Quiz for Thinking Like a Historian:
Who Joined the Ku Klux Klan

Question

1. What does the image in source 1 suggest about how Ku Klux Klan members in small-town America in the 1920s saw themselves and their group?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. This image of a Klan wedding suggests that participants were proud to publically display their membership.
Incorrect. The answer is b. This image of a Klan wedding suggests that participants were proud to publically display their membership.

Question

2. Based on the evidence presented in this collection of sources, which events made the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) particularly appealing to the majority of Americans who joined the group in the 1920s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Although the KKK certainly sponsored marches, protests, and acts of violence, much of its work in the 1920s took place in small towns and consisted of community activities designed to attract men, women, and children.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Although the KKK certainly sponsored marches, protests, and acts of violence, much of its work in the 1920s took place in small towns and consisted of community activities designed to attract men, women, and children.

Question

3. According to the data presented in source 5, what could a historian glean about why semiskilled and unskilled workers were underrepresented in the KKK in Buffalo, New York, in 1924?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. Semiskilled workers made up 16 percent of the KKK in Buffalo but 30 percent of the city’s population. Unskilled laborers made up 0.5 percent of the KKK membership and 14.5 percent of Buffalo’s population. From this, a historian would likely glean that many of the city’s semiskilled workers and nearly all of its unskilled workers were probably blacks and immigrants who were the targets of the KKK’s racist and nativist rhetoric and political agenda.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Semiskilled workers made up 16 percent of the KKK in Buffalo but 30 percent of the city’s population. Unskilled laborers made up 0.5 percent of the KKK membership and 14.5 percent of Buffalo’s population. From this, a historian would likely glean that many of the city’s semiskilled workers and nearly all of its unskilled workers were probably blacks and immigrants who were the targets of the KKK’s racist and nativist rhetoric and political agenda.

Question

4. For which of the following reasons would a historian question the veracity of the stories the women in source 6 told about their experiences with the Klan in the 1920s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. By the 1980s, the KKK was viewed with disapproval by most Americans. Because these informants were telling their stories in the 1980s, it is likely that they minimized the group’s racism and nativism in order to make their involvement in the group seem less old-fashioned and shameful.
Incorrect. The answer is b. By the 1980s, the KKK was viewed with disapproval by most Americans. Because these informants were telling their stories in the 1980s, it is likely that they minimized the group’s racism and nativism in order to make their involvement in the group seem less old-fashioned and shameful.

Question

5. In his 1923 editorial (source 7), Hiram Wesley Evans focused his critique on the threats posed by which of the following phenomena?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. In this editorial, Evans focuses primarily on the ways that industrialists’ desire for cheap labor spurred immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, caused black migration from South to North, and “vastly increased our illiteracy, vitally lowered the health level and visibly menaced America by inheritable mental and moral deficiencies.”
Incorrect. The answer is b. In this editorial, Evans focuses primarily on the ways that industrialists’ desire for cheap labor spurred immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, caused black migration from South to North, and “vastly increased our illiteracy, vitally lowered the health level and visibly menaced America by inheritable mental and moral deficiencies.”

Question

6. A historian would characterize the KKK’s 1925 “Program for America” (source 8) as a political platform based on the opposition to which of the following phenomena?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. A historian would characterize this platform as one based on opposition to the emergence of the new American culture in diverse urban and industrial areas.
Incorrect. The answer is b. A historian would characterize this platform as one based on opposition to the emergence of the new American culture in diverse urban and industrial areas.