AUSTIN, Texas — Texas in the early 1920s was the scene of public Ku Klux Klan activity in virtually every large city as its members held parades and rallies across the state.
The Klan had thousands of members in Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Even the annual Texas State Fair in Dallas held events known as "Klan Days."
Back then, former Texas Gov. Jim Ferguson was a critic of the KKK, and after he resigned from office, his wife, Mariam – popularly known as “Ma” Ferguson – ran for governor in 1924 and won.
She continued the fight against the Klan, championing a new law that banned the wearing of face masks in public in direct response to Klan members who wore hoods and robes. And though it was later overturned by the courts, historians say the law was an important step toward discrediting the KKK.
Eventually, Klan membership numbers dropped and, by 1927, Texas Gov. Dan Moody declared that “the Klan in Texas is dead.”
Gov. Ferguson would narrowly win re-election in 1932. But because the lawmen who were members of the Texas Rangers had supported her opponent in the election, she fired all of them and cut the agency’s budget.
As a result, Texas became a safe hideout for the many Depression-era gangsters, such as Bonnie and Clyde, “Pretty Boy” Floyd and “Machine Gun” Kelly.
The lawlessness got so bad that the legislature was forced to create a new state law enforcement agency that combined the state highway patrol with the Texas Rangers. Today we know it as the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Ma Ferguson ran for governor again in 1940 but lost. She retired to Austin and lived there until her death in 1961.
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