Essay on The Ku Klux Klan: Primary Source Analysis

The Ku Klux Klan is an extremist group established in 1865 in Tennessee, just after the Civil War during the early days of reconstruction . The Klan itself was originally established as a confederate soldier ‘club’ but soon started to adopt racist, white supremacist ideologies, deeply convoluted with its southern, confederate connections to Tennessee. The Klan quickly transformed from a social ‘club’ to a terrorist organisation that quickly established a history of violence against different religions, cultures and ethnicities.

The document in question is a Ku Klux Klan advertisement for an all-day picnic celebration in Girard, Illinois in 1923, around the time that the second Klan was active. The advertisement itself is seemingly aimed at families and people with young children which is evident within the source by its mention of a ‘merry-go-round’ and ‘races and contests’, with the overall theme of the advertisement being fun, happy and exciting. The source itself was drafted in 1923 when the second Klan was active which is significant because at the time, the second Klan wanted to move away from the first Klan’s long standing history of violence in an attempt to appeal to people who were uncomfortable with America’s rapidly changing society. This is evident within the document because of its clear attempt to appeal to families and people with young children by including ‘fun’ activities, which also seems like an attempt to shroud the group from its history of violence and hate, and an attempt to transform the group into a family friendly organisation for everyone to support rather than an organisation founded on violence and hate by Confederate soldiers; this is evident within the source with the advertisement reading ‘everyone welcome’ within it. This is also highly hypocritical of the second Klan because of their expansion of their hate message to other groups such as Catholics, Jews and foreigners , therefore making the document quite ironic because of its attempt at appealing to a wider audience in order to try to move away from the violent history of the first Klan, despite the second Klan also expanding their message of hate to other groups of people; this could also be seen as a weakness within the source.

As mentioned previously, the document states that ‘everyone is welcome’ to the picnic event. This is problematic because of the Klan’s history of excluding groups of people and targeting those specific groups with hate, so not everybody was welcome and those who were welcome would have been white, Christian and American. It is as though the Klan were trying to portray their pernicious ideologies as normal, small town values that coincided with wholesome fun which is extremely problematic because this wasn’t what the Klan was at all. It was as though the Klan were trying to trick people into joining by portraying themselves as fun and for everyone.

Firstly, the ‘happy’ and ‘exciting’ themes of the document is deeply problematic due to the Klan’s anti-black, anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic and Jew ideologies, along with the organisations consistent targeting of people of colour and minority groups. The portrayal of fun within the advertisement is merely a recruitment strategy for the Klan, which also seems like an attempt to normalise racism and the exclusion of certain religious groups, therefore implying that the advertisement is just a way for the Klan to try and get away with racism, whilst also ingraining their views and ideologies into society; the advertisement is just another form of Ku Klux Klan propaganda to appeal to various members of society. This would also therefore influence the younger generation and therefore normalising racism and public events by organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan for them in the future, which is likely what the Klan was trying to achieve.

At the bottom of the source, there is a mention of sponsors for the advertisement, with one well known brand, even today included in this list; Ford. This is particularly poignant because Ford is a very popular brand of automobile and yet they are sponsoring a racist, hate driven organisation and its public events. Ford likely endorsed the event due to their founder, Henry Ford’s connection with anti-Semitism , with the Klan also spreading its own anti-Semite ideologies. This is important because at the time, the Klan wanted to employ as many members as possible to spread their ideologies across America and not to just one particular group of people within society; the Klan wanted to employ members across all ages, genders and classes . By conveying Ford into their advertisement, the Klan are reaching audiences that they likely didn’t reach before, the middle class, the rich and the educated. It is also particularly poignant that Ford is the central sponsor on the advertisement which was likely done to attract attention from the more middle class citizens who would see that Ford sympathised with the Klan, so thought that if a big brand sympathise then the Klan cannot be that bad.

The document holds a lot of historical significance for a number of reasons. Firstly, the source is a prime example of how the second Klan managed to gain a significant number of members in the 1920’s; through ‘fun’ public events which could also be viewed as propaganda. However, the document is problematic because it does not hold a lot of significant information about the Klan and portrays the Klan in a positive light, despite its deeply rooted connections with anti-Semitism and xenophobia. On the other hand, the source is particularly important and useful for Historians because it sheds a light on how the second Klan specifically gained so many members through the 1920’s, through the techniques that they conveyed such as the source itself, so the source is useful in helping Historians understand why people from all walks of life decided to join the Klan in the 1920s.