Hearing the Invisible Empire

Description

This study investigates the origins of the music produced by the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Indiana as well as trying to understand how it facilitated recruitment into the Klan and how it was used as a tool for wider social and political change. The Indiana Klan’s newspaper The Fiery Cross is awash in reports of parades and other public performances of music, yet this phenomenon has remained unstudied. Klan musical performances were modelled after the practises of the evangelical revival, which allowed Klansmen to present themselves as an alternative religious community. In so doing the Klan came to dominate the public life of many towns and cities across Indiana. In areas that experienced Klan music, Klansmen, and other protestants, mobilized on issues relating to immigration, education, and elections. This is the first study of its kind and the results in Indiana encourage further study in other states.
Author Keywords: Billy Sunday, Conservative Social Movement, Evangelical Revival, Far-Right, Hate Group, Ku Klux Klan