Increased public support in the 1920s could be viewed as a direct result of propaganda, both through the 1914 film Birth Of a Nation and the newspapers in states where the Klan were dominant - declaring the Klans movements as “night of shirt knights”. Propaganda emphasized KKK ideals by portraying the KKK as having a noble cause; a Klan that had reluctantly taken the law into their own hands to curb the excesses of foreigners. This increased public opinion, due to the fact that it inferred that by joining the Klan you were not only benefiting yourself but also your country by excluding minorities and asserting traditional Americanism.
In 1921 the movement’s membership stood at 100,000 and by 1925 this had increased further to 5 million members. Within Anglo-Saxon Protestant America there was a fear of immigration due to the fact that it led to the influx of contrasting political, ethnic and religious ideas and therefore the culture of America was in threat (furthermore there was a fear that immigration was parallel to the loss of housing benefits, availability of jobs, high wages and political influence, which the WASPS had previously held). The KKK during the 20s was not portrayed as a terrorist organisation; the KKK reflected the opinion of the farmer, the shopkeeper and the artisans ( The Klan also had members as judges, police officers and politicians) who believed that their old America had isolated them, and if anything the KKK became a movement of vengeance both towards the Republican regime but also towards the influx of migrants. However, although initially confined to that of the southern states, the effectiveness of the Klan can further be witnessed through its expansion towards the north - an example being that Indiana had the greatest number of Klaverns of any state and in 1925 40% of Klan membership was from the three northern states in that of Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. The northern states of America in the 1920s were the states of progress, development and immigration and the fact that the Klan infiltrated these areas, further represents the popularity and public opinion of the KKK in America; the KKK were not just confined to the poor rural areas of America, the KKK had gained middle class support by using the KKK as a franchise of solidarity that represented 100% Americanism.
Synonymous to increased public support of the organization was the growth in their political influence. The political influence held by the Klan can be witnessed during the 1924 Democratic convention or “Klanbake”. A candidate for the democrats, Al Smith, was virtually not allowed to take office due to him being a Roman Catholic and therefore not having the backing of the Klan. Furthermore, the Pleasy vs Ferguson case (1896) is a further representation of the political influence of the Klan, with southern states passing pieces of legislation decreeing white only primaries by working on the basis of ‘separate but equal’ and parallel to these pieces of legislation was the introduction of grandfather clauses (where a person could only vote if their grandfather had done prior to the civil war). Although not within the 1920s, these two examples show that in areas where the Klan were dominant (southern states initially then northern states post WW1) the legislation and actions by individual states (not the government), virtually disenfranchised “hyphenated Americans” by serving for social, economic and political proscription. Therefore, this would seem to suggest that the Klan were only effective federally. However, the expansion of the KKK combined with the Washington March in 1925 suggests that the KKK had ambition to develop and effect politics on a national scale; however, it was due to their internal divisions that this failed - an example being that in 1930 the Klan membership fell to 200,000 after the publishing of records which demonstrated their corruption which went against the ‘American Values” which they were preaching. An example being in Atlanta where Clark was sent to prison for fraud in 1924.
However although public opinion in some states were in favour Klan in the 1920s, with a developing urban population containing industrialists, migrants, Catholics and Jews, opposition towards the Klan would always arise and this can be seen during the 1920 race riots which spread cross America. These race riots were parallel to the workings of the NAACP. The NAACP throughout the century organized protests and demonstrations opposing the ‘white primaries’ law but their most significant achievement in the 20s is in 1923, in the Moore vs Dempsy case. In this case the NAACP reduced the extent to which states have legislative immunity - this further reducing the chances of discriminate laws being able to pass whilst being overseen by Washington D.C. They also caused the scrapping of Grandfather clauses. In reference to opposition of the government, directly they did not support the growth of the Klan. However, one would argue that through the imposition of 1921 Emergency Quota Act (restricting immigration to 3%) and the exaggeration of the dangers of the Red Scare throughout the 1920s, the Republican government indirectly led to the growth of the KKK by providing the KKK with the ammunition required to recruit individuals; with the KKK using the immigration laws as evidence to suggest that traditional American values were in danger and through violence and intimidation they had to be restored. The hysteria caused from events of the Red Scare such as the Palmer Raids allowed the KKK to exploit the tensions in America - these tensions being a direct result of the legislation passed by the American government.
Overall, the Klan in the 1920s held considerable amount of political power - both within the northern areas and the southern states of America, however, in terms of the overall success of the Klan, this political power (as can be seen in the democratic convention of 1924) was limited federally and did not impact the legislation passed by Washington. In reference to public opinion, there is no doubt that in the mid 1920s public opinion was at the highest of 5 million nationwide, however, although films such as Birth of a Nation increased public opinion, the corruption at the heart of KKK combined with their continuing policy of racialism isolated many supporters in an America who saw these disputes as irrelevant in comparison to the oncoming economic crash in 1929 - this led to a decrease in numbers in 1928 and increased the irrelevance that the KKK had within American culture.