KKK Marches on Washington at Peak of Institutional Influence

Between 25,000 and 40,000 Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a massive demonstration of the organization’s political power at its peak. Marchers wear white robes but not masks, proudly displaying their faces in an assertion of mainstream respectability. The parade represents the Klan’s successful transformation from a terrorist organization into a mass political movement claiming 4-6 million members nationwide and wielding decisive influence over state governments, local politics, and national party conventions.

The 1920s Klan differs from its Reconstruction predecessor in targeting Catholics, Jews, and immigrants alongside African Americans, broadening its appeal to Protestant nativists across the North and Midwest. The organization functions as a political machine, controlling state governments in Indiana, Colorado, and Oregon, and wielding significant power in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Maine. Klan-backed candidates win governorships, Senate seats, and mayoral races. The 1924 Democratic National Convention deadlocks for 103 ballots partly due to a fight over whether to condemn the Klan by name in the party platform - the anti-Klan plank fails by a single vote.

The Klan’s political success demonstrates how white supremacy operates through mainstream institutions rather than solely through vigilante violence. Klan members serve as police officers, judges, prosecutors, and politicians, embedding racist ideology within the legal system. The organization promotes “100% Americanism” that equates national identity with Protestant Anglo-Saxon heritage, influencing immigration restriction, Prohibition enforcement, and public education policy. The Klan’s decline after 1925 - accelerated by scandals including Indiana Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson’s murder conviction - leaves its institutional influences intact. Immigration quotas, segregation, and Protestant dominance of public life persist long after the robed organization fades, demonstrating how extremist movements can reshape mainstream institutions even when the movements themselves collapse.