One of the main "protectors" of white American civilization was
the Ku Klux Klan. The original Klan had thrived in the deep South
immediately after the Civil War. In 1915, it underwent a revival.
Inspired by the migration of Afro-Americans from the South into
the North and West as well as by the gigantic immigration of
South and East Europeans, the Klan, beginning in Georgia, rapidly
spread beyond the South into a national movement. Confidently
believing in the superiority of its own democratic way of life,
America had thrown open its doors to the hungry and oppressed of
Europe. American society took pride in being the world's great
melting pot. However, many old-stock Americans did not view their
society as being a cultural amalgam, and they expected that the
new European immigrants, as well as the Afro-Americans, would
want to be assimilated into their society as it already existed.
When they promised the newcomers freedom and equality, many of
these Americans were offering these benefits expecting that the
immigrants would adjust and conform. They did not believe that
the values and life style of foreigners were equal to their own,
and therefore they did not want to grant the outsiders the
freedom to "pollute" American society with alien cultures.
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