Finally, The Klan was intolerant to Black people they believed that they were intellectually inferior. Imperial Wizard H.W Evans states, that blacks could not, “Attain the Anglo-Saxon level”. This was scientifically erroneous;
they believed that Blacks could not be as smart as white people.
Black people had poor intellect as they never had a proper education and the Klan did not help by burning every school they came across. This was very hard for black people and was denying them a right to an education, this goes against the American Constitution 1787. If the Klan believed they were true Americans they would never go against the Constitution.
Immigrants
The Ku Klux Klan also strongly opposed immigrants coming into their country of America. The Klansman had very strong view of immigrants, they believed they did not belong in America; it was their Country no one else’s. They also felt that immigrants were swamping their population William J Simmons quotes, “America is a garbage can!” and “When the hordes of aliens walk to the ballot boxes and their votes outnumber ours, then that alien horde has got you by the throat.” Simmons helped the Klan gain popularity, he calls immigrants, ‘Aliens’ portraying them as things from a different place and do not belong. The also felt that immigrants drone American peoples wages down and were therefore not paid enough as much immigrants took jobs meaning the Americans had no job and income. Immigrants were seen as a potent threat to the Klan and maybe America and believed they wanted to take over America. Immigrants would argue that Anglo-White Saxons were just as immigrants as anyone else in America, this is due to the Native Americans being there first and white’s arriving later. Therefore the Klan had no right to rid America of black people and immigrants. America is also referred to as the, ‘Melting Pot of Different Cultures’. Showing that America is full of different races and religions and should all be accepted. So overall, the Klan itself was at one point immigrants and has no such right to threaten and scare people into thinking they do not belong in America. ‘I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door’, a quote from the Poem about the Statue of Liberty. This quote is meaning that anyone has a right to live in America, and if they were real Americans they would oblige to this.
The Klan feared that immigrants could bring new ideas to America maybe outclassing their own and resulting in their ideas being bad. This included communism, this did not go down very well with the Klan and they convinced themselves that immigrants will bring ideas about changing America and which threatened the American way of life, this is the idea that many Americas had. This is something that the Klan did not like, and this was a reason for the KKK being so against immigrants. However an opponent of the KKK would strongly argue that America is a democracy and you are allowed to have your own opinion and ideas. This means no one can stop you from saying these things. The Bill of Rights clearly states, ‘Freedom of Religion, speech, press and assembly.’ This means they can express their ideas on communism. But also when many immigrants came to America, most wanted to escape Communism than influence it to a new country where they are starting a new life. So most immigrants only came to America to get away from Communism not to start it.
Finally, a supporter of the Klan believed that immigrants were inferior to White Anglo Saxons, they were looked down upon as not as pure as the True Americans who were there from the founding of America. They also felt that they had a lower standard of living this included, education, they were poor and could not always afford education and could therefore not contribute to the country. Hite Anglo Saxons liked to call themselves, Old Stock or Pioneer Stock; these were considered to be superior. Hiram Evans said that, “The Pioneer stock must be kept pure”, and he is implying that White Anglo Saxons must be kept pure and no one can ruin their superior race. The mixing of two different cultures would ruin this. This meant the Klan made sure no immigrant managed to have a relationship with the superior race. Immigrants would argue that immigrants are coming from countries with terrible poverty and famine. This is there reason for making the effort to come to America. ‘Give me you’re tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.’ This is saying that America willingly accepts all peoples of different cultures and backgrounds to come to America and be free; this is exactly what immigrants want. Therefore again if the KK were true Americans they would freely accept immigrants into their country as everyone has an equal opportunity.
Religion
The Klan had very strong views of many Religious Groups, the KKK itself were Christian Protestants. The KKK Protestants called themselves WASPS, White Anglo Saxon Protestants. The Klan was against the Pope, they believed what he did was un-American; this was due to him being outside of the USA. Also, then Klan was against the religion Judaism. A lot of Jews in America were high up in the job hierarchy. They were the top bankers and owned a lot of expensive businesses. The KKK was jealous of this and it frustrated them more because they were not American. The KKK also blamed the Jews for the Wall Street Crash as the top Bankers sent the stock market plummeting. Finally, the Klan believed that it was Anti-American not to believe in something that they did not believe in; they believed protestant was they Religion all Americans should be. In contrast to this the Pope is a Religious Leader of the worlds biggest Religion Roman Catholic. The Pope is an influential individual throughout the world and the KKK being against him is Ludicrous. The Jews came to America in seek of asylum from other persecuting countries. What they were doing was very legal. The Wall Street Crash was caused by economic reasons. Finally, the Klan believing all Americans should be one Religion this is not right, they lived in a constitution which meant they all had equal Religious freedom.
Members of the KKK also believed that in America there has always been a tradition of Anti-Catholism, and that original Protestants were trying to escape Catholic Persecution. This resulted in the Klan hating Catholics and therefore being one of there targets to get rid of. They did not want people to be influenced by Catholic teachings. “Another important idea in American history was Anti-Catholism because many of the founding fathers had come to America to escape Catholic persecutions in Europe”. He is saying that the founding people of America (pioneer stock) had escaped from Europe because of Catholics. On the other hand, Catholics would argue that there is a, ‘Freedom of Religion’ which is mentioned in the Bill of Rights, and if the Klan claims to be true Americans they would let Catholics have their say and not trying to change what they believe in.
Klansmen also believed that Catholics were not Loyal to the USA, they felt that Catholics thought the Pope influenced everything they did and wanted to take over US politics. Coughlan a member of the Klan said, “The Pope will sit in the White house when all hell freezes over”. The Klan is saying that the Pope will never run America or get involved in Politics as he will just try to spread the Catholic Religion. However, the Catholics would argue that the Pope has nothing to do with Politics and he has no interest in getting involved with government and politics. The Klan is portraying Catholics to be people who want to control what people believe. This shows them to be very loyal to the Imperial Wizard and its rules.
Prohibition
Finally, the KKK had strong issues about Prohibition, in particularly the illegal making of Alcohol. The Leader of the Klan at the time D. Stephenson believed, “Alcohol was a Home-Wrecker”. He believed that Alcohol ruined lives of many people who used it not just socially but at home as well with devastating effects. These effects included: increase in crime, braking up families and violence within the home. The Klan believed in very strong family values and alcohol would jeopardise this belief. The Klan did not want any member to drink, and by this made it an offence to drink.
However, this could be looked upon as very hypocritical because D. Stephenson had his very own stock of illegal alcohol, he would use this alcohol in secret and get drunk. This would have been going against all his teachings to Klan Members which also shows he was lying. Stephenson also made Madge Oberholtzer drink, a woman. When Stephenson was found out the Klan lost a lot of supporters, this proves that the Klan was very hypocritical and thought they were so powerful they could do what they want and the law would not bother them, so the Klan would claim they do stuff but actually do the opposite of what they just said.
The Klan also had strong beliefs about family values, and they had very strong views about adultery, divorce between married couples, domestic violence, men who sleep with girls who are not married and this would come under the bible teachings about no sex before marriage. They strongly protect women and believe they should be kept pure. The Klan leader stated that, “the chastity of womanhood.” This means they like woman to not have any sexual relationship before they are married. However an opponent of the Klan would argue that Stephenson himself already got Madge Oberholtzer drunk and violently raped her, “He was accused of abducting a girl and frightening and abusing her so much that she took poison.” Stephenson has completely gone against the Klan’s morals and even the 10 commandants “Thou shall not commit adultery.” So he is not being Christian and being hypocrite and even going against what he said. Which really put a bad name to the Klan as one important member got a life imprisonment.
A supporter of the Klan would claim that the Klan have very strong morals and are against crooked politicians, this is a newspaper statement saying who the Klan fight against, “Every crooked politician.” Also the Klan always claimed to be very charitable towards people and liked to look after America and have always been seen as good people who help the community. But on the other hand an opponent of the Klan would say that this was very hypocritical as yet again Stephenson had been bribing Politicians in Indiana for the support of the Klan, these people were very crooked and were only in it for the money; this is what the Klan claimed they were fighting against. Also the Klan would always break the law, for example Jose Yglesias described a strike in 1931, “During the strike the KKK would come into the Labour Temple with guns and break up the meetings.” This shows the Klan as very violent and wanting to stop anyway of solving this by breaking up meetings, and they put fear in people by using weapons which also could mean people joined the Klan out of fear.
In conclusion, the Ku Klux Klan in my opinion was very hypocritical and prejudice towards others. An example of this hypocrisy is the use of alcohol. The Klan claimed it was home-wrecker but still D. Stephenson drank alcohol and made others around him drink it. This I believe shows the Klan to have underlying problems within the Klan. Also, the prejudice attitudes towards immigrants, the members of the Klan themselves are not native to the America. They were very hypocritical in this situation. Overall, arguments put forward by both supporter and argument differed. The Klan claimed they were right and were the right thing to belong to whereas the opponents (in my opinion) brought out the truth of the Klan’s underlying problems and hypocrisy.