nding of the Klan and other secret societies (The Reference Shelf, p. 85).Despite the 1871-1872 legislation, the American people had not seen the end of the hooded Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. William Joseph Simmons of Atlanta, Georgia revived it in November 1915. For the first few years, the revived Klan was confined to Alabama and Georgia and was, in fact, another fraternity. In 1920, its membership was less the two thousand, and showed no indication of becoming a sociological phenomenon in the United States (The KKK in the City 1915-1930, p. 120)It was then that two promoters, Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, were attracted to the Ku Klux Klan. Although they had participated in promotional drives for respectable organizations, such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Anti-Saloon League, Clarke and Tyler had distasteful reputations. When they offered to put this experience in manipulating human emotions at the disposal of the Klan, Simmons readily accepted. Therefore, in three months 48,000 persons joined the Klan; and within a few years, Klan membership was being estimated in the millions (The KKK: A Study of the American Mind, p. 3)In the winter of 1920-1921, the Ku Klux Klan crossed the Mason-Dixon line into the northern States, and by 1923 the older Northwest had become the “center and source of greatest power” for the organization. In May 1923, a survey of Klan membership discovered that Indiana claimed 294,000, Ohio 300,000, and Illinois 131,000. Other Midwestern states had memberships ranging from 30,000 to 75,000. Therefore, by the middle of 1923, the Klan had claimed approximately three million members (The KKK: A Study of the American Mind, p. 96)The Ku Klux Klan in CanadaThe first attempt of the Ku Klux Klan to organize into Canada began in Montreal in September 1921. “The famous Ku Klux Klan is organizing in Montreal,” reported the Montreal Daily Star. The report said that ...
