.
Sworn to secrecy, its members wore white robes and masks and adopted .
the burning cross as their symbol. The Klan members seemed to be most .
active during election campaigns, when they would either scare people .
into voting for their candidate or get rid their opponents entirely. .
They were noticed for their horrible acts of violence that they called .
nighttime rides. These attacks included murder, rape, beatings, and .
warnings and were designed to overcome Republican majorities in the .
south. Due to the fear of a race war, state officials were unable to .
suppress the violence. Law enforcement officials were Klan members .
themselves and even when the law officers were legitimate, Klan .
members also sat on juries where criminally accused members were often .
acquitted.(Harrel,47-52).
The Klan was popularized through literature and film in the .
early nineteenth century. Its influence spread with help from Thomas.
B. Dixon's The Clansman (1905) and D.W. Griffith's movie The Birth of .
a Nation (1915). (Harrel, 85) Harrel felt that this eventually "led to .
the establishment of a new Ku Klux Klan, which spread throughout the .
nation and preached anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-black, .
antisocialist, and anti-labor-union Americanism" (87). Harrel stated .
that the Klan's two million adherents exercised great political power, .
"often taking the law into their own hands, mobs of white-robed, .
white-hooded men punished immorality and terrorized un-American .
elements" (88).
The Klan erupted as a secret organization employing its .
secrecy to mislead the public and inquiring newspapers. Therefore,.
they were labeled the invisible empire. Harrel urges the idea that in .
certain regions the Klan did not have enough influence to become .
politically triumphant (307). .
"But where it was strong the Invisible Empire elected scores.
of local officials, state legislators, a few governors, several.
national representatives, including Earle B.
