Ten dollars to hate
Subtitle: the Texas man who fought the Klan
By: Patricia Bernstein
Series: Sam Rayburn series on rural life -- Number Twenty-Three; Sam Rayburn series on rural life -- no. 23.
Publisher: Texas A & M University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9781623495299
Subjects: Politics and government; Race relations; Trials, litigation; Lawyers; Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Biography; History
Other titles: 10 dollars to hate :
Description: Ten Dollars to Hate tells the story of the massive Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s--by far the most "successful" incarnation since its inception in the ashes of the Civil War--and the first prosecutor in the nation to successfully convict and jail Klan members. Dan Moody, a twenty-nine-year-old Texas district attorney, demonstrated that Klansmen could be punished for taking the law into their own hands--in this case, for the vicious flogging of a young World War I veteran. The 1920s Klan numbered in the millions and infiltrated politics and law enforcement across the United States, not just in the Deep South. Several states elected Klan-sponsored governors and US senators. Klansmen engaged in extreme violence against whites as well as blacks, promoted outrageous bigotry against various ethnic groups, and boycotted non-Klan businesses. A few courageous public officials tried to make Klansmen pay for their crimes, notably after Klan assaults in California and Texas and two torture-murders in Louisiana. All failed until September 1923 when Dan Moody convicted and won significant prison time for five Klansmen in a tense courtroom in Georgetown, Texas. Moody became a national sensation overnight and went on to become the youngest governor of Texas at the age of 33. The Georgetown cases were the beginning of the end for this iteration of the Klan. Two years later, the head of the Klan in Indiana was convicted of murdering a young woman. Membership dwindled almost as quickly as it had grown, but the Klan's poisonous influence lingered through the decades that followed. Ten Dollars to Hate explores this pivotal--and brutal--chapter in the history of America.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-354) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: "The worst beat-up man" : the whipping of R.W. Burleson; title: "A pious, prissy-walking, big man" : the awakening of the second Ku Klux Klan; title: "Every man who had the instincts of a cheat, a spy, a coward and a cad" : the Klan explodes; title: "Fearless as a lion and honest as God's sunshine" : Dan Moody; title: the early years; title: "So silent it seemed like death" : the Klan comes to Texas and expands beyond; title: "It just broke his heart" : beyond violence; title: the Klan's more insidious damage; title: "Boys, you'd better disband" : a few voices speak out; opposition grows; title: "Our boys who sleep" : opposition to the Klan intensifies; title: "Klan victims crushed by tractor" : the atrocities of Mer Rouge; title: efforts to punish the Klan; title: "One of the sharpest legal battles on record in this court" : the Klan on trial; title: Epilogue 1. "Texas has been fortunate to have such a man" : the aftermath for Dan Moody; title: Epilogue 2. "An affidavit to say you never belonged" : the aftermath for the Ku Klux Klan.