The Ku Klux Klan in Western Pennsylvania, 1921–1929 by John Craig (review)

Popular memory of the 1920s as the “prosperity decade” obscures troubles on the farm, traditionalists’ anger about moral decline, and growing anxiety in Protestant America about a loss of its traditional cultural and political dominance. Perhaps no organization in the 1920s better exemplified the rejection of social ferment than the Ku Klux Klan. In this largely persuasive if occasionally disorganized account of the Klan’s growth and influence in western Pennsylvania during its heyday, 1922–1925, John Craig reinforces elements of recent Klan scholarship, notably in highlighting the broad base of its membership, while showing how in key respects the rise and fall of Pennsylvania’s “hooded empire” stemmed from its internal blunders and factionalism.

Pennsylvania Klansmen, Craig argues, lived primarily in areas where agriculture was in decline, industry was increasingly driving the economy, and non-native population was growing. Each of these trends was problematic for the material prospects of men (and later women) who joined the Klan. In this telling the Klan’s prime bête noire was not blacks, but Catholics. Aside from posing a perceived threat to Klansmen’s livelihoods, Roman Catholics, some of whom were new immigrants, represented in Klansmen’s minds a dangerous un-Americanism both in their allegiance to the pope and their propensity for intemperance.

Launched in 1922 with a shrewd marketing campaign promising both male camaraderie and an opportunity to intimidate (and if circumstances warranted, physically abuse) “immoral” elements in the community, the Klan thrived in small towns throughout western Pennsylvania. Craig asserts that the Pennsylvania Klan gained adherents less for its expressed commitment to moral reform than its advocacy of white Protestant supremacy and willingness to use force to impose it. In this sense the Pennsylvania Klan had more in common with the original, Southern-based KKK than has usually been posited.

The Pennsylvania Klan portrayed itself as a patriotic organization, devoted to traditional American values, including law and order. In fact, it grew quickly in western counties (its membership peaked in 1924 at perhaps 100,000 members statewide) primarily through militant behavior—bursting bombs and burning crosses on private property, invading homes to deliver threats, and delivering vigilante justice. As Craig notes, the Klan in western Pennsylvania “promoted disorder and mayhem” aimed at Catholics, Jews, and African Americans. Far from being law abiding, it was “disdainful” of the law (xvi, 104). One key leader, Sam Rich, the Pennsylvania Klan’s King Kleagle, readily admitted to associates that provoking riots was essential to the order’s prosperity.

What program did the Klan advocate? Klansmen had substantive ideas about public policy, including support for strong federal action supporting farmers, taxing unused land, and funding bonuses for all veterans, but there was no Klan “program” beyond raking in dues and other fees. Klan inspired riots sparked arrests of its members (including several key leaders), which generated a raft of negative press attention and put the organization on the defensive. Perhaps most significant, Craig recounts a disastrous decision to establish “charter” Klan organizations, as opposed to those “provisionally” chartered. This meant substantially increased individual dues, some of which would kickback to Klan leaders. These fees dissuaded many would-be Klansmen from joining and led others to drop out because the cost was seen as too much to bear. The “house of cards” (211) that was the Pennsylvania Klan was soon to collapse.

The Klan’s political influence in the 1920s has been a common theme in studies focused on the Klan in particular locales. Klansmen controlled state governments in Colorado and Indiana and elected mayors and legislators in communities across the North, from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. But in Pennsylvania, as Craig sees it, the Klan’s political influence was never great. Perhaps because its leaders were either focused on self-enrichment, distracted by legal troubles, or engaged in factional intrigue, the Klan played little role in backing statewide candidates or influencing party...