What Dominic Sandbrook has said about Ku Klux Klan

Sandbrook argues that the second Klan was a public mass-membership fraternal association rather than a secretive paramilitary group.

“So this is not a secretive paramilitary group. This is a fraternal association with between two and five million members, very public members as well”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 3:48

Sandbrook says the second Klan was a product of advertising and mass entertainment rather than slavery and the Civil War, and was strongest outside the South.

“It was a product not of slavery in the Civil War, but of advertising and mass entertainment”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 4:29

Sandbrook states the second Klan's main targets were Catholics and Jews rather than African-Americans.

“its targets are not, by and large, African-Americans, although sometimes they are. But by and large, they are white Catholics and Jews. They are immigrants and bootleggers”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 3:40

Sandbrook notes that at its peak the Klan controlled governorships and most elected offices in several states.

“In Colorado, the Klan's peak, there was only one city in Colorado, Colorado Springs, that was not run by the Ku Klux Klan”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 5:10

Sandbrook says the burning cross was invented by Dixon's novel and Griffith's film, not used by the original Klan.

“the original clan never burned crosses. This is made up. This was made up by Dixon in his book, by Dixon in his novel”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 26:09

Sandbrook describes the revived Klan as a business run by publicists as a sales and marketing operation.

“they approach the clan as a sales and marketing operation. The clan is a business”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 32:12

Sandbrook cites estimates that 40,000 Methodist ministers joined the Klan, some rising to senior ranks.

“there are some estimates that 40,000 Methodist ministers became clan members, and some of them rose to be as high as exalted cyclopses or grand dragons”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 44:35

Sandbrook argues that Klan members were typically respectable middle-class professionals rather than people left behind by change.

“The historians who've done loads of work on this have shown that the people who join tend to be respectable, middle-class people”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 45:34

Sandbrook says the 1921 congressional hearings cleared the Klan and that the surrounding publicity produced a surge of new applications.

“the hearings ended and the House Rules Committee agreed that the Klan had no case to answer. So they got away with it scot-free”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:03:41

Sandbrook says the Klan in Oregon won near-total legislative control and pushed through a referendum banning Catholic schools, later struck down by the courts.

“the Klan pushed through a referendum to ban Catholic schools in the state of Oregon. Now, this measure was later thrown out by the courts”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:05:25

Sandbrook notes the Klan's 1922 electoral success in Texas, including the election of avowed Klansman Earl Mayfield to the US Senate.

“they elected their first avowed Klansman as a U.S. senator, who was a guy called Earl Mayfield, a Democrat, a fan of prohibition”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:06:47

Sandbrook describes the Dallas Klan's funding of Hope Cottage as evidence that the Klan often behaved like an ordinary charitable fraternal body.

“the Dallas branch of the Klan raised $85,000 to restore it. And they presented it as a gift to the city of Dallas at the Texas State Fair”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:07:17

Sandbrook says Klan violence in Texas towns such as Goose Creek amounted to a reign of terror concealed by local officials who were themselves Klansmen.

“Klan vigilantes had conducted, I mean, genuinely a kind of reign of terror in the small town Goose Creek. The local people had been completely cowed into submission”

The Rest Is History: 656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3) (Mar 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:11:34