Why do you think the Klan gained support in cities in the 1920’s?
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Answer:
I first began serious research into the Klan and the politics of the 1920s when Charles W. Estus, Sr. and I guest curated an exhibition on the "Swedish Creation of an Ethnic Identity for Worcester, Massachusetts" at the Worcester Historical Museum, a project underwritten by a public programs grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Estus and I co-authored an accompanying monograph and cataglogue, gå till Amerika (Worcester Historical Museum, 1994), for which I wrote the chapter on "The Tribal Twenties. During that period Professor Estus and I had numerous and intense conversations from which I learned much. I cannot overstate their value in shaping my thinking. I have also benefitted more than I can say from my exchanges with my friend Gerd Korman. His work on Americanization was an early influence on my own. More recently, his studies of American traditions of anti-Semitism have taught me much. I have also learned a great deal from Robert O. Paxton's essay on the five stages of fascisms; from Nancy MacLean's Behind the Mask of Chivalry; from William D. Jenkins, author of Steel Valley Klan and an advisor to the exhibition; and from Kathleen M. Blee's Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. -- John F. McClymer, October 13, 2001]