Hiram Wesley Evans

For other people named Hiram Evans, see Hiram Evans (disambiguation).

Hiram Wesley Evans
Evans Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1926
Born	(1881-09-26)September 26, 1881 Ashland, Alabama
Died	September 14, 1966(1966-09-14) (aged 84) Atlanta, Georgia
Education	Vanderbilt University
Employer	Ku Klux Klan
Title	Imperial Wizard
Political party	Democratic Party (United States)

Hiram Wesley Evans (September 26, 1881 – September 14, 1966) was Imperial Wizard of the "second" Ku Klux Klan from 1922 until 1939. Evans succeeded William Joseph Simmons in the position of the Imperial Wizard in November 1922. Simmons was at the same time elected Emperor for life.

Early life and education

Evans was born in Ashland, Alabama on September 26, 1881. As a young man, his family moved to Hubbard, Texas. He attended Vanderbilt University and became a dentist, receiving his licence in 1900. (There were later rumors that his dental qualifications were "a bit shady".) He established a small dentistry practice in Dallas, Texas. His practice was moderately successful; it provided inexpensive dental services. He described himself as "the most average man in America". He was average height and somewhat overweight, but was well dressed, a skilled speaker, and very ambitious. Evans joined the Freemasons, and eventually became a thirty-two-degree mason. He was a member of the Disciples of Christ church.

Early Klan leadership

Evans joined the Klu Klux Klan in 1920. That year, he left his dental practice of work for the group full time. (He worked for the second Klan, which was established by failed minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.) In 1921, Evans was elected to the position of "exalted cyclops" of the Dallas Klan No. 66. The "exalted cyclops" was an equivalent position to a kleagle. At the time that Evans was elected, the Dallas Klan had recently received a "self-ruling charter" from the Atlanta-based Klan leadership.

Evans was initially supportive of violence against minorities. He fondly remembered a witnessing the actions of a lynch mob as a child. After becoming involved in the Texas Klan, he sought to create "black squads" that would pursue vigilante actions about minorities. As leader of the Dallas Klan, Evans was part of a group of Klan members who kidnapped a black bellhop from a local hotel because they suspected that he was involved in pandering prostitutes. The group brutally beat the bellhop and burnt his face with acid. The next year, he was appointed the "great titan" (an executive role) of the "Realm of Texas". In Texas, Evans led a membership drive. As the Texas drive was a success, he was assigned responsibility of the national membership drive at he behest of Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clarke. The Klan headquarters made him the "Imperial kligrapp", a role similar to national secretary in which he oversaw thirteen states. He received a base salary of $7,500 and traveled throughout the states he oversaw, regularly meeting with local Klan leadership. As kligrapp, Evans condemned vigilante activity because he feared it would attract government scrutiny and hinder potential Klan-backed political campaigns. He later took credit for a decrease in the amount of lynchings in the Southern United States in the 1920s.

Leadership conflicts

William Joseph Simmons led the Klan until the early 1920s. A group of Klan activists, including Tyler, Clarke, D. C. Stephenson, and Evans, orchestrated a reorganization of the Klan that removed Simmons' practical control of the group. Evans gained control of the group, and at a November 1922 "Klovokation" in Atlanta, Georgia, Evans was formally ensconced as leader of the Klan. A legal battle between Evans and Simmons ensued, but Evans retained control of the Klan. Leonard Moore speculates that Stephenson also played a role in Evans' elevation to leader, and suggests that he was given a leadership role in the Indiana Klan as a reward. As leader of the Klan, Evans appointed D. C. Stephenson as the kleagle and Grand Dragon of Indiana. Their relationship soon became acrimonious: Stephenson clashed with Evans over the amount of membership fees that he would receive as leader of the Indiana Klan and Evans' refusal to help fund the purchase of a school in Indiana. Stephenson believed that Evans deliberately thwarted his attempt to purchase a university because he sought to limit his power. Notwithstanding their conflicts, Evans promoted Stephenson to Grand Dragon of the "northern realm" in July 1923, a move that surprised Stephenson.

In August 1923, Evans was part of a Klan parade in heavily-Catholic Carnegie, Pennsylvania that was attacked by anti-Klan activists after they marched against the mayor's orders. He narrowly escaped injury as the group was pelted with bottles thrown from nearby buildings and a bystander opened fire on the group. The incident was a boon to the Klan's recruitment efforts, but increased the animosity that Stephenson felt toward Evans, who he saw as responsible for the incident. Evans removed Stephenson from his position in early 1924. Stephenson had been a skilled campaigner and demagogue, and he remained a well-known advocate of the Klan's platforms after being relieved of his official role in the group. He was heavily involved in the candidacy of Edward L. Jackson, a member of the Klan, for governor of Indiana and was well respected by local Klan members. The Klan saw significant electoral success in that state in 1924. After this success, Stephenson showed further disdain for Evans and the Klan leadership. Moore writes that Evans paid particular attention to the Indiana Klan, as it was the largest state organization within the Klan and he sought to profit from it as much as he could.

Although membership in the Klan was limited to men, in 1921, several groups were formed for women who supported the movement. After Simmons attempted to create a women's organization, Evans created a women's group and sued Simmons for organizing his women's group under the name of the Klan. Evans won the lawsuit, leading to a public war of words with Simmons. A klansman loyal to Evans soon murdered Simmons' lawyer. (Evans denied complicity in the murder.) In 1924, Evans paid $145,000 to Simmons in exchange for a promise to abandon his claim to Klan leadership and cease his involvement with the group. Stephenson also formed a women's auxiliary group, to Evans' consternation. Evans and Stephenson each circulated allegations of sexual impropriety against each other. Stephenson was soon charged with the rape and murder of a young woman; he alleged that the charges were orchestrated by operatives loyal to Evans. In January 1921, Evans and a group of grand dragons expelled Clarke from the Klan. (Clarke had been critical of Evans' efforts to involve the Klan in politics. Evans also clashed with Henry Grady, a judge from North Carolina who served as a Grand Dragon in the Klan. Grady had been seen as a potential successor to Simmons, but Evans revoked his membership after he dismissed as unconstitutional a bill that would have banned the Knights of Columbus. After he left the Klan, Grady leaked his correspondence with Evans to local media. The internal Klan conflicts that Evans oversaw were widely reported in the mainstream media. The New York Times described the Klan leadership as "shrewd schemers".

Evans leading his Knights of the Klan on the parade held in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1926

National organizing

After the negative publicity that resulted from the murder of Simmons' lawyer, Evans moved the Klan's national headquarters from Atlanta to Washington D.C. Under Evans' leadership, the Klan initially grew. As leader of the Klan, Evans sought to stop members of the group from engaging in violence. He felt that such actions would make it thwart the organizations efforts to become politically influential. However, his efforts to elect Klansmen to public offices in 1924 saw limited success, although there was a strong showing of Klan-backed candidates in Indiana. At that time, the Klan had four million members. In 1925, the group also encountered difficulties after the murder conviction of D. C. Stephenson, a former Grand Wizard in the Klan, and corruption scandals of several Klan-friendly politicians. The negative publicity from these incidents led to a massive drop in Klan membership across the United States. In response to the troubles, Evans organized a large rally that year in Washington D.C. It was hoped that a large turnout would demonstrate the Klan's power. About 30,000 Klan members attended the event, making it the largest rally in the group's history. Evans was disappointed, however, as he had expected double the attendance at the event. Over the next several years the Klan's membership sharply declined.

Evans on the cover of Time, June 23, 1924

In June 1923, Evans formed a auxiliary group known as the Women of the Klu Klux Klan. He also formed Klan-themed groups for boys and girls.

He oversaw the largest parade of Klansmen ever. Some 40,000 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in August 1925. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4–5 million men. In September 1926, Evans tried to repeat the parade but many fewer marchers arrived compared to 1925. Evans was a Mason who boasted of having helped re-elect Calvin Coolidge as President of the United States, of having secured passage of strict anti-immigration laws and of having checked the ambitions of Roman Catholics and others intent on "perverting" the nation.

In 1928, Evans opposed Al Smith's candidacy for President of the U.S., and boldly claimed responsibility for his loss.

Political and legal issues

In 1934, Evans again encountered public controversy after it was revealed that he planned to travel to Louisiana to campaign against Huey Long, who was then planning on running for President in 1936. Long learned of Evans' plans, and condemned him in a speech at the Louisiana State Legislature. Long derided Evans as a "tooth-puller" and an "Imperial bastard" and warned of grave consequences should he follow through on his plans to publicly campaign in Louisiana. After Long's speech, Evans cancelled his plans to campaign in Louisiana.

Evans resigned his leadership of the Klan in June 1939. James A. Colescott became the next Imperial Wizard.

In 1942, he was put on trial for conspiracy, which ended in a mistrial.

Views

As leader of the Klan, Evans cast white supremacy and Protestantism as fundamental to American patriotism. He also attempted to appeal to white Americans by casting the Klan's platforms as science-based ideas. He argued against miscegenation and Catholic and Jewish immigration by arguing that they were threats to ensure genetic "good stock". Evans also realized the power of fear to attract new recruits to the Klan, and sought to cast their opponents as dangerous people. He argued that immigration had resulted in a stacked deck against white Americans.

Although Evans lived in parts of the Southern U.S. with very few Catholics, as Klan leader he vigorously criticized Catholics. Evans justified his opposition to Catholicism on the grounds that the Catholic Church sought to take control of the United States government. He argued that Catholics should be barred from immigration to the U.S. because their faith affected their "mental nature", to the extent that it caused widespread poverty in majority-Catholic countries. Evans argued that he was not an anti-Semite, but nevertheless maintained that Jews were more materialistic than other Americans and did not contribute to or assimilate into American culture. He cited Jewish involvement with the "motion picture industry", jazz, and "sex publications" as reasons to stop Jewish immigration. He also opposed immigrants on political grounds, arguing that they would promote ideologies such as anarchism and communism, and were threats to national unity. David Horowitz compares Evans' writings about the lack of morals in American society as akin to a jeremiad.

Evans bemoaned commercialism, and attributed it to the effects of liberalism. He admitted that many Klan members were of rural, uneducated backgrounds, but argued that power should be given to those he described as "the common people of America". He also focused on recruiting people who worked in media or education.

Evans also wrote about education in the United States. He cited the nation's illiteracy rate as evidence that American public schools were failing the country. He blamed low teacher salaries and lack of regulation of child labor as key obstacles to educational reform. The creation of the Department of Education was also backed by the Klan under Evans' leadership. It was hoped that improvements in public school would help "Americanize the foreigners" and thwart the recruitment efforts of Catholic schools.

Death

Evans died in September 1966 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Legacy and reception

William D. Jenkins maintains that Evans was "personally corrupt and more interested in money or power than a cause". Horowitz credits Evans with changing the Klan "from a confederation of local vigilantes into a centralized and powerful political movement". Under Evans' leadership, the Klan became more active in Indiana and Illinois, rather than solely focusing on the Southeastern United States.

More negative press, reports of Klan's violence and attention of politicians led to flight of many members. During the Great Depression of 1930s the membership shrunk further to an estimated 30,000. He left him the Klan much weakened, compared to the situation when he began his leadership.

Publications

• The Menace of Modern Immigration (1923)
• The Klan of Tomorrow (1924)
• Alienism in the Democracy (1927)
• The Rising Storm (1929)
• The Klan Fights for Americanism (1926).

Bibliography

• Blee, Kathleen M. (2009), Women of the Klan: racism and gender in the 1920s, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-25787-0
• Gitlin, Marty (2009), The Ku Klux Klan: a guide to an American subculture, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-0-313-36576-8
• Horowitz, David A. (1997), Beyond left & right: insurgency and the establishment, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 978-0-252-06568-2
• Jenkins, William D. (1990), Steel Valley Klan: The Ku Klux Klan in Ohio's Mahoning Valley, Kent State University Press, ISBN 978-0-87338-694-4
• Moore, Leonard Joseph (1997), Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928, University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-4627-8
• Newton, Michael (2010), The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: a history, McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-4653-7
• Pegram, Thomas R. (2011), One Hundred Percent American: The Rebirth and Decline of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-1-56663-711-4
• Sims, Patsy (1996), The Klan, University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 978-0-8131-0887-2
• Tucker, Todd (2004), Notre Dame vs. the Klan: how the Fighting Irish defeated the Ku Klux Klan, Loyola Press, ISBN 978-0-8294-1771-5
• William R. Snell (1987), Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins (ed.), From Civil War to civil rights—Alabama, 1860-1960: an anthology from the Alabama review, University of Alabama Press, ISBN 978-0-8173-0341-9
• Wade, Wyn Craig (1998), The fiery cross: the Ku Klux Klan in America, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-512357-9