mericans who violated the old ideas of black inferiority.
             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
             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
             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
             "But where it was strong the Invisible Empire elected scores
             of local officials, state legislators, a few governors, several
             ...