Ladies Behind the Hoods: Women of the Ku Klux Klan and the Appropriation of Feminism (Nancy Benz) - a podcast by Rob Mellon

Nancy Benz discusses her research into the Women Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) that developed in the early 20th century.  She explains the formation and early history of the KKK and the group's revival after the release of Thomas Dixon's The Clansman and D.W. Griffith's famous film The Birth of a Nation.  Benz talks about how the Progressive Era played a role in increasing the profile of women in the KKK.  She goes into the history of William Joseph Simmons in Georgia and how he used publicity experts Edward Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler who became known as the "Empress of the KKK".  The discussion covers the expansion of the Klan in the 1920s into a national-level organization with new targets such as Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.  She delves into the expanded role of the WKKK and their importance to the movement.  She explains the concept of 100% Americanism in the growth of the organization.  The conversation goes into the Klan in the South that developed in the 1960s and the societal changes that brought countless rural whites to the KKK during the Civil Rights Movement.  

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Zon Belgian-Style Witbeir Ale (Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO)

MUSIC:  Bones Fork

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