How 1925 press dismissed the Klan at peak power

Judge magazine 1925

In September 1925, a month after some 30,000 hooded Klansmen paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in the largest Klan rally in Washington’s history, the satirical weekly Judge declared the Ku Klux Klan effectively dead. What remained, the editorial argued, was a fraternal dress-up order, no more threatening than the Shriners. The Klan was…