![]() Įvans left his dental practice so that he could dedicate all his time to the group. ![]() According to a contemporary report in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Johnson was a "Negro bus boy" who was being investigated by the police after he had been discovered in the room of a white woman guest at the hotel. The following month, Evans was involved in his first Klan vigilante activity when he took part in the flogging and branding of Alex Johnson on April 1, 1921. Christie, the founder of the Dallas Klan in 1920, was also a mason and met with Evans and a few of his fellow masons belonging to the Pentagon Lodge in March 1921, such as George K. Within the York Rite, Evans was a Past Master of Pentagon Lodge No. He was also a member of the Shriners, having joined the Hella Temple at Dallas in April 1911. Evans was raised to the Thirty-Second Degree at the Dallas Consistory in April 1913. Evans was involved in both York Rite (including the Masonic "Knights Templar") and Scottish Rite freemasonry. 760 in July 1907 under the Grand Lodge of Texas. He was initially raised in Dallas Lodge No. Leading up to his involvement in the Klan, Evans had a significant personal involvement in Freemasonry. Initial Klan activities Ĭonceived by its founders as a continuation of the Reconstruction-era Klan (controversially linked to General Nathan Bedford Forrest), the revived Ku Klux Klan had been established in Atlanta in 1915. Evans described himself as "the most average man in America." Of average height and somewhat overweight, Evans was well dressed, a skilled speaker, and very ambitious. Rumors later arose that his dental qualifications were "a bit shady." A Protestant, Evans attended a church belonging to the Disciples of Christ denomination. Įvans established a small, moderately successful dentistry practice in Downtown Dallas that provided inexpensive services. He married Ellen "Bama" Hill in 1923 they had three children together. ![]() Shortly after, he became a dentist, receiving his license in 1900. The son of Hiram Martin Evans, a judge, and his wife, Georgia Evans, the younger Evans graduated from Vanderbilt University. Historians credit Evans with refocusing the Klan on political activities and recruiting outside the South the Klan grew most in the Midwest and industrial cities but this political influence and membership gains he sought were transitory.Įvans was born in Ashland, Alabama, on September 26, 1881, and moved to Hubbard, Texas, with his family as a child. He argued that Jews formed a non-American culture and resisted assimilation although he denied being an anti-Semite. In addition to his white supremacist ideology, he fiercely condemned Catholicism, trade unionism, and communism, which he associated with recent immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. The next year, Evans faced accusations of involvement in a government corruption scandal in Georgia he was fined $15,000 after legal proceedings.Įvans sought to promote a form of nativist, Protestant nationalism. He was succeeded by his chief of staff, James A. He resigned his position with the Klan in 1939, after disavowing anti-Catholicism. In the 1930s, the Great Depression significantly decreased the Klan's income, prompting Evans to work for a construction company to supplement his pay. Evans's efforts notwithstanding, the Klan was buffeted by damaging publicity in the early 1920s, partially because of leadership struggles between Evans and his rivals, which hindered his political efforts. ![]() He moved the Klan's headquarters from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., and organized a march of 30,000 members, the largest march in the organization's history, on Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1923, Evans presided over the largest Klan gathering in history, attended by over 200,000, and endorsed several successful candidates in 1924 elections. Evans succeeded him and sought to transform the group into a political power.Įvans 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. 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. He operated a small, moderately successful practice in Texas until 1920, when he joined the Klan's Dallas chapter. A native of Alabama, Evans attended Vanderbilt University and became a dentist. Hiram Wesley Evans (September 26, 1881 – September 14, 1966) was the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, an American white supremacist group, from 1922 to his death in 1939.
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