1925-8-8 KKK march, Washington DC

8th August 1925: > 50K Ku Klux Klan members march in Washington D.C. - HiPo > .

Although the original Ku Klux Klan had collapsed in the 1870s, by the middle of the 1920s a new version of the organisation had experienced a resurgence that saw at least three million Americans becoming members. The second Klan was heavily influenced by the mythologised history of the D. W. Griffith 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation. With its white robes and cross burnings, the Klan adhered to a nativist agenda that opposed anything and anyone that didn’t fit into their white Protestant ideal such as blacks, Catholics, Jews, and newly-arrived Southern and Eastern European immigrants.

The Klan of the 1920s was also very visible in the community, with the high water mark of the organisation being its march in Washington D.C. in the summer of 1925. Known as a konklave, an estimated 50,000 Klansmen and their families converged on the city for two days of very public demonstration. On 8 August upwards of half the attendees participated in a march through the streets of the capital wearing their full regalia, their faces on show rather than hidden beneath pointed hoods at the behest of the city’s authorities.

Some of the marchers formed well-drilled shapes that were visible from above – Christian crosses and moving white K’s – that were witnessed by thousands of spectators who had come to watch the parade, or demonstrate against the presence of the Klan. While Marines stood guard outside several federal buildings that lined Pennsylvania Avenue, President Calvin Coolidge reportedly refused to review the procession. The marchers eventually arrived at the Washington Monument at 7pm, but the rally was rained off.