Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s [Paperback]

Kathleen M. Blee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520078764 | ISBN-13: 978-0520078765 | Publication Date: August 4, 1992

Ignorant. Brutal. Male. One of these stereotypes of the Ku Klux Klan offer a misleading picture. In Women of the Klan, sociologist Kathleen Blee unveils an accurate portrait of a racist movement that appealed to ordinary people throughout the country. In so doing, she dismantles the popular notion that politically involved women are always inspired by pacifism, equality, and justice.
"All the better people," a former Klanswoman assures us, were in the Klan. During the 1920s, perhaps half a million white native-born Protestant women joined the Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK). Like their male counterparts, Klanswomen held reactionary views on race, nationality, and religion. But their perspectives on gender roles were often progressive. The Klan publicly asserted that a women's order could safeguard women's suffrage and expand their other legal rights. Privately the WKKK was working to preserve white Protestant supremacy.
Blee draws from extensive archival research and interviews with former Klan members and victims to underscore the complexity of extremist right-wing political movements. Issues of women's rights, she argues, do not fit comfortably into the standard dichotomies of "progressive" and "reactionary." These need to be replaced by a more complete understanding of how gender politics are related to the politics of race, religion, and class.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A groundbreaking work about the Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK), which enrolled hundreds of thousands of recruits in the 1920s and '30s. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Blee, a sociology professor, has written a fascinating and disturbing book about the women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) in the 1920s. In Part 1, she examines the historical, cultural, and symbolic contexts of the Klan in the United States. In Part 2, she looks at activities of the women's Klan in Indiana and gives biographical sketches of some of the more prominent women in the Indiana WKKK. Through her extensive research, including interviews with surviving WKKK members, examining seized Klan documents, and reading local newspapers, Blee found that for many women the WKKK offered a logical place for them to express political views while also providing a home of like-minded females who shared social and moral concerns. While many books have been written about the history of the Ku Klux Klan, this is the first to focus on women. An important work which should be purchased by larger public and research libraries. Highly recommended. (Illustrations and index not seen.)-- Cindy Faries, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., University Park
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (August 4, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520078764
• ISBN-13: 978-0520078765
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complicates our view of race, gender, and social movements, November 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s (Paperback)

Blee's work on women in hate movements sheds new light on why women join and support white supremacist movements. Her analysis of extensive archival data and interviews complicates how our assumptions about the role of gender in promoting bigotry and prejudice, while at the same time heralding eerily feminist principles. My students loved it because it was clear, engaging, and gave them several issues to grapple with around research and data interpretation. Though white supremacists were (and still are) on the whole, economically disenfranchised adn educationally bankrupt, Blee shows how a few "dangerous minds" are capable of mobilizing mass numbers of people in the name of "racial superiority."

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Then and Now, February 25, 2008

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s (Paperback)

According to author Kathleen Blee, "It is more helpful to understand the second Klan by considering it within - rather than as an aberration from - the ideas and values that shaped white Protestant life in the early twentieth century, fueling fundamentalism..." Sound provocative?

Dr. Blee also maintains that Klanswomen held the same fanatical views on race, religion, and nationalism as their menfolk - in other words, anti-negro, anti-semitic, anti-Catholic, and hyper-patriotic - but that their perspcetive on gender roles were often progressive.

In the 1920s, as many as half a million women joined the ladies' auxiliary of the KKK (the WKKK). Were they just aping their husbands or were there specific motivations that brought women to an organization notorious for rough-neck violence? Well, sexual fears may indeed have played a role. The fraudulent portrayal of ex-slaves assaulting white women in the vile racist movie, Birth of a Nation, is credited with stimulating the resurgence of the Klan. Women had received the vote nationally only in 1918, on a wave of optimism that their votes would naturally fall on the side of justice, decency, and pacifism. "Women in the Klan" reveals how fallacious (and sexist) that attitude was.

Racism of the vicious intensity of the Ku Klux Klan is not extinct in America or in the world at large. If you'd like to get a dose of pseudo-scientific anti-Semitism as putrid as any in the rhetoric of the Klan, take a look at "The Culture of Critique" by Kevin MacDonald, a professor at a major university in southern California. Be sure to read some of the many five-star reviews, including ugly diatribes and racial-purity fantasies by young Scandinavian men. Like a herpes zoster virus that lurks in nerve tissue for decades and then erupts as shingles, racism lingers in the scum of our educated populace.

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great short history of both Klu Klux Klans!, January 16, 2003

By 

Dean Esmay (Westland, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s (Paperback)

This is one of the few histories of the Klan that clearly documents the fact that there have been not one, but two Klu Klux Klans. It also examines just how deeply women were involved in the movement, a little-noticed phenomenon in the past.

Obviously the Klan we know today was always a hate group, but it's astounding just how large, wealthy, and powerful the group was, with millions of members (as opposed to today, where they have a few thousand at best), and members in every state of the union.

It's also astounding just how powerful they were, and how involved women were in the organization. One thing the book highlights, that reviewers generally don't mention, is how many people were in the Klan without recognizing the violent or terroristic nature of the organization. The most discomfiting parts she documents are how many people who were involved simply viewed the Klan as a very normal, responsible organization that was a boon to its communities. The Klan worked hard to develop an aura of respectability--quite successfully, at least for a while.

I am rather stunned by several of the other reviews here, which say dumb things about feminism, animal rights, etc. I suggest ignoring those reviews, as they're obviously written by silly people. This is a very good book--highly readable, informative, and insightful. I recommend it highly.