Consider
the words of one "Colonel" William Joseph Simmons. Seeking to develop the resurgence
of the Klan in the 1920s, Simmons became a prominent voice of the movement and the group's
goals. This was seen in a speech in Atlanta in 1921:
It
is indeed strange that if we organized to persecute the Roman Catholics, Jews, and Negroes that
nothing has been done against them. In the United States the question is not and should never be
whether a citizen is a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, or a Negro, but whether he is a
loyal American.
In his speech, one notices how the focus
of the Klan's rise was the idea of appealing to patriotism, suggesting that the Klan's only
focus was to develop the idea of a "loyal American." Simmons develops this idea that
the Klan is "misunderstood," suggesting that it is more of a social organization
dedicated to advancing the ideas of "true" American notions of the good. In this,
Simmons makes it evident that Klan is more of a defender of American values than it is an
aggressive force dedicated to silencing voices. For Simmons, being able to articulate this
vision of the Klan so early in its rise was fundamental in its ascent to a noteworthy position
in American society and gave a refrain still heard today.
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