William J. Simmons, a preacher and promoter of fraternal orders, led a group up Stone Mountain outside Atlanta and burned a large cross, marking the official rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and beginning a new era of organized white supremacist terrorism. Simmons carefully coordinated the KKK revival …
William J. SimmonsKu Klux KlanD.W. Griffithracial-politicswhite-supremacykkkdomestic-terrorismcultural-capture
Thirty-one-year-old Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent, was kidnapped from prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, and lynched by an antisemitic mob calling themselves “The Knights of Mary Phagan”—the only Jewish lynching in U.S. history. In spring 1913, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, …
Leo FrankWilliam J. SimmonsKnights of Mary PhaganGeorgia Governorracial-politicsantisemitismmob-violencekkkjustice-system-failure
D.W. Griffith’s silent film “The Birth of a Nation” premiered in Los Angeles, becoming the longest and most profitable film produced to that date while securing the future of feature-length films and establishing cinema as a serious artistic medium. With assistance from …
D.W. GriffithWoodrow WilsonWilliam J. SimmonsKu Klux Klanracial-politicswhite-supremacykkkmedia-manipulationcultural-capture