657. The Ku Klux Klan: American Fascists (Part 4)

“The 1924 Democratic Convention in New York, famously known as the 'Klanbake,' was perhaps the most fractured political event in American history. It became a proxy war between the old, rural, Protestant America and the new, urban, Catholic, and immigrant-heavy population, leaving the party in tatters for years to follow.”

“Women were the backbone of the Klan’s social integration, turning a hate group into a family-oriented social club. Through the WKKK, they organized boycotts of non-Protestant businesses and pushed the organization’s agenda into the school system under the guise of patriotic education.”

“The downfall of the Indiana Klan, the most powerful branch in the country, was precipitated by the D.C. Stephenson scandal. When the charismatic leader was convicted of a horrific crime against a young woman, it revealed the vast gap between the Klan's moralistic rhetoric and the reality of its leadership.”

“This iteration of the Klan was built on a business model of multi-level marketing, where recruiters were paid for every new member they signed up. It was this commercial drive, combined with a sense of fraternal belonging, that allowed it to reach such unprecedented scale across the Midwest and West.”

“The reckonings were both political and personal, as the movement struggled to survive its own internal corruption and the changing social tides of the late 1920s. By the time the Great Depression hit, the organization had largely collapsed, having been hollowed out from within by scandal and greed.”