The Klan was given a good deal of column space in the magazines and newspapers of 1922. The editors primary concerns had much to do with the KKK’s influence on state elections and the worry of Klansmen attaining genuine power within the Federal Government. This article pointed out that the representatives on Capitol Hill at that time rarely had anything to say about the Klan and made no efforts to restrain it. Furthermore, in an effort to poll the opinions of America’s myriad newspaper editors that year, The Literary Digest sent over 100 letters to the editors posted to those areas of the country where the Klan was most active; the purpose of the inquiry was to ask what their positions were in matters involving the Klan – “Of the several hundred editorials received in reply, not one has been favorable to the institution”; numerous editorials from these papers are quoted.
Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive.
Click here to learn about the origins of the term “Jim Crow”.
