The resurrected Ku Klux Klan launched a wave of terror and intimidation on Jan. 30, 1921, with the whipping, tarring and feathering of a Houston lawyer for the “crime” of defending blacks and petty criminals.
Coming out of mothballs in October 1920, the Klan spread like wildfire across the Lone Star State. More than 200,000 Texans — roughly one out of every dozen white adults — were suckers for the secret order’s sales pitch, that exploited their nostalgic reverence for the old Confederacy and vague desire for a moral housecleaning.
In pledging allegiance to the KKK, most members were willing to tolerate a certain amount of violence to keep blacks in line. What they did not count on was that their white friends and neighbors would be the nightriders’ favorite targets…