Hiram Wesley Evans
Hiram Wesley Evans | |
|---|---|
 Evans Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1926 | |
| Born | September 26, 1881 |
| Died | September 14, 1966 (aged 84) |
| 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.[1]
Early life and education
Evans was born in Ashland, Alabama[2] on September 26, 1881. As a young man, his family moved to Hubbard, Texas.[3] He attended Vanderbilt University and became a dentist,[2] receiving his licence in 1900.[3] He established a small[4] dentistry practice in Dallas, Texas. His practice was moderately successful;[2] it provided inexpensive dental services.[5] He described himself as "the most average man in America".[4] He was average height and somewhat overweight,[4] but was well dressed, a skilled speaker, and very ambitious.[6]
Klan
Evans joined the Klu Klux Klan in 1920. That year, he left his dental practice of work for the group full time.[3] (He worked for the second Klan, which was established by failed minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.) In 1921,[3] 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. 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.[7] The next year, he was appointed the "great titan" (an executive role) of the "Realm of Texas".[3] In Texas, Evans led a membership drive. As the Texas drive was a success, he was assigned responsibility of the national membership drive.[8] The Klan headquarters made him the "Imperial kligrapp", a role similar to national secretary. In this role, Evans condemned vigilante activity because he feared it would attract government scrutiny and hinder potential Klan-backed political campaigns.[7]
William Joseph Simmons led the Klan until the early 1920s. Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clarke orchestrated a reorganization of the Klan that removed Simmons' practical control of the group. Evans, an ally of Tyler and Clarke, was given control of the group. At a November 1922 "Klovokation" in Atlanta, Georgia, Evans was formally ensconced as leader of the Klan.[9] 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.[8] Evans soon dismissed Tyler and Clarke from their roles in the group, and, against Simmons' wishes, refused to reinstate them.[10] As leader of the Klan, Evans appointed D. C. Stephenson as the kleagle[11] and Grand Dragon[12] of Indiana.[11] Their relationship soon became acrimonious:[13] Stephenson clashed with Evans over the amount of membership fees that he would receive as leader of the Indiana Klan[12] and Evans' refusal to help fund the purchase of a school in Indiana.[14] Evans removed Stephenson from his position in early 1924.[13] Stephenson had been a skilled campaigner and demagogue,[11] and he remained a well-known advocate of the Klan's platforms after being relieved of his official role in the group.[13] The Klan saw significant electoral success in that state in 1924. After this success, Stephenson showed further disdain for Evans and the Klan leadership.[11] 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.[14]
Stephenson and Simmons each attempted to create women's organizations to serve as auxiliary groups to the Klan. In response, 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, prompting Simmons to resign from the Klan. Evans and Stephenson each circulated allegations of sexual impropriety against each other.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17]
Under Evans' leadership, the Klan initially grew.[10] 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.[18] 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.[18]
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.[19][20] At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4–5 million men.[21][22] 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.[19]
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.[5]
In 1942, he was put on trial for conspiracy, which ended in a mistrial.[23]
Views
Evans attempted to appeal to white Americans by casting the Klan's platforms as science-based ideas, rather than moral concepts. He publicly justified his opposition to miscegenation and Catholic and Jewish immigration by arguing that it was necessary to ensure genetic "good stock".[10] He also justified his opposition to Catholicism on the grounds that the Catholic church sought to take control of the United States government.[24] 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.[25] He also feared that immigrants would promote ideologies such as anarchism and communism in the United States.[26]
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.[27] 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.[28]
Death
Evans died in September 1966 in Atlanta, Georgia.[3]
Legacy and reception
William D. Jenkins maintains that Evans was "personally corrupt and more interested in money or power than a cause".[29]
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.[22] Evans was succeeded as the Imperial Wizard by James A. Colescott. 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).
References
- ^ "Klan Makes Simmons Emperor For Life. Dr. H.W. Evans of Dallas Is the New Imperial Wizard. Clarke Imperial Giant". The New York Times. November 29, 1922.
Colonel William Joseph Simmons, formerly Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was elected "Emperor" for life, a new position in the order, at today's session of the Imperial Klanvokation here.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b c Snell 1987, p. 312.
- ^ a b c d e f Lisa C. Maxwell. "Hiram Wesley Evans". The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
- ^ a b c Pegram 2011, p. 17.
- ^ a b Sims 1996, p. 3.
- ^ Pegram 2011, p. 18.
- ^ a b Jenkins 1990, p. 7.
- ^ a b Moore 1997, p. 18.
- ^ Blee 2009, p. 22.
- ^ a b c Blee 2009, p. 23.
- ^ a b c d Blee 2009, p. 94.
- ^ a b Moore 1997, p. 19.
- ^ a b c Moore 1997, p. 46.
- ^ a b Moore 1997, p. 93.
- ^ Blee 2009, p. 27.
- ^ Blee 2009, p. 95.
- ^ Sims 1996, p. 35.
- ^ a b Gitlin 2009, p. 17. Cite error: The named reference "g17" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b A special report prepared by the Southern Poverty Law Center. "A Hundred Years of Terror". Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
- ^ "Procession". Time (magazine). August 17, 1925.
Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard, resplendent in purple and gold, smiled and bowed hat in hand as he proudly led some 30,000 to 50,000 Klansmen and Klanswomen down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury.
- ^ According to the 1920 census, the population of white males 18 years and older was about 31 million, but many of these men would have been ineligible for membership because they were immigrants, Jews, or Roman Catholics.
- ^ a b "The Ku Klux Klan, a brief biography". The African American Registry.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Mistrial Is Declared In Evans Conspiracy Case". Christian Science Monitor. June 13, 1942. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
A mistrial was declared yesterday in the case of Hiram Wesley Evans, former national chief of the Ku Klux Klan, who was charged with conspiracy to defraud the State of Georgia.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Moore 1997, p. 20.
- ^ Moore 1997, p. 20–21.
- ^ Moore 1997, p. 21.
- ^ Moore 1997, p. 36.
- ^ Moore 1997, p. 37.
- ^ Jenkins 1990, p. vii.
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
- 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
- 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
- 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