ABSTRACT
The fifth chapter examines the available evidence regarding the proportion of Klansmen who also belonged to the Freemasons. While the Ku Klux Klan’s leaders often boasted of the large numbers of Freemasons within their organization in order to portray their fraternity as respectable and exclusive, commentators have struggled to evaluate the exact proportion of dual membership. Assessing the multiple claims made by Klansmen and Freemasons from across America and contrasting these figures with the more robust evidence from statistical studies carried out by historians in Colorado, Montana, Kansas, Michigan and Texas, this chapter presents a thorough evaluation to estimate the number of Freemasons within the Second Invisible Empire. Furthermore, the chapter analyses the effect that this intrusion had on local lodges and breaks down how individual members of Freemasonry perceived the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s America.
