[3] In the aftermath of World War I mob violence directed by the Ku Klux Klan and other white vigilantes against blacks, Catholics and women they accused of transgressing the social order was on the increase.

Hagan was faced with two lynching attempts in 1919 alone, after which he wrote in the Palatka Daily News:[1] I want to say to the people of Palatka that there will be no repetition of this affair, and any effort on the part of outsiders to come here and create disorder and engender ill-feeling between the two races will be met with force sufficient to stop it where it begins … We have determined to see that the colored people of this town and county get the protection to which they are entitled, and that no hoodlums can come here and cowardly attack old and innocent colored men without having justice meted out to them for their offense.He was re-elected with a large plurality over three opponents in June 1920,[3] but racist mob violence only continued to increase.

Hagan notified Sheriff Ramsey in Alachua County of the incident, leading to the arrest of eighteen men on their way back to Gainesville.

Hagan was praised by state legislators and the press for his actions in stopping the attack, but of the eighteen culprits arrested only nine made it to trial and they were swiftly acquitted by the white jury.

[1] Announcing his campaign for re-election on March 7, 1924, Hagan stated his position on the Ku Klux Klan:[4] I am not, and would not be a member, however, of any organization which appears to differ in policies from those who do not belong to its ranks, for the reason that as Sheriff I believe it to be my duty to be perfectly free to serve all of the people and not an organized part of them; I wish to feel perfectly free to perform my duties without obligations to any order, however high the ideals of such order may be.

The KKK would reach the peak of its local influence two years later, but by 1928 public opinion was shifting and Sheriff Hagan was voted back into office after a four-year absence.