White supremacist movements have always relied not just on white women's complicity, but their labor and activism. My latest: mic.com/articles/18722…
In the 1920's, the second rise of the KKK was less about terror and labor discipline, and more about building a mass movement—part social club, part electoral platform.
The KKK of the 1920's was a corporation that elected 11 governors, 16 senators and as many as 75 congressmen.
The KKK of the 1920's was a corporation that elected 11 governors, 16 senators and as many as 75 congressmen.
Women were a titanic force in the KKK of the 1920's, with as many as 1.5 million members at its high point. In Indiana, as many as a third of all Protestant white women were members. 
Women were also effective propagandists and organizers, especially the Christian fundamentalists who organized for their church. Women edited Klan newspapers, organizing lectures and establishing Sunday School-like programs for children.
Here's historian Linda Gordon:
Here's historian Linda Gordon:
This was all in the Roaring 20's, when women were bobbing their hair, dancing to jazz and, statistically, having sex in cars a LOT. The KKK as a fraternal cult meant a return to "family values."
This is a foundational moment in 20th Century white supremacy, and the KKK married nativism w/ Christian nationalism to reframe "whiteness." They expanded the spectrum of racial enemies beyond African Americans to include Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and big city "degenerates."
Remember, this is just as women won the right to vote, and the Klan set themselves up as gatekeepers to the new, untapped electorate.
And the women of the KKK had progressive interests in child welfare, financial independence and even, perhaps, birth control.
And the women of the KKK had progressive interests in child welfare, financial independence and even, perhaps, birth control.
But here's the unintended consequence for KKK leaders — the WKKK wanted autonomy. They set up their own disciplinary committees, wanted to control their own dues, and even moved their headquarters away from KKK's HQ in Atlanta to Little Rock as a gesture of autonomy.
