Un Lady Like

“More children from the fit, less from the unfit—that is the chief aim of birth control” –Margaret Sanger (Pic. Below)

As the above quote demonstrates, Margaret Sanger, founder of the American Birth Control League, was as racist as a White woman of the 1920s could be. If you are a contemporary feminist, it can be downright painful to acknowledge the diehard bigotry of proto-feminists in the late 19^th-early 20^th century. It’s agonizing to think that glorious contraceptives were once the tools of self-righteous eugenicists.

And the intolerance didn’t end with birth control supporters. Even Alice Paul (you know, Hilary Swank in Iron Jawed Angels, what with the hunger strikes and the tales of pissing in a public officials' shoes) advocated using the (White) woman’s vote as a counterbalance to all those Blacks and Foreigners. [See Paula Giddings' When and Where I Enter]

Humbling historical facts, to be sure.

I only bring all this up so I can segue into a discussion of Elizabeth Tyler, the first female member of the KKK. Officially, she was made the Klu Klux Klan Grand Chief of Staff of the Women’s Department in 1921. This was right around the time that women got the vote, something “Grand Emperor” Joseph Simmons seemed to approve of: “the splendid women of our great National Commonwealth ...are now citizens with us in directing the affairs of the nation.” So, you know, Bessie Tyler=Trailblazer.

She succeeded in this role for a number of years, despite a scandal in which she was arrested “at midnight in [her] sleeping garments, in a notorious underworld resort.” To put it less delicately, she was caught sexing it up, while, one assumes, sucking down a bottle of fine whiskey. During Prohibition. Oh, and, at the time, she was a prominent figure of the Anti-Saloon League, a woman’s group dedicated to eradicating booze and (probably) sex.

Once arrested, her and her partner in crime (also of the KKK) gave the police false names. Such behavior was obviously quite anathema to the way “splendid women” of the “Commonwealth” were supposed to behave. Allegedly, the high ranking members of the Klan helped bury the case by removing the court documents and arrest record. That is, until a journalist from The New York World exposed the cover up.

In sum, Tyler was First Lady of the KKK, a supposed women’s rights activist, an Anti-Saloonist, a degenerate alcoholic flapper, a convicted felon, involved in an unnerving conspiracy, and the subject of a journalistic investigation. She was a deplorable human being. And yet, her f-ed up convictions and contradictions make her a solidly entertaining historical character. She’s like the Sarah Palin of her day, if Sarah Palin smoked a joint, lied to the police, and openly endorsed hate crimes.