Jim Crow Revivalism Meets the Klan

Abstract

Racial segregation and Jim Crow affected nearly every aspect of American life in the 1920s, including revivalism. When southern audiences demanded segregated tabernacle meetings, Billy Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver tried to ameliorate the situation by meeting with black ministers and organizing choirs from black churches. But despite Sunday and Rodeheaver’s fame for preaching against every form of sin, they were noticeably silent on racism. Their policy of welcoming every group to the tabernacle sometimes included delegations from the Ku Klux Klan, who gave Sunday donations that he never refused. Despite Rodeheaver’s genuinely harmonious relationships with African Americans and his lifelong promotion of the spirituals, his far-flung business interests created awkward contradictions. His Chicago studio made custom recordings for the Klan, including a parody of Rodeheaver’s “The Old Rugged Cross” with KKK lyrics, “The Bright Fiery Cross.”