White Supremacy on the rise

One hundred years ago today … White supremacy was on the rise throughout the US. Its clearest manifestation was the increasing visibility and expanding ranks of the revived Ku Klux Klan, the terrorist group that was establishing itself in northern states, including New York, and especially New York City.

The January 16, 1920 Herald, reporting the Klan’s northward expansion, printed its white supremacist creed.

The Herald states: “They [the Klan] are laughing at the claims that they will not be allowed on northern soil. They are already here.” The KKK was claiming 100,000 current members of the Klan, 30,000 of which were in northern states, 5,000 in New York.

The Tribune had also written about the Klan’s incursion into New York.

The Tribune reports a debate between District Attorney Alfred Talley and national Klan leader William Simmons, in which Simmons says:

It would doubtless surprise Mr. Talley . . . to know just how many workers and members of the invisible empire are in New York City to-day, and it would probably shock Mr. Talley to know who they are and what their official and business standing is in New York City.

We covered the early 1920s revival of the Ku Klux Klan, including the NAACP’s role in sounding the alarm about its arrival in New York City, last November 26. The post was prompted by reports of the KKK’s possible involvement in violence in the Bronx. As with that incident, there are conflicting reports regarding the Klan’s presence in New York City in early 1921. There is no doubt, though, that the KKK itself believed that NYC would welcome it; the Herald outlines the Klan’s plans to establish the city as an important hub of operations.

It is proposed that New York City shall be a grand division by itself, with one of these subordinate chieftains, who would have a public office with the name "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" on the door and his own name beneath. No other name of an officer or member of the Klan would be made public or appear in any of the operations of the organization. THE NEW YORK HERALD correspondent was informed by a member of the executive staff of Col. Simmons that the aim of the order is to recruit membership of approximately 250,000 in New York city. Not until that figure is approached will an executive officer of the Klan appear publicly as such in New York, according to the present plans. (“Ku Klux Klan to Invade North in Nationwide Drive,” New York Herald, 10 January 1921, p.1.)

Some NYC papers wrote as if the KKK had not yet made a home in NYC. The Daily News  of January 11 editorialized: “If the Ku Klux Klan really intends to begin operations in New York, as our neighbor the New York "Herald" announces, it ought to be discouraged from the start.” (“Unwelcome Strangers,” Daily News, 11 January 1921, p. 9.) It goes on to inveigh against the KKK’s self-definition as a “law and order” organization, as it takes a warning tone.

The DAILY NEWS does not believe that the Ku Klux Klan stands for law or order or Americanism. The members of the Ku Klux Klan will save themselves trouble and traveling expenses if they keep out of New York. They will not be happy here. This is a hard-boiled town. It believes in running its own affairs without outside assistance from secret societies.

Mayor Hylan announced he would work to prevent the KKK from settling in NYC.

Note: NY1920 has covered racism and anti-immigrant attitudes consistently, and specifically addressed white supremacy in numerous posts, such as one about Lothrop’s Stoppard’s racist writings and a guest post by Sheila O’Mally treating Oscar Micheaux's film Within Our Gates, an answer to Birth of a Nation (referenced in the Tribune piece above).

– Jonathan Goldman, January 16, 2021

TAGS: racism, antisemitism, violence, mobs, intolerance, terrorism, law and order