Hiram Wesley Evans

Uncommon card · No. 172972

Hiram Wesley Evans (September 26, 1881 – September 14, 1966) was an American white supremacist who was Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist hate group, from 1923 until his resignation in 1939. Trained as a dentist, Evans left that profession to pursue Klan leadership, ultimately becoming the organization's most influential figure during its peak period of national growth in the 1920s. A native of Alabama, Evans attended Vanderbilt University studying dentistry. He operated a small, moderately successful practice in Texas until 1920, when he joined the Klan's Dallas chapter. He quickly rose through the ranks and was part of a group that ousted William Joseph Simmons from the position of Imperial Wizard, the national leader, in November 1922. Evans succeeded him and sought to transform the group into a political power. Evans had led the kidnapping and torture of a black man while leader of the Dallas Klan, but as Imperial Wizard, he publicly discouraged vigilante actions...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Hiram_Wesley_Evans,_Imperial_Wizard_27471u_Crisco_edit.jpg: *Hiram_Wesley_Evans,_Imperial_Wizard_27471u_original.jpg: National Photo Company derivative work: Crisco 1492 (talk) derivative work: Crisc…, Public domain