M. William Lutholtz
Grand Dragon: D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana
West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1991
The Second Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1915 by William J. Simmons, began as a small group of no more than 15 friends. Within a decade, it spread throughout the country and grew to include up to five million members. At its height, it was, as one journalist put it at the time, “the most vigorous, active and effective organization in American life.” (more…)