The Ku Klux Klan
The KKK accepted native born white Americans who were Protestants with Christian values, morals and who would push for "Pure Americanism". The Klan of the 1920's where more like progressive reform and temperance groups. The Klan was involved in some politics, however it was mainly at the local level and was to push for their morality and temperance ideas. In the 1920's, the Klan leaders wanted to show that they respected the government and were not trying to make changes in the government system illegally. Another major idea of the KKK was racial purity, which they wanted to achieve by encouraging hostility against African Americans, and later even went against immigrants and religious groups such as Catholics and Jews. They did not like the Catholics because they felt that they were not completely loyal to America if they also were loyal to the Pope. They did not trust the Catholics and were worried that they would somehow get control of American government and give the country away to the Pope. Although it is thought the Klan was most active in the South, it had presence throughout the country, including the North, and particularly the Midwest. The Klan also disapproved of the new type of women of the 1920's. They did not like the women voting, working, smoking and drinking in public, and finally their new way of dressing. They tried to achieve their goals by physically abusing people for doing things that angered them and not having morality. The Klan lost support for their cause after their leaders were found to be taking much of the membership fees for themselves and going against the ideas that they said the believed in by being drunk.
Thinking Like a Historian
The anti-immigrant and minority groups that were around in the 1920's are similar to the feelings of some people today. For example, in some places in the country, there are still feelings had by some that blacks are inferior, although in most cases the feelings are not as strong as those had by the KKK. The feelings of the 1920's are different from today because they are not as strong feelings usually today. We can learn tolerance from the past because from all of the anti-immigration and other groups feelings there was much trouble caused and if there had been more tolerance, there would not have been as much trouble caused.