While we often look back fondly on the Roaring 20s for a number of reasons, it was a very dark period in the North Country in at least one regard: bigotry. For several years, the region was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity during a high-profile recruiting effort.
The assumption today might be that the effort failed miserably among the good people of the north. But the truth is, the Klan did quite well, signing thousands of new members to their ranks.
The original KKK died out in the 1870s after focusing on racial issues in the post-Civil War period, but the KKK of the 1900s was a different animal. Its resurgence in 1915 was linked to a movie released that same year, Birth of a Nation, based on a book titled The Clansman. While the movie was lauded for groundbreaking filming techniques, it was also highly offensive, featuring blatant racism and the rewriting of history.
It was subsequently used as a Klan recruiting tool, leading to increased violence against blacks. Though the film received harsh critiques from religious and civil-rights groups, KKK organizers remained undaunted, gathering in Georgia for the beginning of a new era. The event was marked by the mountaintop burning of a cross. The fiery cross, of course, became their signature event.
The Klan entered American politics by “shrinking the tent.” Instead of just attacking blacks, they added other targets: Jews, Catholics, and immigrants. With a mantra that sounds disturbingly familiar today, Klansmen offered themselves as the definition of “Americanism” ― zealous patriots, religious fundamentalists, and Caucasians.
And it wasn’t for men only. There were several female branches of the KKK. Some wielded power by voting as a bloc and organizing boycotts against businesses owned by those considered less than 100% Americans (in other words, non-WASPs).
In Hooded Knights on the Niagara: The Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo, New York, author Shawn Lay cites a Klan leader’s explanation of membership requirements:
“Catholics bar themselves [from the Klan] by their allegiance to the pope; the Jews because they do not believe in the birth of Christ, and negroes [sic] because of their color. We want only Caucasians [whose allegiance is confined to the US]. We are organized to maintain American principles, and are opposed only to lawlessness and lack of Americanism.”
The Klan’s power in New York was evident in Madison Square Garden at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, sometimes referred to as “the Klanbake.” They despised candidate Al Smith, the first Catholic to seek the presidency. Smith was governor of New York, and in the 1920s, the Klan spared no effort in trying to destroy him on his home turf.
From Albany to Plattsburgh to Watertown to Syracuse, they recruited like-minded souls. We should be embarrassed to say that they did quite well in most quarters. In the Albany area, there were more than 11,000 members. Meetings across the North Country attracted hundreds, and sometimes more than a thousand. Hooded robes were a routine component of the gatherings, along with pamphlet distribution.
In most instances, the meetings were marked by cross-burnings. At other times, crosses were burned in the days preceding or following meetings. Sometimes it was spontaneously done by locals who felt compelled to display their feelings publicly.
It may come as a surprise, but in the North Country of the 1920s, it happened with alarming frequency. There were deniers who attributed cross-burnings to local pranksters ― young men with a skewed concept of what constituted humor. Others laid blame on radical followers of the KKK.
But the fact is, in the three-year period of 1924-26, there was a cross-burning in the North Country at least once every two weeks on average. It wasn’t pranksters and it wasn’t radicals. It was citizens of the region, exclusionists who subscribed to the beliefs of the KKK. And it happened in more than 35 communities. In one particularly ironic instance, a cross was burned on the grounds of the Ogdensburg Free Academy.
Blacks and Jews were targeted, but their numbers in the north were minimal at the time. Catholics and immigrants, however, were another story entirely. Irish Catholics were a large part of the region’s population, many having immigrated from southern Quebec or directly from Ireland. Likewise, great numbers of Italians, Poles, Welsh, Russians, Lithuanians, and Germans were manning our mines and railroads. This constituted a big problem for the KKK, whose early success in rural northern New York eventually faded. After all, how could it sustain? They were stepping heavily on just about everyone’s toes in the region.
And that’s not all. Adding to the mix in a big way were bootleggers. The KKK targeted criminals as un-American, which didn’t sit well in the North Country at the height of Prohibition, when thousands were earning extra money by illegally running booze across the border for shipment to cities in New York and on the East Coast.
By 1927, the KKK’s presence was drastically reduced in northern New York, and within a few years, their influence waned elsewhere. But be aware that the lunacy never ends. In every decade ― yes, every decade ― since that terrible time in the 1920s, some misguided, uncaring, or hateful troglodyte in the North Country decided that burning a cross was a good idea.
A notable incident took place in 1960, when four Norwood-Norfolk Central School teachers burned a cross in Potsdam, after which they were fined in court and pressured into resigning. Irony plays a role in their story as well. Two of the four were Citizenship Education Teachers. Perhaps sentencing to a self-awareness course would have been appropriate.
The phrase “ugly American,” referring to boorish travelers, joined the lexicon in the 1950s. It’s a mystery why the term wasn’t coined in the 1920s for an entirely different purpose.
Photos: Poster from Birth of a Nation (1915); KKK cross burning (Library of Congress).
The essay first appeared on the New York History Blog on June 11, 2014.
Excellent essay. My great-grandfather lived in Queens in the 1920s, and he was (so family rumor has it) a member of the KKK and then a member of the German American Bund in the 1930s. I thank God that my grandmother used him to teach her own children how NOT to be. Your warning about lunacy is so right-on. Keep up the good work!!!
Hi, Wendy. Could you write me at jason.horowitz@nytimes.com ? Many thanks. Jason
Jason, I assume you had the same Trump-related interest in Wendy’s note that I do. Did you run it down ? Did it go anywhere ? Rick Petree (NYC).
The Klan was also active on Long Island. I was doing research for a book I’m writing on my family and ran across a blurb in a 1920s newspaper saying my family’s neighbors were on their way to a Klan parade in Washington DC. That was a chilling thought.
Thanks for this well-written, informative piece. Until I read it, I did not realize the resurgent KKK of the 1920s was so popular in the northern part of NY (where some of my ancestors, earlier from Conn., Vt., and Ireland, lived in the late 18th and in the 19th centuries). Although I don’t remember for sure because it was a long time ago (1961-63) that I taught (in a Long Island school) the state-required 7th-grade “Cit Ed” course on NY state and local history and geography, I’ll bet the topic was neither mentioned nor discussed in the dreadful state-history textbook those who taught that course (at least in 1961-62) were forced to use (and that schools were essentially forced to buy) because it was the only one available at the time. I was appalled to discover that there was no mention in it (among other omissions) of the 1863 draft riots in NYC (perhaps because of the strong influence of the Roman Catholic Church on that textbook, because parochial schools (or its students) would be buying many of them). But you can bet that my kids, at least, got supplemental teaching on that topic.
Marge, the Catholic Church may have much to answer for but the “strong influence of the Roman Catholic Church on that textbook” probably didn’t have much to do with it. There were certainly more public schools where I lived than Catholic schools; public schools bought the bulk of the textbooks and our history textbooks were simply horrible.
What about modern day racism from former sundown towns that continue the lunacy of the KKK.
My grandmother, Millicent Husted, born in 1916 on “Husted Hollow” farm in Bloomville, NY her family had bought in 1803 told me she and her sister were terrified of the Klan as children in the 20s. They distinctly remembered cross burnings and apparently their father, Charles Griffin Husted, was threatened for hiring black employees at a hotel &/or general store he owned, and for renting out his farm to Italian tenants. I think she said the hotel or store was burned down by the Klan & the family moved to the Bronx, where my mother & I were born. The farm was eventually sold off in strips to pay taxes during the Depression. I thought it was amazing that my great grandfather would stand up to the Klan as he apparently did, but I know he was a devout Episcopalian & committed Freemason, which taught the essential equality of all men. Or maybe it was also b/c he was a very stubborn “swamp yankee” who did not like anyone else telling him what to do. I only knew him for a few years as a young child, at the very end of his life in the 1960s. I would read him the Bible after his eyesight had gotten very poor. I have never been able to find any independent account of any of these events in Bloomville, Stamford, & Delhi, NY.
Richard, your comments are heartening.
My grandfather and great-grandfather were Masons.
So is my brother, currently; he is now Worshipful Master of his local Temple.
Sadly, all I’ve seen is an increase in his bigotry and extreme right-wing ethics, since joining. I assumed it was fueled by the Masons, and I’ve been befuddled, as this is NOT how we were raised. My father is from Beaver Falls, and my mother, from Sherril.
I’m glad to know that my ancestors weren’t likely to have had this narrow, exclusionary, mindset.
Thank you.??
My Mom, born in 1915 was raised in Westport, on Lake Champlain. She had a memory of attending a KKK rally as a small child. However, her only memory was her father removing the distributor cap from the car so that it could not be stolen while they were there. This maybe a reflection of the quality of the people who attended.
1940. White plains by a Cross
Was burned o, the lawn of a
Black man and family. He was
A dentist in the city . Dr. Errold D Collymore
I was told a story when i was young of my great grand dad robarge and others in my family with the last name glass. Anywho, the story was about the kkk recruiting folks in the tug hill region around rodman, south of watertown ny. I wish i vould learn more of my familys involvment but apparently my great grand dad shot a notable kkk leader in the head at a long distance and drove them out in the days after. Seems like a hero, although I also heard that they were more concerned with their bootlegging business and not ending racism. Lol if anyone knows of any stories of this nature around these areas email me please.
Great article on the Klan in upstate NY. My family is from Madison Co. and family rumor has it that my grandfather was a KKK member at one point. He was also an American Legion member and I wondered if you had any information about crossover membership between the two. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows which seems to have a very different set of beliefs.
A young guy in Southern Vermont proudly but quietly shared a photo of a Klan gathering with me. He proudly pointed out his dad, a Vermont State Senator, in full Klan regalia. He also gave me a book detailing the secret plans of world Jewry to take over western civilization. I think I was being recruited. He backed off in semi-shock when I told him my mom was Jewish.
I was born and raised in Sullivan County, NY, often referred to as “The Borscht Belt”. Being Jewish, the area was a “bubble of safety” for me, as a large number of the area’s residents were Jewish, although quite secular.
Growing up I had no idea that the Klan had ever been active in our area. It was never mentioned and it was never referred to. It was only a throw-away comment by my father, the child Russian Jewish immigrants who had moved to South Fallsburgh from Staten Island when my dad was 10, that I ever heard mention of this in my teens.
My dad told me that he recalled the Klan burning crosses on one of the local hills. As it was a small town, he said everyone knew who the people were that were doing this; people they worked with and socialized with on a daily basis!
I recently contacted our local County Historian to try to confirm this and was told that the Klan used to advetise picnics in the local pape, inviting the locals to attend! Apparently their activities were fairly short-lived.
And the lunacy and sickness of hate of “the other”continues now with even more deadly consequences.
Mr. Gooley:
What verification (source documentation) do you have for your statement
“In the Albany area, there were more than 11,000 members.”?
Curious: are you asking from an academic or political point of view?
from a reliable history vs. false KKK propaganda point of view
Are you a member?
The KKK was flourishing in NY State during that time. There were many sundown towns, and very little state police presence on the highways.
Often times, white men did the policing themselves on those highways in NY State.
If you run a Google search, you will find the answers that you seek. Many towns were redlined and flat out segregated. Albany and Saratoga were two such places.
Western NY still has a large presence of white supremacist organizations. 11,000 members in the mid 20s seems to be possible, but it all depends on how they were counted.
Journalists used to show up at Klancave events and count the cars (and record the license plates in many cases).
The KKK was not shy about reporting their numbers either, if they were “good” numbers.
This nation was built on the shoulders of white male supremacy, for this, there can be no argument. The legacy remains with us in many surreptitious and not so surreptitious forms.
Thanks to everyone here has told it like it is. Racism, anti Semitism and all hate of others (need I mention them all) has a long and shameful history from the very beginning of our nation and before. We seem not to learn from history and the consequences have been devastating and are continuing to rip our country apart. And anyone who thinks Trump is not part of this problem has their head in the sand or worse.
Bob,
Absolutely agree. I am a biracial historian whose family is from Saratoga and Castleton, Vermont.
FOUR of my family’s dwellings were burned down from 1900-1930 in Castleton. We were the last Black Family to remain in Castleton. In 1930, mom’s uncle was burned alive in his house and we suspect that it was the KKK. He had married a white woman.
Vermont had passed legislation in 1917 which prevented mixed race couples from coming in from out of state to marry.
Violence against us is on an uptick since prior to 2016, but became overt after.
If you are MAGA, please understand that this connects you to racist policies and behavior. I don’t mind MAGA as long as you denounce racism and misogynism and demand that your representatives do so as well. Your silence is acceptance and we can never move forward.
Jerome,
The violence against your family saddens me beyond words.
Just know that I, and hopefully most folks here, are with you in solidarity.
Bob,
I appreciate the solidarity. I run a data crowd sourcing group on Facebook called “Black and Brown Vermont”, which focuses on our under told history and documentation. Please feel free to join if you desire. It is the largest crowd sourced data repository of its kind on the internet.
I have also produced a documentary on race entitled, “A White Man Walks Into A Barber Shop”. The director/subject, Kyle Schickner, a liberal white man travels across America to have conversations in Black Owned barber shops about race. What he discovers is his own inherent bias and severe lack of knowledge about the state of being “Black”. We have been doing live performances only, bringing it to schools and organizations, and small theaters so that we may continue having open discourse with the audience after the film.
Hi Jerome,
I am now pending on the Facebook site. Thanks for the invite.
Also: I sent this along to my step son who is a UVM grad in Environmental Studies, Food Systems and has been working with mostly Dominican high school students in NYC as a life and career coach and advocate in the public schools of Washington Heights. He may be moving back to Vermont for work.
In any event, I hope our paths cross in person. Once I am in the Facebook group we can PM each other. I would love to see “A White Man Walks Into A Barbershop”!
In the late 1990s-early 2000s, I was researching the Role of Eastern European Immigrant Dairy Farmers in the 1930s Milk Strikes in Upstate New York, including Oneida County. I learned about the KKK activity there in 1920s-30s when many of the EE immigrants arrived. Besides their violent intentions against Blacks and Jews, they also targeted Southern and Eastern European immigrants, who were usually Catholics. KKK targeted all ethnic and religious groups that did not fit their WASP/Western-Northern European Protestant definition of “authentic Americans.”
Very true indeed. It really depended upon what the “market” brought. In Saratoga, there were plenty of Catholics and Black Folk, and our families all lived on the west side. My Black grand aunt took in a boarder who happened to be an Italian immigrant and they wound up marrying and having a child together. That child was able to pass as white but had a tough life.
They are still having lots of issues centered around race in Saratoga.
What is interesting is our inability to trace acts of violence to the klan up north.
In Vermont, we had plenty of Catholics, some of the Jewish Faith, and very little Black Folk. It seemed that the Black Families bore the worst of the terroristic acts, be it through homes burning, imprisonment, first fired/last hired, or just plain old getting run out by white folk. This is still happening in the state and has been well documented.
It’s still happening everywhere 🙁
Nothing new. Consider the eugenics movement and the immigration restriction acts of 1921 & 1924 and its supportive rhetoric from Northeast urban elite, coupled with that from southern racist politicians. In the same time frame, look at the West Coast verbal/printed and physical attacks on Asian immigrants and Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans everywhere. Sadly, not so different versions of the current “replacement theory.”
The eugenics movement was inflated, at least in Vermont. The available records stipulate that around 200 individuals were sterilized, and we do not know the race of those people. I can say that in Vermont, they were most likely white women who were poor. The people behind the advocacy definitely were supremacists of a varied sort.
This nation outlawed Chinese immigration back in the early 20th C, and sent Japanese American citizens into concentration camps during WWII.
We also established assimilation/death camps for Native American children.
This nation has always (in utter agreement with you) had a problem with the non-white, non- protestant graft.
We have very little to be proud of in that regard.0