The Cellar - Feb 2nd, 2017: Dallas WKKK

No, it's not a radio station, although it was at one time... in Harrisburg PA. I'm talking about the Women's Ku Klux Klan.
http://cellar.org/2017/kkk3.jpg
The Dallas chapter, Klan No. 66 with it’s more than 13,000 members, was one of (if not the) the largest chapters in the nation. Members included politicians, judges, and law enforcement officials. The KKK pretty much ruled Dallas for most of the 1920s. But the distaff side was not included.

In the early 1920s, women who had led the temperance movement and now had the right to vote, were ~~getting uppity~~ feeling empowered. Some started to form groups to that tackle social issues. Naturally, some groups followed the same rhetoric as the KKK, as did most of the men in their lives. One of these groups formed in 1922 Dallas, was the “American Women”, giving free lectures on “Americanism” to white Protestant women around Texas.

http://cellar.org/2017/kkk1.jpg

By the following summer, Klan leadership allowed a “Women of the Ku Klux Klan” to be headquartered in Little Rock. They weren’t officially part of the KKK but were, on paper a separate entity. You know, separate but equal… after all they were just women. The ladies weren’t as outwardly extreme as the boys, but as virulently racist and intolerant. They might not have been lynching people and threatening violence, but they were busy pushing their exclusionary, white supremacy agenda. Like the men, the women dressed in white robes and hoods.

1924 was a banner year in Dallas for both the KKK and the WKKK. The women found themselves at lots of parades with burning crosses and other "functions". They were beating the drum for racism and intolerance so why not form a drum corps? :facepalm:

http://cellar.org/2017/kkk2.jpg

By 1926, the KKK was losing power, the fear instilled was waning, and their politicians losing. The KKK had to move into the WKKK office. Over the previous two years the WKKK bought 6,000 robes at $2.50 each, and were being sued for the $4,463.80 balance of the $15,000 sale. ($210,000 2017 dollars)
By 1930 the organization shrank, but the members who left still had their white supremacy attitude. To be fair, some may have joined because their buddies did, to get on the good side of judges and cops, or maybe a job connection. But I believe they didn’t get the attitude from joining the Klan, they joined the Klan because they had the attitude. :2cents:

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