re white robes and masks and adopted the burning cross as their symbol. The Klan members seemed to be most active during election campaigns, when they would either scare people into voting for their candidate or get rid their opponents entirely. They were noticed for their horrible acts of violence that they called nighttime rides. These attacks included murder, rape, beatings, and warnings and were designed to overcome Republican majorities in the south. Due to the fear of a race war, state officials were unable to suppress the violence. Law enforcement officials were Klan members themselves and even when the law officers were legitimate, Klan members also sat on juries where criminally accused members were often acquitted.(Harrel,47-52) The Klan was popularized through literature and film in the early nineteenth century. Its influence spread with help from ThomasB. Dixon's The Clansman (1905) and D.W. Griffith's movie The Birth of a Nation (1915). (Harrel, 85) Harrel felt that this eventually "led to the establishment of a new Ku Klux Klan, which spread throughout the nation and preached anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-black, antisocialist, and anti-labor-union Americanism" (87). Harrel stated that the Klan's two million adherents exercised great political power, "often taking the law into their own hands, mobs of white-robed, white-hooded men punished immorality and terrorized un-American elements" (88). The Klan erupted as a secret organization employing its secrecy to mislead the public and inquiring newspapers. Therefore,they were labeled the invisible empire. Harrel urges the idea that in certain regions the Klan did not have enough influence to become politically triumphant (307). "But where it was strong the Invisible Empire elected scoresof local officials, state legislators, a few governors, severalnational representatives, including Earle B. Mayfield ofTexas, William J. Harris of Georgia, and Hugo Black ofAlab...
