Notre Dame Vs. the Klan

Todd Tucker is a 1990 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and is the author of The Great Starvation Experiment and Atomic America.

"Todd Tucker's book is an easy and enjoyable read. And the author has a great story to tell." —American Catholic Studies"An impressively researched work of history, Notre Dame vs. the Klan is an extraordinary read and this new edition is especially timely with the current rise of white supremacists (including Neo-Nazis and the KKK) in our highly polarized political climate." —Midwest Book Review"Tucker examines in some detail the events of May 17–19, 1924, when the Ku Klux Klan rallied in South Bend, Indiana, and came to blows with the "Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame. Tucker provides appropriate context for readers unaware of U.S. history at the turn of the last century: virulent anti-Catholicism, xenophobia, resurgence of the Klan after 1915. The work provides a useful, accessible case study for general readers and undergraduates about the ethnoreligious tensions permeating U.S. society at the time." —Choice"The university survived the Klan's attack and the anti-Catholicism of the period, as Tucker narrates, to take its place as one of America's leading institutions of higher learning. This uplifting story gives hope in our own challenging times." —The Compass"In Notre Dame vs the Klan, Notre Dame alumn Todd Tucker examines Catholic Americanism at a particularly important historical moment—the early part of the last century, when Catholics themselves were divided over how much to assimilate. . . . In the early 1920s, the Klan began holding parades through the centers of Midwestern cities with large Catholic concentrations. It was almost inevitable that they would come to South Bend, a capital of American Catholicism. Seeing the burning crosses in their own town finally made the young men of Notre Dame stand up and take notice." —The American Enterprise

• AcknowledgmentsPrologueThe Antagonists1. Fr. Sorin and the Birth of Notre Dame2. The Reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan3. Notre Dame and the Indiana Klan4. The Klan Takes Over Indiana5. In the Crosshairs of the Klan6. D. C. Stephenson's Grab for Power7. The Rally and the Riot8. The Ambush9. The Ascent of Notre Dame10. The Ruin of D. C. Stephenson and the11. Collapse of the Klan12. The AftermathEpilogue