Not every American was enthralled with the Harlem Renaissance, bootleg liquor, flappers, and "jivin'" jazz music. In fact, blatant overt racism was rampant in the United States, spurring, especially in rural areas, a bloody backlash to the "New Negro" and other modern concepts.

Throughout the twenties, nearly half of the people in the country lived in rural areas and these citizens, disdainfully referred to as "boobs and yokels" by popular writers such as Sinclair Lewis, remained firmly in control of American politics. Prohibition was an excellent example: Of the 197 congressmen who voted for the Volstead Act, 129 were from small towns of less than ten thousand people. As Sinclair Lewis wrote, "National prohibition was a measure passed by village America against urban America."

The most obvious demonstration of rural racism and political power was in the explosive growth of the Ku Klux Klan throughout the decade. In 1920, Edward...