Ten Dollars to Hate

THE BOOK: Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan

PUBLISHED IN: 2017

THE AUTHOR: Patricia Bernstein

THE PUBLISHER: Texas A & M University Press

 SUMMARY:  Ten Dollars to Hate tells the story of the massive Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s—by far the most “successful” incarnation since its inception in the ashes of the Civil War—and the first prosecutor in the nation to successfully convict and jail Klan members. Dan Moody, a 29-year old Texas district attorney, demonstrated that Klansmen could face serious punishment for taking the law into their own hands—in this case, for the vicious flogging of a young World War I vet suspected of having illicit relations with a local widow.

The 1920s Klan numbered in the millions and attained widespread control of politics and law enforcement across the US, not just in the Deep South. Several states elected Klan-sponsored governors and US senators. Klansmen engaged in extreme violence against whites as well as blacks, promoted outrageous bigotry against various ethnic groups, and boycotted non-Klan businesses.

A few courageous public officials tried to make Klansmen pay for their crimes, notably after Klan assaults in California and Texas, and two horrendous torture murders in Louisiana. All failed until September 1923, when young Dan Moody convicted and won serious prison time for five Klansmen in a tense courtroom in Georgetown, Texas. Moody became a national sensation overnight and went on to become Texas’ youngest governor ever at the age of 33. He was even considered as a possible vice-presidential running mate for Franklin Roosevelt.

In Texas, the Klan quickly dwindled. The final blow to the entire national movement arrived in 1925 when the head of the Klan in Indiana was convicted of murder for brutally raping a young woman on a train who subsequently died. But the poisonous influence of the Klan continued long after its millions of members had melted away. For one thing, the Klan itself never disappeared and continued its cruel and murderous ways. The Klan also supported the draconian Johnson Reed Immigration Act of 1924, which drastically reduced immigration into the US, and played a role in closing off a possible refuge for European Jews during the Holocaust.

THE BACK STORY: After I published my book about the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco in 1916, a history professor asked me if I knew that the KKK had once had millions of members and was very powerful throughout the US. I think my first response was to laugh. How could a miserably disreputable organization like the Klan ever have had millions of members? And how could it ever have held sway outside the South?

With just a little research, I discovered that what the professor had told me was absolutely correct. I thought that if I, as an American Studies major and a voracious reader of history, had not known this, maybe others didn’t either and would find the story compelling.

WHY THIS TITLE? The title comes from a contemporary observer of the Klan who said, “Most of them paid their ten dollars to hate someone or something, and the moment they were initiated, they set about getting their money’s worth.”

WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? When I started working on the book, I thought it was just really interesting, forgotten history. But as I was finishing it, and observing the increase in hate crimes and hate speech and even the resurgence of Klan and neo-Nazi groups, I began to believe the story of the 1920s mass-movement Klan was essential, cautionary history. We don’t have to read or view The Plot Against America, The Man in the High Castle or It Can’t Happen Here to imagine what could happen in the US if a fascist, authoritarian, bigoted organization gained power. We have already seen how this would work, right here in the good ol’ USA, just about 100 years ago.

REVIEW COMMENTS:

Ten Dollars to Hate was a finalist in the Scholarly Book category of the Texas Institute of Letters awards and was named one of the 53 best books about Texas by the Austin American Statesman.

“Though Ten Dollars to Hate is Texas-centric, its consideration of the 1920s Klan at the national level makes it a source to compete with some of the best in the historiography of the subject. Bernstein…rises to a new level of historical narration and analysis in the arena on the back of what makes a good historian great: effective research…Bernstein’s offering is a must-read for those interested in Texas history and for those seeking to better understand the tenor of our own times.” — Kevin Portz, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

“The Second Ku Klux Klan needed stopping, and the brave, successful prosecution by Dan Moody was flawless. The heart-stopping narrative by Patricia Bernstein is a winner.” — Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center

“Ten Dollars to Hate is a history book with a powerful political and philosophical message.” — Manuel Flores, Corpus Christi Caller Times

“…Patricia Bernstein produces a vivid portrait of a real hero who fights and defeats Goliath and his gang. Perhaps more importantly, Bernstein paints a political-cultural diorama of Texas and America in the early twentieth century, explaining how bias, fear and hatred can become so virulent and ubiquitous.”  — Terence O’Rourke, Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society

AUTHOR PROFILE: Patricia Bernstein was born in El Paso and grew up in Dallas, but spent almost ten years in Massachusetts, graduating from Smith College with a Degree of Distinction in American Studies, and subsequently teaching English at Smith. She returned to Texas to Houston where she established her own public relations firm and also published dozens of articles in venues as varied as Texas Monthly, Cosmopolitan and The Smithsonian.

In 1993, Patricia published her first book with a division of Simon & Schuster, Having a Baby: Mothers Tell Their Stories, a collection of first-person childbirth accounts from the 1890s to the 1990s. The book was inspired by her own experiences, having babies over an 18-year period and noticing how much the childbirth process had changed.

Her second book was The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, published by Texas A & M University Press in 2005. This book was first conceived when Patricia came upon an infamous and horrifying photograph of the 1916 Waco lynching in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It is one of the few photographs of a lynching that was taken while it was in progress rather than after the fact. Patricia was surprised to discover that the story of this lynching had never been told in full and decided to take on the project.

AUTHOR COMMENTS:  I think I have already explained why Ten Dollars to Hate is so important especially now. I believe my book not only explains what life was like in a time when bigotry was ascendant in this country, but gives us some idea how to fight this great evil in our own time, using the same tools the good people of Texas used in the early 1920s: the law, community organization, and using publicity to turn an unwavering spotlight on a particular evil, forcing people to see it for what it is.

SAMPLE CHAPTER:

This is a long excerpt from Ten Dollars to Hate that was published in full, with photos from the book, in the Houston Chronicle:

Click to access Houston_Chronicle_021117.pdf

LOCAL OUTLETS: River Oaks Bookstore and Brazos Bookstore in Houston

WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Available on Amazon and from Texas A & M University Press

PRICE:

Hardcover – $34.95

Paperback – $27.95

CONTACT THE AUTHOR

patricia@patriciabernstein.com

@TenDollars2Hate