Crusade for conformity : the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, 1920-1927

Historians have generally neglected the momentous folk movement of the 1920's embodied in the secret fraternal order known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This is surprising, for the Klan at its peak listed more members than organized labor, and its giant administrative structure, called the Invisible Empire, reached into every state of the Union. The career of the order, though relatively brief, was meteoric. It became a multimillion dollar financial organization, and the pecuniary benefits of Klan officialdom were prodigious. The Klan dominated local governments, state legislatures, and sometimes sent its favorites to the United States Congress. It dictated social conformity and won the patronage and approval of many Protestant ministers. It divided communities and families, and in several instances the presence of the Klan led to unprecedented hatred, strife, and social chaos. In no state, with the possible exception of Indiana, could the Klan elicit more respect and exert more force than in Texas, which was one of the initial states of Klan prominence. Writers of Texas history have either treated the order superficially or ignored it completely. Thus for years there has been a severe need for a thorough study of the Klan's career in the state. This work represents an attempt at such a study. The contention advanced is that the chief impetus for the spread of the Klan into Texas was not a nativistic impulse, as in the eastern states, but instead a yearning for some force to correct the undesirable features of a rapidly urbanizing society--a desire for social regulation. The Klan period in the state therefore becomes an adventure in moral authoritarianism and politics.