Credit: Library of Congress
Media type: photograph
Museum Number: LC-USZ62-59666
Annotation: After the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan used terrorist tactics to intimidate former slaves. A new version of the Ku Klux Klan arose during the early 1920s. Throughout this time period, immigration, fear of radicalism, and a revolution in morals and manners fanned anxiety in large parts of the country. Roman Catholics, Jews, African Americans, and foreigners were only the most obvious targets of the Klan's fear-mongering. Bootleggers and divorcees were also targets. Contributing to the Klan's growth was a post-war depression in agriculture, the migration of African Americans into Northern cities, and a swelling of religious bigotry and nativism in the years after World War I.
Year: 1926