Critical Race Theory and Forgotten History: Ku Klux Klan Holds Church Revivals Across Alabama to Increase Faltering Membership

Ad in the Evergreen Courant, April 4, 1927

April 7, 1927, Evergreen, Alabama — On this night the Ku Klux Klan held another of their “Revivals” that have been going on this year in other parts of Alabama. These gatherings were open to the public in large tents on the grounds of various churches. Tonight’s was on the grounds of the Evergreen Presbyterian Church.

The gatherings were not announced as recruitment for the Klan but were. Flyers announced that the gathering was for families and especially called for women to come and hear the speakers and lessons.

These lessons included “What is the Ku Klux Klan” and “The 5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and were taught by Dr. I. W. Stout, the Imperial Lecturer of the Ku Klux Klan, who did most of the speaking for each night of the revival.

The revival in Evergreen became one of the largest of 1927 and ran for nine days. Each night Stout spoke about issues he felt were facing the United States, The South, Negroes, Protestants and the Klan. He tried to impress up on the crowds, reported to be quite large by the Evergreen Courant, that Negroes were loyal to Klan was perhaps a bit shocking to the Negro if it was heard by one. This was not a new theme though as the 1920s Klan tried to project that they were good for the Negro by helping men find good wives and become married men and not animals.

Stout spoke against the Roman church as an evangelist first his passion was for the Protestant version of faith and that “Papists” held greater belief in their “Roman King” and the saints than they did Christ. Stout also spoke of no divisions within Protestantism, even if there were different denominations.

Stout’s strongest sermon was on the “5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Which was a misleading title for his sermon and pamphlet but was consistent with the religious teaching of the 1920s Klan. This sermon taught that the White Horse in the Book of Revelations was the Klan. They were honest and true and fighting for righteousness. The projection was that the Klan was the only defender of the Christian faith, the flag, and the bible. The White Horse’s symbol was fire, as was the Klan’s.

The revival was hoped to reverse the losses the Klan had from their national apex of influence in the early 1920s before the stories of corruption and murder began costing them members. The message had become even more strongly Christian and anti-immigrant as many Eastern Europeans had come in a second strong wave following the German loss in World War One and the economic depression that had already begun in Europe.

Still, the corruption was a difficult thing to deny even in Alabama, where Governor Bibb Graves was a former member. For most of early 1927, the Birmingham Police Department was involved in a bitter law suit from a former sergeant who had been forced off the force because of his Klan membership. There was also a nasty criminal libel case against the Age-Herald Newspaper in Birmingham. Governor Graves wasn’t a known member of the Klan until he resigned from the group, and then he and Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black became known as the “Goldust Twins” in a prerogative manner by the Klan for using the political power of the Klan in the early 20s but abandoning them when success came.

As a secret organization the Klan never revealed their numbers but did say the revival increased their membership. There was no way to prove this even if the conservative southern newspapers had found a reason to do so I. W Stout left Alabama that May for the Ozarks, and later in 1927, he went to Wichita and was elected to the local school board. He died in 1952 at age 79.