Ku Klux Kulture

by Felix Harcourt

  62. Port Arthur News, June 17, 1924, June 22, 1924; Charleston Gazette, June 29, 1927; Port Neches Peoples Press, July 12, 1929; The Awakening playbill, Shubert Belasco Theatre, February 1927, Pamphlet Collection, P3697, Kiplinger Library, Historical Society of Washington, DC; Bradley, Culture, 24–25.

  63. One of the show’s most popular numbers was the recent hit, Daddy Swiped Our Last Clean Sheet and Joined the Ku Klux Klan. For more on Daddy Swiped, see chapter 7. Port Arthur News, May 12, 1924, June 4, 1924, June 8, 1924, June 10, 1924, June 11, 1924, June 16, 1924, June 22, 1924, June 23, 1924, June 26, 1924, June 29, 1924, June 30, 1924.

  64. Norfolk Pilot, May 3, 1926, May 11, 1926, May 16, 1926; Roanoke Times, December 2, 2001; Leidholdt, Editor for Justice, 181–82.

  65. The D.C. production’s official association with the Klan was further enhanced by a playbill that featured photographs of Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans and Imperial Commander Robbie Gill Comer of the Women’s Klan (The Awakening playbill, Shubert Belasco Theatre, February 1927, Historical Society of Washington).

  66. Washington Post, February 13, 1927, February 28, 1927, March 20, 1927, March 21, 1927, April 6, 1927; Fellowship Forum, March 12, 1927; Washington Herald, February 28, 1927; Charleston Gazette, June 28, 1927; The Awakening playbill, Shubert Belasco Theatre, February 1927, Historical Society of Washington.

  67. Charleston Gazette, June 18–June 26, 1927, June 28, 1927, June 29, 1927, June 30, 1927, July 2, 1927; Charleston Daily Mail, June 30, 1927; Erenberg, Steppin’ Out, 212, 219–20.

  68. Port Neches Peoples Press, July 12, 1929.

  Chapter Seven

  1. Baltimore Afro-American, July 25, 1925; Asbury Park Press, July 20, 1925.

  2. Shaw, Jazz Age, vii, 13, 104, 122–23, 134; Tawa, Serenading, 1; Mooney, “Music since the 1920s,” 68; Mooney, “Songs, Singers, and Society,” 225; Doerksen, American Babel, 76; Nash, Nervous Generation, 94; Nye, Unembarrassed Muse, 322–23; Eberly, Music in the Air, 4–5; Spaeth, Popular Music, xiii; Seldes, Lively Arts, 57. See also Fitzgerald, Tales Of The Jazz Age.

  3. Ogren, Jazz Revolution, 3, 7, 139–40, 154; Miller, Supreme City, 517.

  4. Smart Set, December 1919; Mencken, Prejudices: Fifth Series, 293.

  5. New York Times, January 30, 1922, October 8, 1924; Levine, “Jazz and American Culture,” 11–12; Abrams, Selling the Old-Time Religion, 100; Moore, Yankee Blues, 108; Lichtman, White Protestant Nation, 20; Ogren, Jazz Revolution, 139–40, 153, 157; Fass, Damned and Beautiful, 22; Erenberg, Steppin’ Out, 74; Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1921, December 1921; Hilmes, Radio Voices, 49.

  6. Searchlight, June 30, 1923; Fiery Cross, December 8, 1922; American Standard, May 1, 1924, October 15, 1924, November 15, 1924, December 1, 1924; Sandusky Register, May 2, 1925; Dickstein, Dancing in the Dark, 367.

  7. American Standard, July 1, 1924, October 15, 1924; Fiery Cross, December 8, 1922; Chicago Tribune, December 7, 1924; Time, November 24, 1924.

  8. Fiery Cross, February 23, 1923, March 30, 1923; Fellowship Forum, March 29, 1924; New York Times, October 12, 1924, January 24, 1925; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 271; Safianow, “Klan Comes to Tipton,” 218; Blee, Women of the Klan, 85; Minutes, July 25 1928, Women of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan 14 (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) Records, 1926–31, WIHV96-A393, Box 1, Folder 1, Eau Claire Research Center, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

  9. Spaeth, Popular Music, 425; Blom, Fracture, 107; Seldes, Lively Arts, 96.

  10. Eberly, Music in the Air, 5–6, 22, 42.

  11. McMullen, Big Top, 46.

  12. A “Kloxology,” or religiously tinged song, was usually sung by Klansmen to mark the end of a meeting. A number of these pseudo hymns could be found in the Klan’s official handbook, the Kloran. United States Congress, House of Representatives, Hearings on the Klan, 115; Shotwell, “Public Hatred,” 54; Alexander, Klan in the Southwest, xxiv, 85; Horowitz, Inside the Klavern, 67, 109; Klode Card, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan No. 51, Mt. Rainier, Maryland Archives, 89–180, Box 1, Folder 3, University of Maryland Libraries; Minutes of the Women’s Klan, June 30, 1925, June 22, 1926, June 29, 1926, December 7, 1926, March 15, 1927, August 9, 1927, April 17, 1928, February 12, 1929, Senter Family Papers, WH988, Box 36, Folder 10, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library; Fiery Cross, May 25, 1923; Badger American, August 1924; Wisconsin Kourier, December 19, 1924; National Kourier, March 6, 1925; Minutes, April 25 1928, Women of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan 14 (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) Records, 1926–31, WIHV96-A393, Box 1, Folder 1, Eau Claire Research Center, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

  13. New York World, September 22, 1921; Kokomo Daily Tribune, September 14, 1923; Imperial Night-Hawk, June 18, 1924; Robert Coughlan, “Konklave in Kokomo,” in Leighton, Aspirin Age, 109; Jackson, Klan in the City, 57; Spaeth, Popular Music, 432.

  14. Fiery Cross, May 25, 1923; Mexia Daily News, September 17, 1923; Call of the North, September 28, 1923; The Kluxer, October 20, 1923; New York Times, June 24, 1923, November 11, 1923; Searchlight, February 16, 1924; Fellowship Forum, August 9, 1924; Daily Northwestern, July 17, 1924; Hutchinson News, February 23, 1924; Logansport Pharos Tribune, July 3, 1924; Washington Post, October 8, 1924; Estherville Enterprise, August 18, 1926; J. R. Hallitt to Seward Bristow, June 30, 1924, Ku Klux Klan Carlock Unit No. 71 (Carlock, Ill.) Records, Manuscript Collection No. 903, Box 1, Folder 1, Emory University.

  15. Searchlight, March 22, 1924.

  16. Chauncy Oglethorp to Mrs. H. L. Leathers, March 15, 1932, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan No. 51, Mt. Rainier, Maryland Archives, 89–180, Series 2, Box 1, Folder 1, University of Maryland Libraries; Women’s Klan Minutes, March 1, 1927, March 15, 1927, April 19, 1927, November 1, 1927, Senter Family Papers, WH988, Box 36, Folder 10, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library; Searchlight, February 24, 1923, August 23, 1924; Fellowship Forum, August 9, 1924, September 5, 1925; Wisconsin Kourier, December 26, 1924, January 2, 1925, January 9, 1925; Daily Northwestern, July 3, 1925; Long, “Western Pennsylvania,” 20; Fox, Everyday Klansfolk, 104; Horowitz, Klavern, 108; Jackson, Klan in the City, 100, 121.

  17. Evansville Courier, June 10, 1922; Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1924; Galveston Daily News, June 21, 1926; Baltimore Afro-American, November 10, 1922, July 11, 1924, August 1, 1925, August 8, 1925, August 14, 1926; Washington Post, July 5, 1924; Pittsburgh Courier, July 12, 1924; Shults, “Klan in Downey,” 165; Tucker, Dragon and Cross, 27; Field, Heavy Breathers, 160.

  18. Searchlight, March 29, 1924, June 14, 1924, August 23, 1924; National Kourier, March 13, 1925; Fellowship Forum, May 17, 1924, July 5, 1924, August 30, 1924, September 20, 1924, March 14, 1925, July 11, 1925, September 18, 1926, December 17, 1927; Washington Post, August 9, 1925; Imperial Night-Hawk, January 16, 1924, February 27, 1924, May 21, 1924, September 10, 1924; Dawn, December 22, 1923, January 12, 1924, January 26, 1924; Fiery Cross, December 8, 1922, January 5, 1923, February 16, 1923; Minnesota Fiery Cross, May 9, 1924; Roanoke Times, December 2, 2001; Wisconsin Kourier, February 20, 1925; Fry, Modern Klan, 56; Eberly, Music in the Air, 25.

  19. Imperial Night-Hawk, January 16, 1924, July 9, 1924; Searchlight, July 5, 1924, July 19, 1924; Fellowship Forum, January 20, 1925; Daily Northwestern, April 15, 1925, May 13, 1925; Dawn, October 6, 1923; Call of the North, October 15, 1923; Manitowoc Herald-News, July 26, 1924; Jackson, Klan in the City, 124; Fox, Everyday Klansfolk, 184.

  20. Imperial Night-Hawk, March 12, 1924, June 11, 1924; Searchlight, March 22, 1924; Minutes, July 25, 1928, Women of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan 14 (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) Records, 1926–31, WIHV96-A393, Box 1, Folder 1, Eau Claire Research Center, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

  21. Denver Post, April 15, 1925, April 26, 1925; Rocky Mountain News, June 27, 1925; Dawn, December 29, 1923, January 19, 1924; Imperial Night-Hawk, July 9, 1924; Decatur Review, September 8, 1925; Jackson, Klan in the City, 219; Goldberg, Hooded Empire, 27.

  22. Shreveport Journal, September 15, 1923; Call of the North, September 7, 1923, October 15, 1923; Imperial Night-H
awk, July 11, 1923; Coughlan, “Konklave,” 110; Wade, Fiery Cross, 224; Women of the Ku Klux Klan, Musiklan; Truzzi, “Songbag,” 34.

  23. Washington Post, February 23, 1927; Truzzi, “Songbag,” 34; Jacobs, “Christian Chorales,” 370; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 96; Shotwell, “Public Hatred,” 46; Knights of the Klan, Second Imperial Klonvokation, 136; Wight, American Hymns, 8, 14.

  24. The song also found time to criticize “the greedy Jew” for his “wicked dealings.”

  25. Shaw, Jazz Age, 123; Klamkin, Old Sheet Music, 100; Crew, Klan Sheet Music, 69, 71, 152, 206; Jacobs, “Co-opting,” 370, 372; Wight, “Then I’ll Take Off My Mask,” 3; Rhinehart, Red Hot Songs, 4; Grimes, Selections, 20, 22.

  26. Crew, Sheet Music, 145, 208; Rhinehart, Red Hot Songs, 7; Goodwin, Song Book, 22; Sullivan, Our Times, 455, 457; Klamkin, Sheet Music, 106; Shaw, Jazz Age, 133–34; Spaeth, Popular Music, 436–37.

  27. Badger American, May 1924; Rhinehart, Red Hot Songs, 6; Parodies by the Queen Quartet, 12; Crew, Sheet Music, 130, 142; Goodwin, Song Book, 15.

  28. Zterb, “Klansman’s Kall”; Metz and Jay, “Ladies of the Ku Klux Klan”; Roy, “American Means the Klan”; Crew, Sheet Music, 81, 95, 187, 219.

  29. Roy, “They Blame It on the Klan”; Smith, “Fiery Cross on High”; Patterson, “KKK (If Your Heart’s True, It Calls to You)”; Crew, Sheet Music, 40, 84.

  30. Some of the most prolific Klan music publishers included the Fox Music Company of Aurora, Illinois; Akron Music Sales Company of Akron, Ohio; and the Thompson Music Company of Streator, Illinois, which specialized in religiously tinged numbers written by the eponymous owner. Harry F. Windle of Kansas City, Missouri, built a thriving concern on the back of “Mystic City,” perhaps the most popular and most widely circulated original Klan number of the decade. Cowritten by John M. Nelson and Noah Tillery, “Mystic City” depicted the “grand and noble” Imperial Wizard as a savior knight and was widely advertised as “the Ku Klux Klan’s most beautiful song.” While its aesthetic values are debatable, the song was apparently lucrative enough to support widespread sale throughout the 1920s. Dawn, April 14, 1923, June 2, 1923, July 14, 1923, September 29, 1923; Fiery Cross, March 9, 1923, April 27, 1923, May 11, 1923; Nelson and Tillery, “Mystic City”; McMahon et al., “We Are All Loyal Klansmen”; Thompson, “Call of a Klansman”; Thompson, “Coming of the Klan”; Crew, Sheet Music, 57–61.

  31. Fiery Cross, December 8, 1922, May 25, 1923; Williamsport Pioneer, August 5, 1921; Franklin Evening Star, August 22, 1923; Fellowship Forum, October 6, 1923, December 15, 1923, July 12, 1924, September 27, 1924; Minnesota Fiery Cross, May 9, 1924; Danville Bee, July 31, 1924; Joplin Globe, August 17, 1924; Kokomo Daily Tribune, April 30, 1925; Dawn, March 31, 1924; Badger American, January 1924, October 1923; Jackson, Klan in the City, 148, 164; Blee, Women of the Klan; Akin, “Klan in Georgia,” 131; Undated Note, Senter Family Papers, WH988, Box 36, Folder 12, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library; Douglas, Listening In, 91.

  32. Fellowship Forum, December 6, 1924, March 21, 1925; Connellsville Daily Courier, July 5, 1924, September 2, 1924, October 30, 1924; McKean County Democrat, May 26, 1938; Sandusky Star-Journal, January 18, 1924; National Kourier, May 16, 1925; Wight, American Hymns; Lutz, Catalogue.

  33. Shaw, Jazz Age, 12–13, 108–9; Klamkin, Sheet Music, 85, 114–15; Sanjeks, Popular Music Business, 7, 12, 16; Nye, Unembarrassed Muse, 322–23.

  34. Jackson, Klan in the City, 139; Weaver, “Klan in Wisconsin,” 274; Daily Northwestern, July 17, 1924; Wisconsin Kourier, February 6, 1925; Fellowship Forum, June 18, 1927; Detroit News, January 25, 1930.

  35. Kennedy, Jelly Roll, xxi–xxii, 21–23, 28, 35–36; Sutton, American Record, 326; Collier, Louis Armstrong, 104; Kennedy and McNutt, Little Labels, 2–18.

  36. As Kennedy notes, Sears executives were aware before signing with Gennett that the record label was used by Klansmen, but that fact does not appear to have dissuaded the company (Kennedy, Jelly Roll, 166–67).

  37. Kennedy, Jelly Roll, 38–41, 166–67; Sutton, Record Labels, 327–28; Oliver, Yonder Come the Blues, 158.

  38. Kennedy, Jelly Roll, 40; Frederick Evening Post, October 30, 1912; Rhinehart, Red Hot Songs, 5; Crew, Sheet Music.

  39. The song exhorted listeners to join the Klan’s “army for the right and all against the wrong” (Seale and Pace, “Wake Up America!”).

  40. Lena, Banding Together, 201; Tosches, Country, 215; Sutton, Record Labels, 71, 112, 178–79, 215, 321, 327; Kennedy, Jelly Roll, 37–38; Fellowship Forum, May 17, 1924; Carroll Van West, “James D. Vaughan,” The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, tennesseeencyclopedia.net, accessed February 28, 2011.

  41. Fiery Cross, May 25, 1923; Fellowship Forum, February 9, 1924; Indianapolis Star, December 6, 1924; Danville Bee, July 31, 1924; Joplin Globe, August 17, 1924; Kokomo Daily Tribune, April 30, 1925; Lutz, Catalogue; Wight, American Hymns.

  42. Shaw, Jazz Age, 104, 106, 123; Crew, Sheet Music, 24; Coslow and Friedman, “Bunch of Klucks”; Billboard, December 3, 1921; Talking Machine World, October 15, 1921.

  43. Coslow and Friedman, “Bunch of Klucks”; Frisch and Grossman, “Ku Ku”; Laird and Rust, OKeh Records, 196–97; Bradley, Culture, 162.

  44. Fellowship Forum, March 8, 1924, May 17, 1924, December 20, 1924; Baltimore Afro-American, April 18, 1924; Lawrence Daily Journal-World, January 29, 1927, January 20, 1964; Charleston Gazette, June 29, 1927; Garden City Telegram, September 8, 1965; Port Arthur News, June 22, 1924; Marcell and Hedges, “Daddy Swiped Our Last Clean Sheet.”

  45. Bradley, Culture, 37; Ely, Amos ’n’ Andy, 45; Stokes, Birth, 140–41; Stephanie Dunson, “Black Misrepresentation in Sheet Music Illustration,” in Brundage, Beyond Blackface, 45; Susan Curtis, “Black Creativity and Black Stereotype,” in Brundage, Beyond Blackface, 137.

  46. Lewis, “Those Dog-Gone Ku-Klux Blues”; Hopper, “Before Them Klu Klux Pages Me”; Ownby, “De Ku Klux Gwine to Git You”; Newton and Cox, “Ku Klux Klan Blues”; Arthur and Barbay, “Those Good Old Ku Klux Blues”; Crew, Sheet Music, 30–31, 35, 39, 47; Taylor and Austen, Darkest America, 206.

  47. Mars and Krause, “Ku Klux Blues”; Billboard, August 27, 1921, September 24, 1921, February 18, 1922; Thomasville Daily Times-Enterprise, December 7, 1912.

  48. Sylacauga Advance, May 10–13, 1925; Fellowship Forum, October 29, 1927, November 19, 1927; Greenaway, “Country-Western,” 35; Huber, Linthead Stomp, 65; Feldman, Klan in Alabama, 28.

  49. Huber, Linthead, 56, 59, 61, 71; James C. Cobb, “Country Music and the ‘Southernization’ of America,” in Lewis, All That Glitters, 76.

  50. Huber, Linthead, 84–86, 92; Wiggins, Fiddlin’ Georgia Crazy, 112, 114; Cobb, “Country Music,” 76.

  51. Huber, Linthead, 74–77, 82; Shaw, Jazz Age, 135–36; Green, “Hillbilly Music,” 205, 206, 208–9, 210, 211.

  52. Greenaway, “Country-Western,” 35; Huber, Linthead, 61.

  53. Cox, Bowman, 38; Bristol (VA-TN) Herald-Courier, May 12, 1925.

  54. Bristol (VA-TN) Herald-Courier, May 12, 1925; Cox, Bowman, 38–40; Roland, Country Music Annual 2001, 160; Wilson, Liner Notes, Fiddlers’ Convention.

  55. Wilson, Liner Notes, Fiddlers’ Convention; Cox, Bowman, 35, 37, 42, 49, 51, 68; Green, “Hillbilly,” 213–14.

  Chapter Eight

  1. Smith, Glory, 41, 63, 74–81; Paper, Empire, 26; Miller, Supreme City, 310–11.

  2. Rudel, Hello Everybody, 178–79; Sterling and Kittross, Stay Tuned, 65–67, 87, 91; Craig, Fireside Politics, xi, 10; Head, Broadcasting in America, 107–8; Kyvig, Daily Life, 71; Hart, Popular Book, 228; Eberly, Music in the Air, 34; Roscigno and Danaher, Voice of Southern Labor, 26–27; Razlogova, Listener’s Voice, 15, 22; Douglas, Listening In, 77; New York Times, May 13, 1928.

  3. Kyvig, Daily Life, 71, 90; Hilmes, Radio Voices, 6–7, 34–35; Douglas, Listening In, 25, 29; McLuhan, Understanding Media, 263–64.

  4. Kyvig, Daily Life, 71, 90.

  5. Craig, Fireside Politics, 5, 9; Ster
ling, Stay Tuned, 66–67, 69.

  6. Ottawa Citizen, July 11, 1931; Miller, Supreme City, 325; Eberly, Music in the Air, 13, 17; Razlogova, Listener’s Voice, 20.

  7. Imperial Night-Hawk, July 30, 1924; Fellowship Forum, August 4, 1923; Kourier Magazine, March 1927; Birmingham News, September 3, 1926; Birmingham Age-Herald, September 3, 1926; Roanoke Times, December 2, 2001; Norfolk Pilot, March 19, 1926; Denver Post, June 25, 1925; Rocky Mountain News, June 27, 1925; Feldman, Klan in Alabama, 85; Snell, “Masked Men,” 220; Goldberg, Hooded Empire, 97.

  8. Washington Post, April 13, 1924, April 15, 1924; Massillon Evening Independent, April 15, 1924; Minnesota Fiery Cross, March 7, 1924, March 14, 1924; Searchlight, March 15, 1924; Wisconsin Kourier, February 6, 1925; Shreveport Journal, February 26, 1929; Joplin Globe, August 14, 1925, October 3, 1926; Joplin News Herald, August 15, 1925; Fellowship Forum, September 5, 1925, June 5, 1926; Kourier Magazine, August 1926; Imperial Night-Hawk, June 4, 1924; Chicago Tribune, October 26, 1924; Barnouw, Tower in Babel, 102.