The 1924 undefeated University of Notre Dame football team beat the best opponents from all regions of the country and won the Rose Bowl to claim a consensus national championship. Off the field, Notre Dame battled an intense reactionary nativist political environment that, in its most extreme manifestation, birthed the second version of the Ku Klux Klan. The “100% Americanism” political movement of the Klan and of fellow nativist sympathizers celebrated white, male, Protestant citizenship and denigrated or attacked groups—including Catholics and immigrants—who challenged their restrictive understanding of American identity.
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