US History

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Social Movements

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Second Klu Klux Klan and its relationship the film The Birth of a Nation.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Second Ku Klux Klan

A Ku Klux Klan flag, 1865.

A Ku Klux Klan whip, ca. 1875.

A flyer explaining the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan from the second half of the nineteenth century.

A photograph of Jewish businessman Leo Frank at his murder trial in a courtroom in Marietta, Georgia, 1913.

A photograph of William J. Simmons, the founder of the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1921.

A photograph of early twentieth-century filmmaker D. W. Griffith who produced *The Birth of A Nation*, ca. 1923.

An excerpt from a souvenir program for the silent film *The Birth of a Nation*, 1915. 

A movie poster for D. W. Griffith’s film *The Birth of a Nation*, 1921.

An essay discussing the reception of *The Birth of a Nation*, 1936.

An excerpt from a book entitled *Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed*, 1921. 

A photograph of a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1925.

A photograph of a Ku Klux Klan rally in Indiana, 1920s-1930s.

A press release from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) about a Ku Klux Klan lynching, 1926.

A Ku Klux Klan uniform, ca. 1930.

A Ku Klux Klan mailer asking the reader to buy only American goods, 1940.

Resources

1. “[When Bigotry Paraded Through the Streets](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/second-klan/509468/),” *The Atlantic*, December 4, 2016. 
2. [Digital Collections: Ku Klux Klan](https://lib.msu.edu/branches/dmc/collectionbrowse/?coll=22), Michigan State University.  
3. “[100 Years Later, What's The Legacy Of 'Birth Of A Nation'?](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/08/383279630/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation),” National Public Radio, February 8, 2015.  
4. [*Tragedy in the New South: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank*](https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/leo-frank), Digital Public Library of America. 
5. [KKK Newspapers](https://kkknews.revealdigital.com/), Hate in America: The Rise and Fall of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, Reveal Digital.

Overview

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a historically violent American organization that has operated in three periods to promote white supremacy and white nationalism and resist immigration. Founded after the Civil War as a secret society by Confederate generals, the First Klan’s primary focus was subverting Republican Reconstruction policies and preventing emancipated African Americans from receiving the benefits of citizenship. Despite its success disrupting black political participation through threats and actual violence, federal government efforts to suppress the Klan in 1870-1871 forced in a major decline in its activities. 

The emergence of the United States as an industrial nation, coupled with the [influx of immigrants](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sets/immigration-and-americanization-1880-1930) into the country at the turn of the twentieth century, led to a resurgence of the KKK. Racist propaganda fueled its reorganization and appeal to new members. D. W. Griffith’s massively popular 1915 film *The Birth of a Nation*, set during Reconstruction, is credited with spreading and normalizing the Klan’s racist ideologies. Based on Thomas Dixon’s 1905 novel *The Clansman*, *The Birth of a Nation* used white actors in blackface to portray African Americans as lazy, ignorant, and violent. The film suggests that if granted full citizenship, African Americans would abuse it and threaten the security and “purity” of the white race. It positions the First Klan as the protectors of whiteness. 

Officially reorganized as a fraternal organization in 1915, the Second Klan paid full-time recruiters and operated in every state from a national headquarters. At the peak of its popularity in 1924-5, the organization claimed four to five million men as members, or about fifteen percent of the nation's eligible population. It espoused nativist ideologies, discriminated against any group it deemed “un-American,” and supported the culture of Jim Crow segregation with threats and violent acts, such as lynchings. The Second Klan was the KKK’s period of greatest popularity and centralized organization, which lasted until 1944. Today classified as a terrorist organization, the Third and current Klan began in independent local groups in 1946 to oppose the Civil Rights Movement, but its membership numbers remain much lower at 5,000-8,000.

English

Second Ku Klux Klan and *The Birth of a Nation*

ku-klux-klan_05_fefe9d924cc36c042749cacf71809d9b.jpg

Courtesy of New Georgia Encyclopedia (Project) via Digital Library of Georgia.

“William J. Simmons,“ Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/650190d8a72f5ef0a5cce4d8f602d34c.


In this photograph, William J. Simmons sits during a 1921 investigation of the Ku Klux Klan by a US House of Representatives committee. He faces front, and several men sit in the background. Simmons was inspired to reestablish the Klan in 1915 after seeing D. W. Griffith's film, *The Birth of a Nation*, and learning about the Leo Frank trial in Atlanta, Georgia. Simmons designed the hooded uniforms and secret rituals associated with the organization.

A photograph of William J. Simmons, the founder of the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1921.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 5 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Second Ku Klux Klan and The Birth of a Nation