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Ku Klux Klan In The 1920's

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The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s was the most powerful time for the organization. As with most powerful groups throughout history there is usually one ruler leading the people. For the Ku Klux Klan in 1920 that name would be William Joseph Simmons. If you Google, “what is a leader” you get, “the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.” () In 1920 William Joseph Simmons was leading millions of people down a road of hate and intolerance.

When starting my search for this assignment I wanted to know, during this time period, who or if there was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. It was an easy search to find the name William Joseph Simmons, but I want to know the background of how this man spawned the KKK into …show more content…

On November 25th, 1925, William Joseph Simmons went to Stone Mountain and with a group of sixteen people was able to resurrect the Ku Klux Klan. The most interesting part is that some of the people that William Joseph Simmons was with that night actually took part in the lynching of Leo Frank. Within the limelight of the movie, Birth of Nations, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and just feeding off the public news of the lynching, Simmons picked a perfect time to meet. His new establishment of the group allowed him to put himself as the leader, officially named, the office of the Imperial Wizard. He took the issues of the time and exploited it to its full advantage. His main goal was to reinstate the Ku Klux Klan and he fully achieved his …show more content…

Yet the most interesting fact about him ties him to Hiram Wesley Evans. Hiram Wesley Evans is the man who in 1922 took over leadership and was the new Imperial Wizard of the Klan. While Simmons based the Klan on the original Ku Klux Klan from 1867, Evans had a new vision for the group that didn’t included its past. The article stated it best saying, “Under Evans rule Ku Klux Klan achieved political legitimacy and was turned into a strong, centralized political force and lobby.” Because of this change Evans was able to take the Klan in to its highest membership of about five million people. Had Simmons stayed the leader throughout that time period I wonder if the Klan would have fallen sooner because of his

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