change, and thus acted as an outlet for the powerful patriotism that arose out of WWI. Although the Klan touted itself as a non-political movement, it played an important role in politics in the election of state officials in areas as divers as Texas, Oregon, and Maine.

In writing this book, Jackson's purpose was to describe the unique characteristics of the second of the three Klan movements in the United States. While he notes that the traditional image of the KKK as "hooded nightriders preserving white supremacy in the rural South," this image only applied to the first and third Klan movements. As Jackson notes, the second Klan movement, also the largest and most significant of Klan movements, had little to do with violence, the south, white supremacists, or even a rural environment. Instead, Jackson argues that the second Klan movement saw itself as a patriotic movement and a defender of Christian ideals. Ultimately, Jackson describes this movement as a powerful political force in the nation, and Jackson seeks to define the extent of the Klan's power in the North, and determine the nature and impact of the Klan in the North, as well.

This book is a valuable addition to the historiography of the KKK from 1915 to 1930. Jackson's look at the clan is clearly well-researched, and supported with a variety of facts and figures that led credence to his arguments. This abundance of detail adds a lot of substance to the relatively sketchy knowledge that we have about the second clan movement. As Jackson notes, "Important questions regarding the total size and distribution of membership, the nature of the Klan's appeal, the extent to which it shifted prejudices from one section of the country to another, and the socioeconomic status of the typical Klansmen remain unresolved." Jackson's book goes a long way in bringing together much of the conjecture about the second Klan movement, and making sense of many of the competing ideas.