Having virtually disappeared in the late 19th century, the Ku Klux Klan exploded onto the national scene in the early 1920s with perhaps five million members at its peak. While the original Klan concentrated its animus against newly freed slaves, this “second” KKK had an expanded list of social scapegoats that in the Midwest also included newly arrived immigrants, many of whom were Jews and Catholics.
While the original Klan was based primarily in the South, the second Klan had its greatest numerical strength in the West and Midwest. In fact, Ohio may have had more KKK members than any other state in the Union, with an estimated 400,000 Klansmen and Klanswomen. This presentation tells the story of the rise, eventual disappearance and ongoing legacy of the second KKK.
William Trollinger is Professor of History in the Department of History and Religious Studies at the University of Dayton. He earned his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Trollinger writes on fundamentalism, creationism, Christian nationalism and the Second Ku Klux Klan. He is the author of many books and articles, including God’s Empire: William Bell Riley and the Making of American Fundamentalism (University of Tennessee Press, 2027), Righting America at the Creation Museum (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), written with Susan Trollinger, and — most relevant for this presentation — Hearing the Silence: The University of Dayton, the Ku Klux Klan and Catholic Universities and Colleges in the 1920s (American Catholic Studies, Spring 2013).
