Republicans may seem unstoppable, and the MAGA movement has energized a racist, nativist, nationalist mob. But you know what else seemed unstoppable? The Ku Klux Klan. A hundred years ago, the KKK was marching by the thousands in parades across the country, and had installed multiple members in governorships. It was, for a while, the MAGAs of yesteryear. It fundamentally eradicated and forced to go underground, although of course its sympathizers were still lurking in our society, usually afraid to speak out loud.
One of the reasons it faded was because some people were not afraid to speak against the Klan, even when the establishment used their power to harass good people. Good people like George Dale.
George Dale, the founding editor of The Muncie Post-Democrat, had published his first attack on the Klan in 1922. Dale charged that Delaware County Circuit Court Judge Clarence Dearth was a Klansman who stacked juries with those of his ilk and gave light sentences to Klansmen convicted in his court.
Dearth subsequently found Dale in contempt of court and the editor spent his life savings defending his First Amendment right to print factual information, a story picked up by the national press.
Republican and Democratic newspapers across the country lauded Dale for his heroism, and readers nationwide contributed to his legal defense fund.
By 1927, The Post-Democrat’s circulation had swelled to 18,000—more than seven times its 1923 readership. By 1928, Klan membership statewide had dwindled to 7,000 from an estimated 300,000 at its peak.
He stood up for what was right, and he used ridicule to do it.
Klan ideology in the ’20s also differed from its focus during the Civil Rights Movement in the ’50s and ’60s. While never friendly to African Americans, the “second wave” of the Klan was mostly interested in halting immigration, undermining perceived Catholic and Jewish influence in American politics and schools, enforcing Prohibition, and protecting the “purity of American womanhood.” A new religious movement, Protestant fundamentalism, also fueled the Klan’s rise, with ideologues hijacking religion to stir up nativism. It’s no coincidence that 1925 was the year both of Stephenson’s trial in Indiana and the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee.
George Dale and others went to work documenting the hypocrisy of the Klan’s basic principles — from “100% Americanism” to a ludicrous KKK resolution passed in Muncie proclaiming that Jesus Christ was a white Protestant native-born American and not a Jew.
This was Indiana, after all, the state that had unsuccessfully tried to decree that pi had a value of precisely 3.2, back in 1897. They failed again when they tried to decree that Jesus Christ was a white Protestant American. (note: this excerpt is heavily larded with sarcasm.)
Muncie Klan N o. 4 Friday night by a unanimous vote, passed a resolution endorsing Jesus Christ, the resolution appearing in full the next day in a local newspaper. The question of the divinity of the Redeemer had been previously submitted to a committee consisting of Rev. Walter Gibson, Deacon Court Asher and Elder Willie Moy, the Chinese goblin, who reported unanimously in favor of the fundamentalists. When the resolution was presented one kluxer introduced an amendment to the effect that Jesus was not a Jew, but a native born, white Protestant American. The resolution went through unanimously but the contaminated, hireling, Papist press refused to print that part of it. Copies of the resolution were sent to the theological gentlemen in New York who have lately been staging a wordy conflict between faith and science. Its perusal will no doubt be a great aid in settling the argument.
And yes, let us not forget that 1925 was also the year of the Scopes monkey trial, which besmirched the reputation of another state, Tennessee, that is now also a stronghold of MAGA foolishness.
These know-nothing racist fools have infested this country long enough. Be like George Dale, and beat them back.
“Republican and Democratic newspapers across the country lauded Dale for his heroism, and readers nationwide contributed to his legal defense fund.” – what Democratic newspapers? I really don’t understand why there isn’t one.
Actually, as the Wikipedia article notes, the so-called Indiana Pi Bill decreed that the value of pi is 3.2 (not 3 as the post above states). Still wrong of course, but less wrong. :)
Dr. Myers-Thank you for this information concerning the Dale case. Ten years ago, I was researching the “Second Wave Klan” of the 1920s, specifically, their role in public education, and regetably, I was not aware of the courageous Mr. Dale until a few moments ago.
Ironically, that itteration of the Klan lobbied for the establishment of a federal cabinet kevel, U.S. Department of Education, in order to inculcate Christian Nationalist values. Today’s fascists seek to dismantle said agency, and achieve the aim of controlling education by weakening public education, while undermining the Constitution, by ciphoning tax payer funds to support private Christian academies.
I have included a link to my thesis dealing with this topic https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/etd/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=ksuhonors1462807359
I’ve read the murder of Madge Oberholtzer is what sealed the second Klans’s fate. The leader of an organization murdering a white woman isn’t really conducive to public confidence in that organization especially when it claims to “protect” white women.
to legislate that Pi is 3.2 is irrational and transcendentally stoopid.
they should have rounded down to 3.1
“Dearth subsequently found Dale in contempt of court” which should not even have been possible, given that contempt is reserved for persons who are actually in the court at the time or fail to fulfill a lawful court order. Sad that someone would need to spend their life savings to defend against a “crime” that by definition did not occur.
Reminds me of blasphemy laws…
Second try – apologies if this ends up duplicated…
A friend sent me this article today, Jonathan Rouch in The Atlantic writes about Trumps leadership style (Patrimonialism) and his vulnerabilities.
Non-pay walled archive link: https://archive.ph/Lix9J
Paywalled link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/corruption-trump-administration/681794/
But how can we fight back if the supposedly “liberal” press won’t publish stories about far right extremism? I recently wrote a blog piece with the Panda’s Thumb documenting how Kentucky State Police and members of the Kentucky’s Attorney General’s Office, as well as various local police were receiving K9 training at the Ark Encounter from AiG and a neo-fascist ministry that also trains police forces in Central and South America. A substantial portion of this “training” included evangelization of the students. I shared this with various local media, including original documents from an open records request I did. So far no one has published on this. One local reporter said she might do an op-ed, but hasn’t done anything after several weeks.
You and your blog are the liberal press, as are we, and DKos, and a smattering of other websites.
And these “second wave Klan” sound an awful lot like bog-standard Nazis, antisemitism and all.
I’m shocked at just how clueless and ineffectual some of the Democratic party so called leadership is.
Senator Chuck Schumer makes a deer in the headlights of a car look intelligent.
He is clueless, out of touch, lost, and too old to be a Democratic senator these days. He has to go.
I don’t mean by too old in just chronological years. He is a Boomer like I am. Bernie Sanders is far more aware at 83 and far more active. A lot of Boomers can hold down demanding jobs at our age. Schumer isn’t one of them.
Even Nancy Pelosi, age 84, had some scathing things to say about Schumer and some of the other old white guys in the Senate.
Strangely enough, a lot of the anti-fascist political leadership these days are…women. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Melanie Joly (Canadian Foreign Minister), Nancy Pelosi, Senator Patty Murray of Washington.
This looks like a job for Superman.
Also Milo calls out Steve Bannon for the hitlergruss.