The Indiana Klan operated a highly effective political organization. It compiled detailed data on all political candidates, published approved slates in church newsletters, and organized massive get-out-the-vote efforts, successfully installing a governor and dominating the state legislature.
In an attempt to enter mainstream politics, the KKK propaganda machine adopted an unlikely hero: former Democratic President Grover Cleveland. They admired his Protestant background and perhaps his reputation for personal scandals, holding him up as an aspirational figure for their members to follow.
While not a perfect match for European fascism—it lacked a single charismatic leader and expansionist war goals—the 1920s KKK shared key traits: a cult of victimhood, paramilitary violence, mass rituals, and a demographic base of anxious, middle-class Protestants and small businessmen.
Contrary to popular association, public lynchings peaked in 1919 and then declined as the second Klan grew. The two forms of violence were distinct: KKK violence was typically nocturnal vigilantism by masked perpetrators, while lynchings were often public, broad-daylight rituals where openness was part of the point.
The KKK's success was not just about violence but about creating a social movement. It hosted picnics, parades, and even circuses, embedding its hateful ideology into ordinary, taken-for-granted community life for millions of white Protestants, making it seem normal and even wholesome.
The Klan's founders were ousted in a power struggle driven by greed and accusations of immorality. A Texas dentist, Hiram Evans, used his control over membership lists—much like Stalin controlled the party apparatus—to seize power, buying out the original founder for a large sum.
Contrary to its traditionalist image, the Klan actively recruited women, with about half a million joining. It supported women's right to vote and work, viewing female voters as key to advancing its white Protestant agenda. Women became crucial organizers, planners, and activists for the movement.
The Klan's rapid downfall was triggered not by external opposition but by a scandal. Indiana's Grand Dragon, David C. Stephenson, kidnapped, raped, and murdered Madge Oberholzer. His conviction exposed the movement's hypocrisy, and its membership collapsed from hundreds of thousands to just 4,000 in two years.
The Klan's popularity waned partly because it succeeded. The passage of the restrictive Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 and the spread of state-level eugenics laws meant two of its central political objectives had been codified into law, making the organization itself seem less necessary to its members.