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Ku Klux Klan Briefs from the West Schuylkill Herald
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on June 1, 2018
The post today includes a number of brief articles or news reports on the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, most too short for a post of their own. All of the following are from the West Schuylkill Herald, Tower City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania:
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 15 September 1922:
General Pershing in Chicago assails Ku Klux Klan as threatening to undermine the government and civilization.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 14 September 1923:
Ku Klux Klan plans 600 night demonstrations in Pennsylvania.
Note: No further information was given in the brief.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 26 September 1924:
The order of the Ku Klux Klan held an open air meeting here [Hegins & Valley View] recently and expects to hold an initiation of new members in Spring Glen on September 27.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 5 December 1924:
CARD OF THANKS
We use this means of expressing our thanks to the Women of the Ku Klux Klan who so kindly remembered us on Thanksgiving Eve.
Mrs. Mae Hand and Children, Muir, Pennsylvania.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 1 October 1926:
Several thousands delegates of the Ku Klux Klan met in Washington for the annual convention, paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in robes, but without masks, declared themselves against the World Court and also against Gov. Al Smith as a Presidential candidate, and re-elected Hiram W. Evans as imperial wizard. Evans also said the Klan would wage war against alienism, bolshevism, Catholicism, modification of the Eighteenth Amendment and European intervention in Mexican internal affairs. Resolutions were adopted demanding strict adherence to a “hands-off” policy toward Mexico’s church squabble and expressing the order’s sympathy with the Calles government in its “efforts to free the people from stultifying foreign influence and to popularize the education of the masses.”
Every delegate to the convention took a solemn oath to attend some Protestant church every Sunday in the the year, unless prevented by illness or some other emergency; and a similar oath is to be administered by the delegates to every member of the Klan.
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From the West Schuylkill Herald, 2 March 1928:
Subjected to determined attacks, direct and indirect, in many localities, the Ku Klux Klan has dropped its mask and changed its name. An edict issued by Hiram W. Evans of Atlanta, Imperial Wizard, read:
“After midnight 22 February it will be unlawful for any klansman to wear any mask or visor as part of his regalia, and any klansman who shall be unavoidably absent from the meeting to be held 22 February shall as soon thereafter as possible attend a regular meeting and there become a member of the Knights of the Great Forest.”
Simultaneous ceremonies were held in every “klavern” and it was impressed on the members othat the organization henceforth has no political ambitions for itself or for its members. It was announced that “in the main there is to be no change from the ordinary customs of the klan. Klansmen ignoring the edict will suffer punishment.”
Attorney General Arthur Gilliom of Indiana asserted that he would proceed with his suit to have the Klan declared bankrupt and to have its officials restrained from further activities in that state.
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This post is a continuation of the reporting on hate groups that were active in the Lykens Valley area in the years following the Civil War. It was a widely known fact that the Ku Klux Klan had a significant presence in the Lykens Valley and adjacent valleys during the early years of the 20th Century. This iteration of the Klan was strongly white supremacist and was opposed to equal rights for African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.
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Transcribed from articles found on Newspapers.com.
