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Jayhawker Fraternities: Masons, Klansmen and Kansas in the 1920s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2012

KRISTOFER ALLERFELDT
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Abstract

In the 1920s, like most of the rest of the nation Kansas found itself the target of the attentions of the KKK. One of its main ways of recruiting was via existing fraternities. Using new archival material this article investigates the response of one of the leading fraternities of the times – the Masons. What emerges is a picture of mixed responses – ranging from mutual hostility to active Klan recruitment within Masonic lodges. In many ways Kansas can be seen as a microcosm of the nation, and as such this study can add to our understanding of what drove up to 10 million American men and women to join this mysterious and now hated body.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , November 2012 , pp. 1035 - 1053
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 An example of these articles can be found at http://www.kkklan.com/tokens.htm.

2 Figures taken from Axelrod, Alan, The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders (New York: Checkmark Books, 1997), 159Google Scholar.

3 Cited in Dumenil, Lynn, Freemasonry and American Culture 1880–1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 122Google Scholar.

4 Figures taken from Fox, Craig, Everyday Klansfolk: White Protestant Life and the KKK in 1920s Michigan (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011), 121Google Scholar, and conversations with the author.

5 The only specific examples of studies of this connection of which I am aware are two rather obscure investigations of Texas Klan–Masonic ties. These are useful, but rather short and very limited in scope: Tidwell, Donovan Duncan, “The Ku Klux Klan and Texas Masonry,” Transactions, Texas Lodge of Research, 14 (June 1978–March 1979), 160–76Google Scholar; and Sammons, J. Dexter, “The Ku Klux Klan and Texas Masonry Part II,” Transactions Texas Lodge of Research (June 1984–March 1985), 116–28Google Scholar.

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7 Dumenil; and idem, “The Insatiable Maw of Bureaucracy: Anti-statism and Education Reform in the 1920s,” Journal of American History (Sept. 1990), 499–524Google Scholar.

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11 See New York World, 6–26 Sept. 1921. The articles were syndicated and appeared in at least 15 other papers over the next months.

12 For details of Simmons's statements see New York Times, 14 Oct. 1921.

13 Cited in Anonymous, Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed (Chicago, 1922), 26.

14 Fox, Everyday Klansfolk, 121.

15 Details in House Committee on Rules, Ku Klux Klan Hearings (Washington, DC, 1921).

16 See New York Times, 14 Oct. 1921.

17 For details of Klan ritual and oaths see Knights of the Klan, Ku Klux, Klansman's Manual (Atlanta, 1924), 66–81Google Scholar. For an analysis of the Klan in comparison with other fraternities see Schmidt, Alvin J, ed., Fraternal Organizations (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1980), 196–201Google Scholar; and Axelrod, The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders, 58–60Google Scholar. For a transcription of the Kloran see Newton, Michael, The Ku Klux Klan (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2007), 432–37Google Scholar.

18 The best firsthand account of the Klan's sales techniques and what purports to be the contract between Simmons and the SPA can be found in Fry, Henry P., The Modern Ku Klux Klan (Boston, MA: Small, Maynard and Co., 1922), 37–51Google Scholar. Historical analysis of the business of Klansmanship can be found in Alexander, Charles C., “Kleagles and Cash: The Ku Klux Klan as a Business Organization, 1915–1930,” Business History Review, 39, 3 (Autumn, 1965), 348–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 For details of these fears and their impact on American immigration see Allerfeldt, Kristofer, Beyond the Huddled Masses (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007)Google Scholar.

20 For some examples of the reaction to the Southern Publicity Association's policy see the New York Times, 17 June 1922; and Jackson, Kenneth T., The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 (Chicago, 1967), 10Google Scholar.

21 See Tidwell, “The Ku Klux Klan and Texas Masonry,” 173.

22 For Harding's Masonic ties see Barry, John W., Masonry and the Flag (Washington, DC: The Masonic Service Association of the United States, 1924), 100–4Google Scholar. For sources on Harding's alleged Klan membership see Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 474Google Scholar.

23 White, Arthur Corning, “An American Fascismo,” Forum, 72, 5 (Nov. 1924), 638Google Scholar.

24 See Jones, Lila Lee, “The Ku Klux Klan in Eastern Kansas during the 1920s,” Emporia State Research Studies, 23, 3 (Winter 1975), 38Google Scholar.

25 Letter from J. M. MacDowell to Grand Master John McCullough AF and AM Masons of Kansas, 16 June 1922. Unless otherwise stated the following letters are taken from the Correspondence Files, Records of the AF and AM Grand Lodge, Topeka.

26 Letter from Earl E. Fawcett, Kansas City, to Grand Master John McCullough AF and AM Masons of Kansas, 24 July 1922.

27 John McDowell to John McCullough, 24 June 1922.

28 Past Master C. J. Wells, Wellington Lodge 150, to J. McCullough, 27 May 1922. On the letter McCullough has written, “Here's another, please retain for my file.”

29 Russell Garrison to John McCullough, 12 May 1922.

30 Taken from a letter from J. M. MacDowell to John McCullough, 24 June 1922.

31 For the list of members see Emporia Gazette, 17 Nov. 1923.

32 J. McCullough to J. W. McDowell, Independence, Kansas, 19 June 1922.

33 J. McCullough to J. S. Henderson, 28 March 1922.

34 J. McCullough to J. W. McDowell, Independence, Kansas, 19 June 1922.

35 See Anonymous, Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed, 57.

36 Details of Burke's proclamation and its results have been analysed by Adam Kendall, “Klad in White Hoods and Aprons,” a paper given at the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry in Edinburgh, July 2009. For text of Randell's condemnation see Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Texas (Waco, 1921), 41–47.

37 J. McCullough to J. S. Henderson, 28 March 1922.

38 Taken from a letter from Shawnee Lodge 54 Master Fred A. Mitchell, to Kansas Grand Master Charles N. Fowler, 31 March 1927.

39 Taken from a letter from Brother M. W. Bartleson to Grand Master C. N. Fowler, 19 May 1927.

40 M. W. Bartleson to Grand Master C. N. Fowler, 19 May 1927.

41 Fred A. Mitchell to Kansas Grand Master Charles N. Fowler, 31 March 1927.

42 The correspondence is frustratingly incomplete. Most annoying is the absence of a letter in which Mitchell insults Fowler, the event which arguably caused the rupture which led to the suspension of the Shawnee charter.

43 See the Arkansas City Traveler, 3 June 1922.

44 For details of the proposals see Elemental School Journal, 23, 9 (May 1923), 642–43.

45 For details see McInvale, Reid, “Roman Catholic Church Law Regarding Freemasonry,” Transactions of the Illinois Lodge of Research, 8, 2 (Aug. 1997), 14Google Scholar.

46 A good account of the context of the trial and Klan involvement in the evolution debate can be found in Larson, Edward J., Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 11–31, 210Google Scholar.

47 The best brief introduction to women and their activities and position in the Klan in the 1920s can be found in Blee, Kathleen, “Women in the 1920's Ku Klux Klan Movement,” Feminist Studies, 17, 1 (Spring 1991), 57–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 See Allerfeldt, Kristofer, “ ‘And We Got Here First’: Albert Johnson, National Origins and Self-Interest in the Immigration Debates of the 1920s,” Journal of Contemporary History, 45 (Jan. 2010), 7–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.