KKK Auxiliaries - Women

Women

The Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) was open to white, Protestant, American born women “of good character” over the age of 18 who owed no allegiance to any foreign government or sect, such as Catholicism, Socialism, Communism, and so on. It is estimated to have had over one million members, a quarter of which were in Indiana. In other states, women made up almost half of the total Klan membership, while in additional states they remained an extreme minority. These women were drawn to the Klan through the insistence of the KKK who ensured that due to their membership, white Protestant women would gain women’s rights.

The initiation of a women’s auxiliary of the Klan however, was spurred as the result of an earlier group of women who called themselves the Ladies of the Invisible Empire (LOTIE). The chapters were initiated throughout the country, with the Portland, Oregon chapter initiating more than one thousand women into their order in a single month in 1922. Initiation into these chapters required the women to detail their family, religious, and political background, as well as swear allegiance to Christianity and the principles of “pure Americanism”. Unsure about the competition that the LOTIE and other women’s organizations would create, the Klan promoted the idea of a single women’s auxiliary, now known as the formal women of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan noted that by including women in their political agenda, women’s suffrage could not only be safeguarded but could also develop other women’s legal rights, all while working to preserve white Protestant supremacy. The women of the Klan were to be helpmates to the Klansmen and their 100% American mission. Not all Klansmen however, were in favor of officially including women within their group. Some felt that allowing women to be involved in the political realm, including allowing them to vote would foster masculine boldness and independence, which would depreciate the decency of womanhood. From this, women felt alienated and as early as 1922, wrote letters to the editor of the Fiery Cross protesting their exclusion from the Klan. The wives of Klan members were not always happy staying at home with the children, and desired to be involved in the new white Protestant movement that their husbands were involved in.

Women were recruited into the WKKK by hired female kleagles who used the same campaigning methods as their male kleagle counterparts. Recruitment was conducted through social contacts of personal, family, and work connections as well as through existing organizations. Open meetings were also held to the politically inactive and women currently not in Klan families. In four short months, the WKKK had successfully doubled its previous membership, now bringing the total to 250,000 women. By November 1923, thirty-six states included chapters of the women of the KKK.