On the evening of November 27, 1920, some two hundred mysterious figures threaded their way behind a torch bearer through the downtown streets of Houston. A hush fell over thousands of onlookers as the hooded figures silently “passed like specters from another world.” The second Ku Klux Klan had arrived.
![The KKK in Houston and Harris County, 1920-1925 This pictured appeared in the 1922 Rice Institute yearbook. The author found no mention of Klan presence in the Student Association minutes for 1921-1922, although mention of it was found in the humor section of the same volume spoofing "Colonel Mayfield's Weekly." Photo courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.](https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/KKK-adjusted-100x100.jpg)