Ku Klux Klan Of The 1920's Extremist?: Article Analysis

Was the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920 's Extremist?

In the nineteen-twenties an organization was reborn called the Second Ku Klux Klan; the motives of the organization are very controversial. Being that some believe that the group was just an organization to protect the American way of life, and other view the Ku Klux Klan as a racist terrorist organization that was set up to persecute any minority that the KKK felt threatened by.

One author to write on this was David H. Bennett and his article "Traditional Nativism 's Last Stand." In Bennett 's article he gives a very good in-depth history of the second Ku Klux Klan: how they organized and their political involvement, unfortunately Bennett doesn 't do a very good job of addressing the actual
One article I found by David A. Horowitz called "The normality of extremism: the Ku Klux Klan revisited." This article takes a different look at how integrated the KKK was in American society. Instead Horowitz writes about how even though the KKK was a popular movement it hidden goals were extremist, and founded in ignorance. Although the Second KKK was much more political and less violent than the original KKK, it only took its ignorance a different route. The original KKK found violent mobs and lynching as a way to "fix America" whereas the Second KKK took legal routes of persecution with legislation and political campaigning, its motivations were what made it an extreme movement. At parts Horowitz compares the political popularity of the KKK to the Nazi regime in Germany. Both political parties used the frustrations of the working class, and both scapegoat a few minority groups in an effort to increase party membership, and achieve political gains. This kind of association greatly helps Horowitz push his point across, and makes it a much more convincing argument. Also Horowitz presents the actions of the KKK in a more negative light than Coben did. For example Horowitz is able to successfully present the community service of the KKK as merely a smokescreen to the public, just another effort to increase party membership.
This article focuses in on one chapter of the Second Ku Klux Klan and how the group functioned. This particular chapter developed against minority groups because they believed their lack of intelligence would threaten politics, because the Mike Kelley Machine could easily influence them to vote anything he wished. This scared many and the KKK seemed to provide the answers. The Oakland KKK won a lot of influence and membership in Oakland was one of the highest by percentage of total population. This article shows them still as relatively non-violent, but their political motivations were what made them extremists. Although there wasn 't any lynching or fiery crosses the KKK in Oakland terrorized the minority by political means, cutting spending to minority areas of life, and even pushed many areas where minorities lived further back by putting streets right through residential homes forcing minorities to move away. It wasn 't until the corruption of the Klan was publicized that that many of the party members lost faith in the Klan and got out of the organization. Rhomberg 's article shows that even though the Klan of the 20 's was largely political, it can still be an extremist movement, because it motivations were