WEBVTT - Part Two: The Grifters Who Resurrected the KKK 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:06.280 M Hey everybody, I'm Robert Evans and this is yet 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.959 again Behind the Bastards, the podcast where we tell you 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.560 everything you don't know about the very worst people in 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.240 all of history. Now, today we are on part two 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.680 of our series on the KKK, Part part my guest 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.279 with me, as with Part one Katie and Cody the 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:30.840 Stuffed News. How much network of that's the one that's here. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.840 We are. So, how you guys doing? Still still got 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.280 a cold? Still good, I'm still doing well, still happy. 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.360 It's two days after you heard our last episode, but 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.199 it's just minutes after we recorded the last one. But 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.520 in those minutes we've grabbed us a dorito or three. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.680 There are so many derritos in here there. They are interesting, 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:50.960 they're delicious. I mean, how do you guys like the 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.880 tapato ones? That's spicier than I expected, Because that's spicier 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.960 than tapatio is. It's got a real kick if that's 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.800 what you're looking for. Tapatia is my go to U sauce. 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.840 So I'm like at crystals. I grew up with crystals hot. 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.920 You know who would not have liked tapatito doritos? K 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.000 I'm gonna I was hoping that was a seamless transitionless 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.759 transition to the KKK. Well, then we should keep talking 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.720 about tapatio. I was hoping for another reason to not 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.440 like the KKK. So in Part one we talked about 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.959 the Original Clan, which was a terrorist organization that started 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.039 as a bunch of drunk frat boys pretending to be 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.840 ghosts and turned into a murder gang headed by a 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.880 former rebel general. Finding how that works. Part two we're 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.600 going to talk about the rise of the KKK in 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.759 the nineteen twenties, which was an order of magnitude larger 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.959 than it was in the eighteen sixties and a hell 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:46.959 of a lot weirder. This is not going to go 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.200 where you think it's going to go. This is a 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.680 weird story. Keep saying that a lot harder. It's hard 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.520 to a magic super excited because it's already weird. It's 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.440 already weird. Our Grand Magus and our you know queen. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:06.480 There there's no queen, Imperial Emperor. There are some king 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.280 Kleigels in this one. I don't know what a klegal is. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:15.640 I do. It has to deal with the Grand the 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:22.200 Grand Kegels. The Grand Kegels came later. We're not part 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:27.240 of the clan. They didn't come later that. That was 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.880 very good, Cody, that was very witty. W We're gonna 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.160 check out for the rest of the episode. You know what, 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:36.320 just dial tone for the rest of it. You guys 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.960 got your dose a comedy. You want to go get 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.400 a drink. Thanks for stopping by, stopping by, all right, 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.519 here's the episode. In nineteen nineteen, a pamphlet started circulating 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.240 amongst the townships and villages of the American countryside. On 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.440 its front was a drawing of a klansman on a 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:57.359 rearing steed. The title was the Ku Klux Klan Yesterday, Today, 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.200 and Forever. The flyer's purpose was to announce the glorious 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.840 rebirth of the KKK. It opened up by defending the 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.840 first clan, the ku Klux Klan. The Invisible Empire was 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.679 the great idea that's capitalized of American reconstruction. We say 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.040 American reconstruction for the reason that all America was affected 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.720 by reconstruction influences. It actually says influences, and I guess 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.600 that the racists. This is what the President models his 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.880 tweets after. I was going to say more capitalizing and 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:32.280 like the South most of all, yes, but nevertheless all 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.000 all is capitalized for the great threat. Great threat is 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.480 capitalized to the white race that loomed on the horizon 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.480 of the South, would have spread through the entire nation 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.640 had not the white robe of the ku Klux Klan 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.480 kept unrevealed those courageous and devoted hearts that were consecrated 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.240 to saving the Anglo Saxon civilization of our country, protecting 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.920 the homes and well being of our people, and shielding 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.200 the virtue of womenhood. The original ku Klux were not 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.320 outlaws all caps or moral degenerates all caps, nor did 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.000 they perpetual outlaw rate, which is a great way we 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.080 don't use that. I really like this is the clan 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:11.760 and they're terrible, but I really like satisfy claimant. They 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.160 were men of moral and social standing, and their leaders 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.560 were men of sterling character and unquestioned culture. They reverently 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.240 bowed to the soul of real law all caps, and 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.279 swore to enforce its principles of justice, protection, and the 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.560 pursuit of happiness. That strong arm fought valiantly for the 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.159 preservation of the integrity of the race against the cruelty 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:35.160 of base, unjust and tyrannical legislations and insufferable conditions, no joke. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.200 I feel like that's formative literature for Trump. Like, I mean, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.599 he grew up reading this. He's definitely got some better 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.120 words in there. I think. I mean his dad's there's 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.440 rumors that he was in the clan during this. I mean, 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.080 like this is the kind of and they've got drafts 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.760 of these things, like laying around the Trump household when 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.920 he was a kid. They got the moral degeneracy there that. Yeah, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.479 although I got a promise, this is not gonna go 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.479 where you're thinking now. I read a book for this episode, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.360 to the Second Coming of the KKK by Lynda Gordon. 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:08.839 I want to advocate reading both of the books for 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.680 this podcast because they're both good. But Lynda Gordon's book 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:16.200 is really special. It is almost unbelievably dense. I've rarely 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.560 in my life encountered so much information from so many 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.880 different sources consolidated into a single book of this size. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:25.359 I'm just kind of in awe of the amount of 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.480 work she must have put into it, and like how 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:29.960 like it's it's really good. We're only using fractions of 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.599 it for this episode, but it is a fantastic book, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:34.920 so I really recommend giving it a read if you're 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.359 interested in the history of American radical right wing extremism. Now, 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.719 this book claims that the second KKKS rise was directly 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.440 inspired by the release of a movie, Birth of a Nation. 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.240 In Birth of a Nation was a fanciful story about 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.480 the first KKK and how they saved white women from 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.039 Ray Peppi Friedman. It was the first film ever shown 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:58.760 at the White House. Woodrow Wilson fucking loved it, saying, quote, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.479 it is like writing history with lightning, and my only 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:07.360 regret is that it is also terribly true. Maybe America's 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.480 where as present if you're getting this guy's opinion on it, 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.400 what with the whole Nazism and and that with what 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:20.320 with a lot of things. William Joseph Simmons, a doctor 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.000 from Atlanta, Spanish American war veteran and minister, was a 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.160 huge fan of the movie. When he got back from 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.960 serving garrison duty during the war, he drifted around a 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.839 number of jobs, showing no aptitude for anything, and joined 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.080 fifteen different fraternal orders. Now, today, for rats are just 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.080 something that a chunk of college kids do, But back 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.039 in the day, there was very little going on, and 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.560 most men were in a fraternal order of some type. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.760 Many were in multiple It was an extremely popular way 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.320 to have something to do and feel like part of 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.680 a community. So community is important, very important. Simmons was 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.640 desperate for a community, but none of the groups he 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.800 joined fit the bill. He was a fan of Birth 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.880 of a Nation, and he'd been inspired by the lynching 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.839 of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of rape 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.400 and murder. None of them, Bill, they weren't quite evil 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:09.120 and fired by the lynching of It's not really inspired me, Like, 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.760 what about? What about it? Simmons started reading about the 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.760 original clan. He bought a copy of the original KKK prescript, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.440 mixed in a little bit of Masonism, and tried to 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.640 start up his own fraternal order, essentially cause playing as 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.760 the Ku Klux Klan. Simmons is KKK was just as 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.200 racist as the original, but was also differently bigoted. It 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:35.120 ranted against quote the hairy claw of Bolshevism, socialism, syndicalism, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.040 i w W, is UM and other isms. I w W. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.920 The International Workers of the World are very influential grouping unions. Yeah. Uh. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.120 He believed that these forces were quote seeking in an 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.760 insidious but very powerful manner to undermine the very fundamentals 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:56.640 of the nation. Yeah, first letter in nations capitalism. Yeah, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:58.440 I knew this was going to be right into the 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.559 vein for you. So when the KKK had last ridden, 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.560 socialism had not really been a buzzword in America. Marx 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.320 and Ingles had only published the Communist Manifesto in eighteen 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.680 forty eight, and ship traveled slowly back then. Social democratic 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.680 parties were starting to become a thing in Europe by 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.720 the late eighteen sixties, but most of the US was 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.800 off doing its own thing. The assassination of William McKinley 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.560 by a Polish American anarchist in nineteen o one really 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.720 helped to pour gas on that whole fire. Simmons started 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:28.080 advertising for KKK two, this time It's Clannier. In nineteen fifteen. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.920 He fully reloaded or Electric Boogaloo. You know, you pick 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.200 your you pick your own sequel title, KKK Harder, you 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.000 know whatever there's there's. In his promotional materials, he described 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.560 it as quote a classy order of the highest class, capitalized, 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:51.040 no class man, no roughnecks, rowdies, nor yellow streaks. Real 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:55.760 men whose oaths are inviolate are needed. His oats are inviolate, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.600 inviolate in violent. Yeah, they're not going to break their 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.800 oaths and their bond class of higher class, very good class, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:07.400 very classiest men. It was not exactly an instant hit. 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.800 Only a few dozen people signed up at first. Simmons 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.800 went out of his way to find a few very 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.080 old former clansmen to join. He proclaimed himself the Imperial 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.240 Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.880 started holding meetings. Now, unlike the original clan, they didn't 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.480 start off doing anything out in the world. This was 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:25.800 just a place where grown men went to engage in 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.920 weird ass quasi magical rituals with other masked men. It 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.600 was LARPing. LARPing as the KKK, who were themselves larpert 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.800 circle circles, circle circle circles inside of circles exactly. Now. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.360 In order to codify some of these rituals and established 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.960 standards for his new organization, Simmons published the KKKS Holy 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.920 Book in nine guys want to guess what it was? Called? 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:59.920 The uh Clanmicon, the tone of the the Martian demon 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:14.160 clanonomy Goblin. What is it? The Kloranl's that's so bad. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.400 You can find the whole chloron online. It's it's it 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.920 is beyond parody. Everything about this episode is beyond parody. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.000 I'm just I can't tell you how excited I am 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:32.200 literally jumping out of his now. Yeah again, you can 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.200 read it for yourself if you decide that as an 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.040 experience that will spark joy in your life. It is online. 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.920 I'll put the link in the thing. It's all there now. 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.400 The Kloran promises education in character spelled with the K 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.559 and no age, honor and duty, not spelling, though not 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.400 definitely not spelling never been one of the KKK strong points. 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.640 To give you some info on the organization's founding principles, 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.319 I would like to read y'all the Ku Klux Creed. Yeah, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:05.080 of course, of course it's stilled with a K. We 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.600 The Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.640 reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.000 and recognize the goodness and providence of the same. We 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.640 recognize our relation to the government of the United States 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.120 of America, the supremacy of its constitution, the Union of States, 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.440 they're under and the constitutional laws thereof, And we shall 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.360 ever be ever devoted to the sublime principles of a 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.679 pure Americanism and valiant to the defense of its ideals 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.960 and institutions. We avowed the distinction between the races of 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.120 mankind as same has been decreed by the Creator, and 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.320 we shall ever be true to the faithful maintenance of 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.600 white supremacy, and will strenuously oppose any compromise thereof in 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:52.400 any and all things by the Creator. Citation needed. One 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.120 of the things that has pointed out in the fantastic 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.240 Linda Gordon book The Second Coming of the KKK is 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.920 that this was not radical the time, the KKK was 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.640 speaking very much to the majority of white Americans, and 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.000 that is very important for everything that comes. The ideology 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:09.800 of this group is not fringe in any way, shape 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.360 or form. They're preaching to the choir. They are not 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.720 radicalizing people, and that's critical. No one's getting radicalized here. 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:17.719 Everyone's a white supremacist while I'm gonna start a white 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.520 supremacy group. Yeah. Now, about two thirds of the Kloran 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.240 is made up of incredibly dense, utterly preposterous ceremonies. I'm 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.599 going to read a quick and random exerpt from the 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.480 clans naturalization ritual A k A. Their induction of new members, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.480 so you can have an understanding of the special tenor 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.720 of this ni unreadable tone. Cody, you look so excited. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.400 I'm going to read all the titles. So starting off, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.839 we have the Clad speaking with K L A D D. 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.400 Were the aliens from the world of selfishness and fraternal 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.600 alienation prompted by unselfish motive desire the honor of citizenship 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.040 in the invisible empire and the fellowship of klansmen, to 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.959 which the klexter responds, Has your party been selected with care? 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.920 To which the Clad responds. These men are known or 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:14.040 vouched for by klansmen in clonclave as symboled clon. The 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:19.200 Cluxter responds, have they the marks? The Clad asks or says. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.719 The distinguishing marks of a klansmen are not found in 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.880 the fiber of his garments or his social or financial standing, 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.920 but are spiritual, namely, a chivalric head, a compassionate heart, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.559 a prudent tongue, and a courageous will, all devoted to 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:33.960 our country, our clan, our homes in each other. These 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.000 are the distinguishing marks of the klansmen, Oh, faithful Clxter, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.800 and these men claim the marks. The Clxter next says, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.160 what if one of your party should prove himself a traitor, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.880 to which the claud says, he would be immediately banished 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.400 and disgrace from the invisible empire without fear or favor. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.160 Conscience would tenaciously torment him, Remorse would repeatedly revile him, 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.800 and direful things would befall him. The cluster asks, do 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.959 they know all this? The claud says, all this, they 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.520 now know, they have heard, and they must heed. Klexter says, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.520 faithful clad, you speak the truth. I'm gonna be gonna 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.280 be a lot of caves. It's gonna be a lot 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.600 of kys going on, a bunch of bunch of real dorms. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:17.960 It's not even that racist, Like there's a little bit 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.880 about white supremacy in there, but it's mostly just really 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:26.520 dense nonsense rituals, likening sprint here and there like you 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:32.240 do with cilantro. Yeah. Yeah, Now, the first two thirds 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.400 or so of the Kloran are made up of frustrating, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.320 stupid rituals. How you open and closed meetings etcetera. Then 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.600 at the end of the book, Simmons wrote a lecture. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.360 It reads like a particularly bad D and D source 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.120 book written by a racist. Here's him describing the South 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.520 prior to the rise of the First Clan. Ignorance, lust 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.200 and hate, all capitalized sees the reigns of the state, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.240 capitalized and riot, rapine and universal ruin reigns supreme. The 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.760 highest form of cultured society was thrust down at its 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.960 noble neck, was forced under the iron heel of pernicious passion, 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.400 who yielded a potent scepter of inquisitorial oppression, and the 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.560 very blood of the Caucasian race was seriously threatened with 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.560 everlasting contamination. I would have been a would have been 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.240 a pretty good clan. Later back, Yeah, you really really, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.800 I got that voice down, I know it. Don't don't 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.800 explore that too much spoil We're about to get to 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:27.000 in Evans really prominently here. Yeah. An important thing to 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.600 realize about the nineteen twenties clan is that while they 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.240 were racist, they were first and foremost a social order. 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.240 Their meetings probably weren't any more racist than the average 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.520 Masonic meeting at the time. We have minutes from a 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.080 lot of individual clavern meetings. Individual groups were called a clavern, 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.000 and many of them never because they were so cool. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.280 Lynda Gordon points that that many of them never even 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.720 brought up racial subjects other than in like passing. So 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.960 the Second Clan was racist, but not more racist than 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.080 mainstream society. It didn't stand out now. Simmons ran the 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.680 clan for five years, and as with every other endeavor 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.320 in his life, he was bad at it. During his reign, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.240 the group had only one public outing, a march of 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.880 the Veterans Parade that included twenty black men. He paid 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:09.440 to put on robes in order to pat out his numbers, 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.160 like whatever you do, do not take this, not take 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.600 but as a point, like it's not the racism is 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.360 in the focus, because he's clearly like, wow, I just 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.920 want us to look big, right, want my club to 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.200 be cool. I want everyone to show up my cool club. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.520 That's very cool, very cool. So he did make enough 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.800 money to buy Baptist Lanier University in Atlanta because it 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.520 was heavily in debt, and he tried to turn it 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.760 into a whites only university for racists. Twenty five people 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.280 enrolled and it went bankrupt. So Simmons was forced to 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.000 go looking for help. Fraud universities, huhd universities. So Simmons, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.320 he's going bankrupt the KKKS and severe debt. He's got 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.160 to go find help. And he found it when he 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.320 met two veterans of the fairly new PR industry, Elizabeth 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.200 Tyler and Edward Young Clark. They ran a publicity agency 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.720 that had already helped the Anti Saloon League on its 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.800 rise to prominence. Clark's dad had been a Federate colonel 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.440 and on the Atlantic Constitution and influential newspaper. Elizabeth was 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.880 his wife. She'd grown up poor and married at fifteen. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:08.399 And if you ignore the whole helping to found the 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.800 KKK of it all, she's a pretty inspiring feminist story. 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.040 It's hard to know that other party. It's really harding 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:18.440 clan part. Here's the second coming of the KKK quote. 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.119 The team saw a lucrative client and Simmons's new clan group. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.040 The minute we said ku klux, Tyler recalled editors from 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.040 all over the United States began literally pressing us for publicity. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.600 By nineteen twenty, she and Clark had convinced Simmons that 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.400 they could grow his new clan, that it had national potential. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.800 To realize that potential, it had to multiply its bigotry. 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.520 The alleged threat from black people would not reverberate among 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.240 Northerners at a time when so few African Americans lived 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.520 outside the Southeast, so Simmons hired them, signing a contract 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.159 that gave Clark and Tyler an astonishing eighty percent of 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.000 any revenue they brought in from new recruits. Since Simmons 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.440 had gotten nowhere with his new organization, he undoubtedly thought 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.320 that he had nothing to lose in giving them fourfeits 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.760 of anything they could bring in. Tyler and Clark became 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.920 in practice head of the clan for two years now. 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.280 They turned Simmons into a polished speaker, engendering and exploiting fear. 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.040 He would warn that degenerative forces were destroying the American 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.199 way of life. These were not only black people, but 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.880 also Jews, Catholics, and immigrants, the big city dwellers who 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.600 were tempting Americans with immoral pleasures sex, alcohol, in music, 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:22.800 notably jazz. Choice of music there, interesting choice of music. 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.240 We're almost to the big reveal very excited. Like the 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.560 original clan, the Second KKK used newspapers to stoke the 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.040 buzz around their organization. Simmons would give exclusive interviews where 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.240 he came across as super suave and cool, and the 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.440 clans membership would grow. Newspapers ran advertisements that included KKK 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.520 application forms, press releases ran like rain on front pages 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.120 of the nation. By the summer of nineteen twenty one, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.040 the new KKK reported a membership of eight hundred and 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.000 fifty thousand. Now this is almost certainly an exaggeration, but 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.440 the real number was surely in the hundreds of thousands. 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.920 Incredible growth over roughly a year of PR blitzes. And 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.840 this is where it gets fun. The story sort of splits. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.159 One half is the tale of the various assault and 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.800 murders and attempted political coups by clansmen over the next 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.000 several years, and the other story, the bigger story, is 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.119 the tale of the clan's true purpose. It was an MLM, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.639 a multi level marketing scheme. It was amid the KKK, 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:25.240 the Second KKK. It was a motherfucking cayramids. I'm so excited. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.240 Wait if he didn't literally read the headlines like the 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:35.119 dapper k there's a shipload of those. Yeah. Now we're 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.840 gonna talk about how the clan became a pyramid scheme, 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.439 but first we're gonna talk about some things that are 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.720 legitimate products and services, the products and services that advertise 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:51.720 on this show and or content platform. M hmm, I 0:19:51.880 --> 0:20:03.160 did it by Derrito's We're back. We just had a 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.680 handful of tapatio de ritos, which are spicing our way 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.520 through this tale of racism and profiting off of phrase 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:16.600 so grifting racists. What excuse me, M L limbs in 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:22.560 the far right, I am surprised. I'm going to leave 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:26.320 right now because I'm so spurious. I've had a great 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.320 Harvard paper called Hatred and Profits under the Hood of 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.560 the Ku Klux Klan. I'm gonna quote from that now. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.200 The organizational structure of the Ku Klux Klan in the 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.280 nineteen twenties, designed by the Propagation Department, was a hybrid 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.680 that combined features of other fraternal orders with a multi 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.160 level marketing firm, with two distinct sets of reporting hierarchies 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.720 that operated more or less independently. One hierarchy was made 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:49.680 up of the clan's members from the lowliest rank and 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.720 file to the highest leadership. This hierarchy corresponds to the 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.240 social club aspect of the clan, the arm that intimidated 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.440 the blacks and foreigners and attempted to influence political outcomes. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.199 In addition, however, was a nearly invisible parallel hierarchy of 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.680 clan recruiters organized like a modern multi level marketing firm, 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.639 which represents the financial arm of the plan. This highly 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.600 incentivized sales force was responsible for recruiting new members to 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.520 the clan, and almost all of the financial rewards accrued 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.040 to either the handful of top leaders or the individuals 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.840 in this auxiliary hierarchy. It was a money making scheme 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.399 made up like PR hacks is fascinating. Yeah, it's sucking wild, right, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:30.680 I hadn't have so many emotions, some of them confect 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.119 with each other. Uh, this is amazing. It's a great scam. 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:39.040 It's an objectively great scam effect an effective scam. Um. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.680 Take note. Clark and Tyler, the PR agents who made 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.679 the KKK grade again, brought in more than eight hundred 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.679 and fifty thousand dollars in their first fifteen months. That 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.240 is roughly ten million dollars and slightly over a year. Now, 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.560 Simmons got a much smaller cut of this, but he's 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:57.400 still got rich. They even gave him a twenty five 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.560 grand bonus, which was like three dollars. Good for him. 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:06.520 He he was like six years you know. Now, this 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:08.720 money came from a variety of places, which I will 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:10.280 get to in a second, but it's important to know 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.439 that Simmons, Clark, and Tyler were all pushed out by 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.760 nineteen two. Simmons was bought out and another new guy 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.679 named Hiram Evans was made the Imperial Wizard. He'd been 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:20.919 hired as a recruiter initially, but once he was the 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.399 Imperial Wizard, he was able to fire Clark and Tyler, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.920 which he did so. The people responsible for actually getting 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.960 the second KKK off the ground weren't around for most 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.159 of what happens next, but they set all of this 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.280 into motion and they got rich off of it. The 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.159 KKK would have died with Simmons indebted and disgraced, but 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.000 that is distinctly not what happened. These two pr wonderkins 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.000 had created an incredible profit making model, one that would 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.240 act as a cash spigot for a bunch of greedy 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.280 racists and caned millions of Americans in the process, so 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.160 tail as oldest time, tailor as oldest time. First off, 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.879 here's how the clan was organized is from that Harvard 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.800 paper quote. The Grand Wizard or Emperor just the nominal 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.199 chair of the body, with the Imperial Wizard acting as 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:08.160