During the 1920s the KKK was seen as positive. They advertised themselves as an organization that is 100% American, high on morals, and wanting better enforcement of prohibition.
ah ok. I couldn't tell if they were supporting them or making fun of them. Part of the reason of me being unsure was the black kid being a member(?). It just seemed odd. While I enjoyed the short I have to say seeing kids playing Klu Klux Klan made me cringe very much.
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It's a simple matter of logic. I'm not like other people, I can't stand pain, it hurts me.
(This post was edited by mjr506 on Dec 7, 2012, 3:28 PM)
Krazy Kat kreator (LOL) George Herriman would be the last guy to join the real KKK... he was part black and always passed for white (he wouldn't be seen with his hat off).
Wow. I had never heard that. I have always loved reading the Karzy Kat comics by George Herriman. It is one of my favorite comics. Luckly many of us have come far enough today to know that this was just plain wrong.
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It's a simple matter of logic. I'm not like other people, I can't stand pain, it hurts me.
As Cf4 has pointed out, the KKK of the 20s was seen quite differently from the way we view it today.
A short history of the Ku Klux Klan:
The original Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1865 in reaction to the Reconstructionist governments in the South following the Civil War, was made illegal in 1871 and its members turned instead to other organisations.
In 1915 D W Griffith’s film “Birth of a Nation” – based on (and originally titled) “The Clansman”, a best-selling novel and stage play by Thomas Dixon – presented the Klan in an heroic light, and inspired William J Simmons, a fan of fraternities and secret societies, to revive the Klan, with himself as Grand Wizard and drawing his membership from the Knights of Mary Phagan, the mob who had lynched Leo Frank after the death sentence on his conviction of the rape and murder of a 14 year old employee had been commuted to life by the State Governor on the grounds that the extreme prejudice evoked by the trial – primarily anti Northern, but also anti-Semitic – had denied him “due process”. (Griffith’s film was also the source of the flaming cross that Simmons used as a symbol for the Klan. It had not actually been used by the original KKK.)
Simmons also played up the K motif by drawing up a list of official titles starting with that letter (Klabee, Kligrapp, Imperial Kleagle etc).
In the early 20s Simmons sought to improve the perception of the Klan by promoting its fraternal values and positioning it as a white Protestant movement opposing injustice, bootlegging gangsters, and the presumed threat posed to the American way of life by foreigners and Catholics. Strong in the Southern and Midwestern States, its membership spread nationwide. It had political influence, and in Alabama and California KK members stood for Government on the political reform ticket.
Peaking at perhaps as much as 15% of the adult white male population in 1925, with a thriving women’s auxiliary, membership dropped rapidly after criminal corruption cases involving senior Klan officials stripped away the Klan’s claim to the moral high ground.
In 1927 Alabama Klansmen launched punitive attacks on anyone, black or white, found guilty of interracial relationships on the grounds of immorality and unnatural behaviour. This brought about a massive backlash from the media who denounced the Klan’s racial and religious intolerance, which in turn led to a crackdown on Klan activities. In the 1928 Presidential election Alabama voters supported the Democrats’ Catholic candidate.
Through the 30s and 40s vigilantes in the South continued to oppose unionisation and Black advancement in the name of the KKK, but membership of the national organisation had shrunk to the point where it as formally dissolved in 1944 owing $685,000 in back taxes.
After the war independent Klan groups in the South used bombs against black families moving into middle-class areas, in addition to intimidation and violence. This increased in response to the rise of the Civil Rights movement, leading to the re-emergence of the Klan as we know it today.
However, back in 1924 the KKK was a rightwing white protestant fraternity, widely viewed with similar degrees of respect and ridicule, I would suggest, as is the Tea Party of today (although the KKK’s allegiance was to the Democrats). Hence Alice’s gang’s secret society (actually called the “Klik Klak Klub”) is a comic reference to the KKK and its secret rituals that would have been a topical gag for audiences at the time, as was the call to join the K.K.K. (Krazy Kat Klub) in the 1925 ad for the Independent Film Corporation (local distributors for Missouri).
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Back by popular demand - "La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
(This post was edited by peterhale on Jan 3, 2013, 1:23 AM)
