page_title: Hiram Wesley Evans
section_title: Decline of Klan
hierarchical_section_title: Hiram Wesley Evans / Decline of Klan
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr. H.W. Evans, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, leading his Knights of the Klan in the parade held in Washington, D.C. * Date: September 13, 1926 * Licensing: No known restrictions on publication.
context_page_description: Hiram Wesley Evans was the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, an American white supremacist group, from 1922 to 1939. A native of Alabama, Evans attended Vanderbilt University and became a dentist. He operated a small, moderately successful practice in Texas until 1920, when he joined the Klan's Dallas chapter. He quickly rose through the ranks and was part of a group that ousted William Joseph Simmons from the position of Imperial Wizard, the national leader, in November 1922. Evans succeeded him and sought to transform the group into a political power.
  Evans had led the kidnapping and torture of a black man while leader of the Dallas Klan, but as Imperial Wizard, he publicly discouraged vigilante actions for fear that they would hinder his attempts to gain political influence. In 1923, Evans presided over the largest Klan gathering in history, attended by over 200,000, and endorsed several successful candidates in 1924 elections. He moved the Klan's headquarters from Atlanta to Washington, DC, and organized a march of 30,000 members, the largest march in the organization's history, on Pennsylvania Avenue.
context_section_description: Although the Klan had four million members in 1924, the group's membership quickly shrank after Stephenson's widely publicized trial. The Indiana Klan lost more than 90% of its members by the end of the proceedings, and there were mass resignations in other states as well. Other scandals emerged, further damaging Klan enrollment. Although the Colorado Klan had seen strong growth, Evans asked the Grand Dragon, John Galen Locke, to resign after local corruption scandals in 1925 involving Klan members who served as police. Evans' request was poorly received by Colorado Klan members, and local enrollment subsequently plummeted.
  He encountered difficulties with Klan leaders in Pennsylvania in 1926 after many of them concluded that he was too autocratic. In response, he revoked the charters of several local Klan groups and removed John Strayer, a state legislator, from his position of authority in the Klan. When the Pennsylvania groups continued to refer to themselves as the Ku Klux Klan, Evans sued them in federal court. Pennsylvania Klan members launched a detailed legal offensive against Evans and other Klan leaders, alleging misdeeds, including participation in kidnappings and lynchings. Evans' suit was unsuccessful and, as many newspapers reported the scandalous allegations aired in court, the Pennsylvania Klan suffered a serious decline in membership and support.
  In response to the decline in Klan membership, Evans organized a Klan parade in 1926 in Washington, D.C., hoping that a large turnout would demonstrate the Klan's power. About 30,000 members attended, making it the largest parade in the group's history. Evans was disappointed, however, as he had expected twice as many people, and the march did not stanch the drop in membership. That year, Evans attempted to rally U.S. senators to vote against a bill supporting a proposed world court. He was unsuccessful, however, and several Klan-backed senators followed Coolidge and supported the bill. In 1928, Evans opposed the candidacy of the New York Democratic governor Al Smith for president and emphasized the threat of Smith's Catholic faith. After the Republican Herbert Hoover won the election, Evans boldly claimed responsibility for Smith's loss, but most of the solidly-Democratic South had rejected Hoover and voted for Smith against the Klan's advice.
  In 1929, Evans acknowledged that membership levels had declined but inaccurately predicted a dramatic turnaround would soon occur. The loss of members resulted in a Klan that was a skeleton of its former self. Historians have attributed this loss of membership to ineptness and hypocrisy on the part of Klan leadership. McVeigh argues that the Klan's inability to form alliances with other political groups led to the sharp loss of political power and solidarity within the group.
caption: Evans leading his Knights of the Klan on the parade held in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1926
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