The Monday After: White robes and dark rhetoric in the city

"THE KU KLUX KLAN."

"Here Yesterday. Here Today. Here Forever."

Not long before the Ku Klux Klan brought its meeting of state and regional Klan leaders to Canton a century ago, a gathering intended to indoctrinate individuals who might be interested in joining the vilified organization, an ad topped by the above words was placed in the classified section of The Evening Repository.

"Are you 100% American?" the advertisement asked in the Sunday, May 7, 1922, edition of the newspaper. "Do you believe in the following?" a second question queried, before listing about a dozen beliefs – in the form of questions – which the Klan fostered.

Did Stark County residents believe in: "The Tenets of the Christian Religion? White Supremacy? Protection of Pure Womanhood? Just Laws and Liberty? Separation of Church and State? Limitation of Foreign Immigration? Freedom of Speech and Press? Preventing Mob Violence and Lynching? Suppression and Banishment of Foreign Labor and Religious Agitators? The Much Needed Local Reforms? Law and Order?"

The advertisement offered a post office box to which people could write "if you believe in these things and want to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan."

Or, area residents could come to the recruitment meeting that the Klan was planning for later in the month in Canton.

Klan meeting officially announced

"KU KLUX KLAN MAY PARADE BEFORE MEET," said a headline above an article at the top of the front page of the Repository on May 23, 1922. "Report White-Robed Figures Will March In City."

Other headlines noted that city and county officials were planning no action yet to prevent the meeting, at which many state Klan leaders were planning to attend.

"City officials do not expect to interfere with the meeting which advertisements of the Klan say is open to the public," the article reported. "Representatives of the city probably will be in attendance at the meeting."

The "parade of members of the Ku Klux Klan" would precede a "mass meeting for men" to be held at the city Auditorium, the use of which the organization sought under a rental agreement applied for by the Canton branch of the Klan.

"The Canton Klan at the time of the last meeting claimed a membership of approximately 1,000," the 1922 article reported. "The meeting Thursday night, which will follow a similar gathering in the Armory in Akron Wednesday evening and will be addressed by the same speakers, is said to be part of a state campaign opened by the Klan for enlarging of its membership."

No complaints about the meeting yet had been filed at city hall, the article said.

Soon they were to come.

Opposition to the meeting shown

"Protests against the proposed meeting in the city auditorium Thursday night under the auspices of the Ku Klux Klan were made to Mayor C.C. Curtis Wednesday morning by a number of citizens and by the Canton Urban League," the Repository reported on its front page May 24, 1922.

Urban League officials I.A. Howard, Val Cook, and Rev. Gust Speaks all had asked Mayor Curtis to prevent the Klan from using the city's Auditorium for its meeting.

"The Klan would prove a detriment to the city and would create race trouble in Canton," said Howard, League secretary. "If he refuses the use of the Auditorium to the Klan he will merely be doing the same as all high-minded public officials have done in cities all over the country, both in the North and South."

While city officials still had taken no steps "to rescind the permit for the use of the Auditorium by the Klan," the mayor had notified officers of the Klan that "if a parade is held marchers must not appear in the white hood and gown costume of the organization."

The Chamber of Commerce also had scheduled a meeting to discuss how the organization would react to the Klan meeting. Following that meeting the Chamber issued a resolution denouncing the Klan and opposing its gathering in Canton.

"Whereas, the Chamber of Commerce is a body constituted to promote good will, happiness, fairness, prosperity and all avoidance of class prejudice and to inspire confidence in our government," the resolution said, "therefore be it resolved that we do condemn any organization that may create racial hatred, religious suspicion and social and political animosities."

Meeting held in park

The day of the meeting the Klan itself took action on the venue of its event.

After a conference with the mayor and other city officials, "the Klan decided to surrender the permit for the Auditorium," reported the Repository.  The meeting instead would be held at 8 p.m. that day at Nimisilla Park.

The robe-filled parade was canceled.

A statement issued at noon the day of the meeting detailed what the Klan said were the reasons for the changes.

"The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a law abiding organization seeking to instill a truer patriotism in the hearts of men, and is opposed to any acts of violence, but rather to uphold the constitution of the United States of America," the statement said.

"Therefore, in view of the expressed dissatisfaction of many of our citizens to the use of the city Auditorium for a public meeting of the Klan, and desiring to show those who are opposed to us that we respect all honest men in their sacred convictions, we have decided to relinquish at this time, our constitutional right and privilege to hold said meeting in the city Auditorium."

Crowd gathered in rain

Groups publicly protesting the Klan meeting also included area Jewish citizens, the Catholic Knights of Columbus, and several additional organizations by the time the event began Thursday night May 25, 1922.

"A drizzling rain was falling at 8 o'clock the hour scheduled for the opening of the meeting and less than 500 men were assembled," the Repository reported the next day. "The rain ceased in a short time and the  size of the crowd was soon swelled until police estimated it at approximately 2,000. A few women were in the assemblage."

The newspaper noted that "no interruptions or disorder marked the gathering. Speakers from elsewhere in Ohio and other states "devoted themselves to explaining the purpose of the Klan." No measure of diplomacy was employed when attempting to explain the exclusive nature of the group.

"This organization is composed of American born Gentile citizens – Caucasians – men who are willing to lend aid and succor to their fellow men," said Dr. C.L. Harrod of Columbus. "We believe Protestants have a right to band together."

They also tried to answer criticisms of opponents of the organization, without any apologies offered for extremist or offensive views.

"We are going to get free speech," said William Lloyd Clark of Milan, Ill.,  "if it takes the last dollar we have or our last drop of blood."

Men enlisted in membership

Part of the meeting was devoted to enlisting recruits to the Klan from members of the audience attending to hear the speeches. There was a $10 initiation fee for new Klansmen.

"All of the $10 payments that have come in have been used in spreading the word," said Klansman Billy Parker of Missouri, editor of The Menace, a weekly anti-Catholic newspaper once published in that state.

In the days following the meeting, the American Legion, noting that many of those who the so-called patriotic Klan organization barred from its membership were individuals who "performed their patriotic duties during the World War in a most commendable manner," attached itself to the growing list of organizations opposing the mere existance of the Ku Klux Klan.

"We do hereby believe that the principles upon which the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan predicate their right to organize are founded upon a falacy; that it is unAmerican and undemocratic in every sense of the words; that no necessity or rightful demand exists in this country for such an organization."

Still, despite the overwhelming opposition by so many organizations in the area, some Stark County residents chose to ignore or accept the Klan's dark history and controversial beliefs.

That became clear when a gathering in Stark County briefly was reported by the Repository on Sunday Aug. 13, 1922, under the headline "SAY KU KLUX HOLDS MEETING NEAR HERE."

"Persons living along the Canton-Massillon road near Whipple road, reported that Saturday evening a large company of men said to be members of the Ku Klux Klan held a meeting on a hill on the south side of the highway," the article said. "Several hundred were reported to have been in attendance at the gathering, during which, it is said, a class was initiated.

"A large flaming cross was prominently displayed on the hillside. Some of those present were in the costume of the Klan, persons living in the vicinity said."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: White robes and dark rhetoric in the city