November 10, 2008
Web site exposes previously undocumented KKK activity in Washington
University of Washington scholars have shined new light on one of the darkest chapters of Washington history — the days when the Ku Klux Klan was a temporary force in the state. It was a brief era when the Klan had tens of thousands of members. KKK rallies drew crowds estimated at 50,000, the Klan entered floats in parades, there were Klan weddings and Christmases and the Klan even published its own newspaper, “The Watcher in the Tower,” in Seattle.
Historians have created a special section about KKK activities in the state during the 1920s as part of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, headed by James Gregory, UW professor of history and director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.
The KKK section came about when history doctoral student Trevor Griffey was going to teach a 2006 class on local history of white supremacy. He felt that many people didn’t grasp why the civil rights movement was needed in Washington, a place with a reputation of being liberal.
“We tend to associate images of Klansmen burning crosses, wearing white robes and holding public rallies with the South,” Griffey said. “But seeing some of the images we found and learning the stories of a secret society of white supremacists in Washington state shows that the Pacific Northwest also has a history of racism that we shouldn’t overlook.”
The Klan came to Washington as part of the second wave of KKK activity in the United States. Like the original Klan which sprang up after the Civil War, this version of the Klan originated in the South in 1915 and spread across the country. By the early 1920s the Klan dominated the legislatures in Indiana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Colorado for a time.
In Oregon, the KKK led a successful 1922 effort to outlaw private Catholic schools in the state. The following year the group brought its anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant message to Washington.
“They tried to make the Klan seem natural by having picnics, patriotic fireworks and reenactments of the battle of Bunker Hill. They appealed to people’s Christianity, their fear of foreigners and their patriotism by marketing the Klan as an essential part of protecting the nation,” said Griffey. “I find it remarkable that they were able to draw tens of thousands of people, and in some cases as many as 50,000, from all over Washington to watch Klan ceremonies in Renton, Issaquah, Yakima and Lynden.”
Nationally, the high-water mark of the Klan came in 1924 when it helped push a highly restrictive immigration bill through Congress. In Washington it promoted legislation outlawing private Catholic schools, but the initiative was defeated. Failure of that measure, along with internal factional battles and scandals that involved high state KKK figures, sapped the organization’s power and appeal. As its influence waned, Bellingham and Whatcom County became the KKK’s last strongholds in the state.
By 1929, the organization, which had once boasted of having 4 million members nationally, had largely disappeared. But a few Klan figures including Luther Powell, who brought the Klan to Washington from Portland, Ore., briefly reappeared in the American fascist movement prior to World War II.
“This is not just about the past,” Griffey said. “The Klan failed as an organization, but its fusion of white supremacy and Christian patriotism was not discredited. The Klan in the Northwest promoted itself as being 100 percent American, not by lynchings or race riots.”
The section on the KKK may be found at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/kkk_intro.htm.
The entire civil rights/labor history page is at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/.
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For more information, contact Griffey at (206) 280-8983 or trevorg@u.washington.edu; Gregory at (206) 543-7792 or gregoryj@u.washington.edu.
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For permission to use the image in this release, contact Elaine Miller at the Washington State History Research Center at (253) 798-5915.
