There have been three and perhaps four Ku Klux Klans. The first arose out of the Confederacy’s defeat and Reconstruction. The second, fanned by the flames of D. W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation', flourished in the 1920's. The third KKK was a Southern reaction to Civil Rights and is perhaps the one we are most familiar with. You could argue that the most recent incarnation of the Klan is a fourth Reich, indistinguishable from the Neo-NAZI.
But it is the second KKK I want to talk about below the fold.
I want to get this out of the way right up front. I am not claiming that the Tea Party is the Klan, only that the same social dynamics that fueled the second Klan are still in play today. The Tea Party of today lacks the organized violence of the Klan, and also somewhat startling, ignores the civil service to the poor, handicapped and public schools that was a big part of the 1920's movement. The Tea Party is not the Klan, but the people that identify with the Tea Party today are doing it for the same reasons the people of the 1920's became sympathetic to the second Klan.
A Bit of History
By the time that D. W. Griffith's film 'The Birth of a Nation' was released in theaters in 1915 the original Klan's members were old men. The war had ended some fifty years before. Most were probably lucky to make it to their front porch let alone burn down Black churches. But D. W. Griffith's film spoke to a different dynamic that was happening at the time. Migration from Southern Europe had begun and large groups of mostly Catholic and Jewish immigrants poured into America. At the same time Black Americans from the South started to move north in search of industrial jobs. Afro-Americans returning from WW I demanded the same respect that they had received while wearing their uniforms in France. All of these dynamics were a perceived threat to the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants that still dominated American society. This new Klan that arose in the 1920's was not just a regional Southern thing, it held great sway in Indiana, California, Oregon and even New Hampshire. It was concentrated in the urban centers such as Detroit, Memphis, Dayton, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston. At its height the movement claimed over 4 million members...20% of the White male population.
The KKK Manual of 1925
Assumption College has a transcript of a 1925 KKK hand book. I think you will find much of it familiar.
OBJECTS AND PURPOSES ( ARTICLE II, THE CONSTITUTION )
I. Mobilization
This is its primary purpose: "To unite white male persons, native-born, Gentile citizens of the United States of America, who owe no allegiance of any nature or degree to any foreign government, nation, institution, sect, ruler, person, or people; whose morals are good; whose reputations and vocations are respectable; whose habits are exemplary; who are of sound minds and eighteen years or more of age, under a common oath into a brotherhood of strict regulations."
II. Cultural
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a movement devoting itself to the needed task of developing a genuine spirit of American patriotism. Klansmen are to be examples of pure patriotism. They are to organize the patriotic sentiment of native-born white, Protestant Americans for the defense of distinctively American institutions. Klansmen are dedicated to the principle that America shall be made American through the promulgation of American doctrines, the dissemination of American ideals, the creation of wholesome American sentiment, the preservation of American institutions.
III. Fraternal
The movement is designed to create a real brotherhood among men who are akin in race, belief, spirit, character, interest, and purpose. The teachings of the order indicate very clearly the attitude and conduct that make for real expression of brotherhood, or, "the practice of Klannishness."
IV. Beneficent
"To relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, especially widows and orphans."
The supreme pattern for all true Klansmen is their Criterion of Character, Jesus Christ, "who went about doing good." The movement accepts the full Christian program of unselfish helpfulness, and will seek to carry it on in the manner commanded by the one Master of Men, Christ Jesus.
And later in the manual.
4 Civic and Patriotic:
( a ) Every true Klansman is loyally patriotic. This means he is devoted to:
(1) The government of the United States of America.
(2) His state.
(3) His flag.
(4) The Constitution of the United States.
(5) Constitutional laws.
(6) Law enforcement.
(b) The true Klansman is pledged to absolute devotion to American principles. Before the sacred altar of the Klan, face to face with the Stars and Stripes, and beneath the holy light of the Fiery Cross, he pledged himself in these words; "I swear that I will most zealously and valiantly shield and preserve, by any and all justifiable means and methods, the sacred Constitutional rights and privileges of . . ."
1 Free public schools.
2 Free speech and free press.
3 Separation of church and state.
The fidelity to patriotism, Jesus Christ, the state, the flag and Constitutional Law are all the bedrocks of what the modern day Tea Party claims to be about. But startlingly lacking in this modern Americanism is compassion, in fact 'Compassionate Conservative' is a dirt word to them. There is no place for helping public schools, freedom of speech or separation of church and state. There is no beneficent "To relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, especially widows and orphans."
Prejudice with out Compassion
The Klan of the 1920's, whether misguided or not, was a populace movement that was about defending the 'American Way of Life'. The movement lost its impetus during the Great Depression when we were all suffering, White, Black, Gentile and Jew. It was all but gone by the start of the Second World War when real patriotism held the day. The Tea Party is about the most privileged 1% enlisting scarred White citizens with the same populous themes that motivated the second Klan. They appeal to the fears of immigration from our southern border, threats against the Christian religion and patriotism. But the goal is not protecting or defending the 'American Way of Life', or surely not helping your neighbors, it is about suppressing the 99% so that the 1% can maintain their bastion of privilege and wealth. The Tea Party is neither populist nor noble. It is the crass manipulation of people's fears.
The Real Populists
The Occupy Wall Street movement is populist and yes noble. The people in the streets all across America are there because they did buy into the American Dream and E pluribus unum. Perhaps in naivety, they truly believed that if you went to school and applied yourself, you to could partake in the fruits of America. They did their part and still they see their future's slipping way, slipping away. They have been betrayed and that is why they are in the streets.
#OWS is not 'The Birth of a Nation' it is 'The Grapes of Wrath.'
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
[Edited to fix G. W. Griffith to the correct D. W. Griffith. Thx subtropolis]