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Jgst. 9
The Ku Klux Klan
M 2.6 (Group 6)
Antimodernism
The role of American women changed dramatically during the 1920s. The 19th Amendment to the
Constitution (1920) granted women the right to vote in all elections. In addition, women had many new
opportunities in education and in business during the decade.
Single women, also known as "women adrift", lived in working-class areas of town. Black and white
women as well as new immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe rented their own rooms. They
were earning their own wages as “working girls” and were living on their own. They were working hard,
but also had more leisure time. So going to bars, cafes, dance hall, theatres etc. became more popular.
By the 1910s and 1920s, young women were wearing new fashion styles. They shortened their skirts
(at first just to the ankles, then up to the knees) and ‘bobbed’ their hair – a cut like a boy's. People
called them ‘flappers’. These young women got rid of the old fashion, especially the corset1. They
wanted to be slender, flat-chested, and long-limbed. Young women who wanted to be trendy used
make-up. Lipstick, rouge, and eye-shadow became popular. As a result the sale of cosmetics rose,
and beauty parlours were opened everywhere.
The young women admired such stars as the actress, Clara Bow, who became the first it-girl2 and was
the sex symbol of the 1920s. Black women listened to the black blues diva Bessie Smith, who became
a highly paid entertainer. She also composed her own songs. They were about the American Black
experience – slavery, suffering, segregation, discrimination, but also about the joy of life. The songs
Conservatives disapproved of most were about alcohol (“Me and my Gin”, “Gin House Blues”).
Women like Clara Bow and Bessie Smith who were in the show business were not seen as good role
models – also because of their sex life. Bessie Smith was even attacked by the KKK at one of her
performances in 1927.
For conservative people, these new women, or flappers as they were called, looked like prostitutes
and also behaved in a way they disliked. Young women who drank, smoked and danced with strangers were regarded as a social problem. Many people in the 1910s and 1920s were alarmed by the
new woman phenomenon. Popular magazines published articles which showed the ‘immorality’ of
modern women. Both Catholics and Protestants disapproved of the new woman and wanted women to
return to the old traditional morals.
The First Ku Klux Klan had died out in the 1870s, but a Second Klan had been founded and attracted
a lot of members during the 1920s. The new Klan had easy answers for Americans who saw a lot of
problems in the post-war era. All modern problems were blamed on "outsiders": immigrants, blacks,
Jews, Roman Catholics, and political radicals. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) wanted society to go back to
the ‘good old days’ in which women had behaved ‘properly’. The Women of the Ku Klux Klan were
founded in 1923. This organization was open to white native born American Protestant women who
were against all these new modern developments. The behaviour of the flappers in public, the success
of black female artists and the general demise3 of America's moral standards were blamed on Catho4
lics, Jews, and people of colour. For the Klan they were the scapegoats for all developments in society the Klan members did not approve of.
Tasks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
1
Summarize how life changed for women in the 1920s.
Describe a typical flapper.
Tell the others about Clara Bow and Bessie Smith.
Find reasons why conservative people and the KKK disapproved of the new women.
Korsett
Sie spielte die Hauptrolle im Film ‚It’, seitdem wird der Begriff gebraucht.
3
Niedergang
4
Sündenböcke
2
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
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Jgst. 9
The Ku Klux Klan
Clara Bow
Bessie Smith (Photograph by van Vechten)
A fashionable flapper
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
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Jgst. 9
The Ku Klux Klan
M 2.7 (Group 7)
Prohibition
The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s was in favour of prohibition and it became one of the Klan’s main issues1. The Klan strongly supported the 18th Amendment which prohibited the production and sale of
alcohol.. Alcohol - or “Demon Rum” as they called it – was seen as one of the evils that destroyed
American society. For the Klan the speakeasies2, nightclubs, cocktails, and portable flasks3 of alcohol
that were popular in those years were a sign of moral decay. But the movies of the 1920s portrayed all
that in a glamorous way. The ‘Roaring Twenties” allowed sexual freedom, easy divorce, and drinking
and smoking. By 1925, in New York City alone, there were between 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy
clubs. Conservative religious groups and the Ku Klux Klan were opposed to these developments and
even managed to establish censorship standards in film in 1921.
The Klan also tracked down bootleggers4 and speakeasies. It tried everything to prevent the production and sale of alcohol. Klan members organized armed patrols to stop the transportation of alcohol.
Sometimes they tarred, feathered5 and ran bootleggers out of town. Sometimes they attacked them
and beat them up. If they found speakeasies, they destroyed them. In 1922 for example, two hundred
Klan members set fire to saloons in Union County, New Jersey. In southern Illinois the Ku Klux Klan
‘restored order” and attacked the owners of taverns and searched houses. As a result a violent fight
between gangsters and the Ku Klux Klan killed 14 people.
The KKK’s support for prohibition helped its image in the USA as the Klan was seen as a group trying
to reinforce law and stop lawlessness. Members of the Klan were sometimes also members of prohibition groups and they often coordinated their activities. For example, Edward Young Clarke, a top
leader of the Klan, raised money for both the Klan and the Anti-Saloon League6.
But the Ku Klux Klan eventually had its problems, too. The leader of Indiana’s Klan was David Curtis
Stephenson, one of the most successful Klan leaders. He had become a millionaire from the sale of
robes and hoods. About one third of the male population in Indiana were members of the Ku Klux
Klan. In 1923, Stephenson managed to gather about 200,000 people at a Klan meeting in Indiana. He
supported prohibition in his speeches, but in private, he was a heavy drinker and a womanizer. In
1925, he was accused of having kidnapped and rape7 a 28-year-old woman who later committed suicide. Stephenson was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Second Klan’s founder “Colonel” Simmons had to resign in the early 1920s because of his heavy
drinking and poor management. There were more scandals involving Klan officials who did not follow
the Klan’s strict rules, e. g. officials being drunk or having sexual affairs. At the end of the 20s the KKK
had fewer and fewer members.
Tasks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Summarize the information about the ‘Roaring Twenties”.
Explain why the KKK supported prohibition.
Give examples of what they did to stop the drinking of alcohol.
Explain why you can say that some of the Klan’s members showed some kind of double morality.
___________
1
Anliegen, Thema
2
Kneipe, in der illegal Alkohol ausgeschenkt wurde
3
Flachmann (handlicher Behälter für Alkohol)
4
Alkoholschmuggler
5
Teeren und Federn (mit heißem Teer übergießen und mit Federn bewerfen)
6
Gruppe, die gegen Alkoholausschank war
7
vergewaltigen
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
The Ku Klux Klan
th
The 18 Amendment (1919) prohibited the production and the sale of alcohol
Jgst. 9