Ku+Klux+Klan+Initiation+(1923)

1. According to the News-Times, researched by community historian Eric G. Stewart, there was an "initiatory ceremony" and crossburning of a local Forest Grove Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Oregon was a centeral location for the KKK in the 1920s, persicuting Catholics and anyone who was not white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant.

For more information see "Ku Klux Klan Holds Initiatory Ceremony," //Forest Grove News-Times//, 9/20/1923, page 1.

2. According to Rev. Lawrence J. Saalfeld, author of Forces of Prejudice in Oregon, 1920-1925 (Oregon Catholic History Series #1: 1984):

"...a Klan parade in Forest Grove was the target of ...

3. Here is a transcription of a pamphlet found in the EGS archives on the Klan in Washinigton County:

Weaving Memories: Washington County History

 * The KKK in the 1920s by C. Loughner**

This is Chris Loughner, I am a 4th grader at Eastwood School in Hillsboro, Oregon and I did a research project on the Ku Klux Klan.

The Ku Klux Klan is a secret political organization which formed after the Civil War and is predominately active in the Southern States. It's membership is confined to American-born Protestant whites and is a group that is known for its harassment of the Black race and the Catholic Church.

What the was the Klan doing in Oregon? When I went to the Marylhurst Archives and talked to Sister Anne Harold, I looked through the newspaper clipping scrapbook from 1924 to 1927 and learned that the main purpose of the Klan in Oregon was to forbid all minors from going to private schools. This would close down all privately run schools in the State, the majority of which were funded by the Catholic Chruch.

The Washington County Museum in Hillsboro has a wide variety of information dealing with Oregon's history. Dick Matthews, the curator there helped me find the information regarding the Klan when it was active in our state in the 1920s. The Klan's beginnings in Oregon started in Medford and spread through Oregon, their activities culminated in the School Bill. Through a vigorous campaign, led by the KKK and the Masons, the Oregon people, to my surprise, voted approval of the bill and it was to become a law September 1, 1926. The law stated all children, except the mentally and physically handicapped, had to attend public schools from age 8 to 16.

Two private schools vigorously opposed this law, believing it to be unconstitutional. Sister Francis Zenner, at St. Mary's Academy in Beaverton, gave me copies of newspaper articles which told about the suit brought against the law by the Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the Hill Military Academy of Portland.

Judge Hall S. Lusk, whom I met and had my picture taken with, is one of the attorneys chosen to write the brief challenging the constitutionality of the law. Judge Lusk is now 98 years old and residing at St. Mary's Nursing Home in Beaverton. He is still a very alert man and could remember the controversy over the law and talked with me about some of the other attorneys and judges he worked with on writing the brief. This brief was one that brought before the U.S. Supreme court, and on June 1, 1925, the Oregon Public School Law was declared unconstitutional by a unanimous decision.


 * (Newspaper Clipping) SCHOOL LAW INVALID, IS COURT RULE -- Unanimous Opinion Given in Favor of Private, Parochial Schools***

The Court's opinion said if the law was enforced, it would destroy the rights of parents to regulate their children's education.

Prior to this ruling and throughout the early 1920s, private schools recieved a great deal of harassment and unfavorable publicity. Instrumental in this smearing was the KKK and while at St. Mary's I saw a newspaper picture and a caption of the children at the school in Verboort, Oregon. The school was run by Catholic Nuns and the children were posing, some standing, some kneeling, so all could be seen. The caption inferred that the children kneeling were doing so due to the strict and unfair discipline practices of the nuns and not merely to make the picture more effective. I was entirely shocked that anything like this misrepresentation of the facts could be published and not objected to by the public. This is an example of the mood of the public at this time.

To conclude, the Klan in Oregon and Washington County in the early 1920s directly effected and influenced the public. Fortunately, the results of their efforts were deemed unconstitutional.

**//Bibliography//**
Sister Anne Harold: Marylhurst College, Lake Oswego, Oregon Judge Hall S. Lusk: St. Mary's Nursing Home, Beaverton, Oregon Dick Matthews: Washington County Historical Society, Hillsboro, Oregon Sister Frances Zenner: St. Mary's Academy, Beaverton, Oregon
 * //Primary Sources//**

Marylhurst Clippings Scrapbook, 1924-1927, Marylhurst Archives, Lake Oswego, Oregon //Oregon Historical Quarterly//, Volume 3, pg. 54; Volume 32, pg. 258; Volume 38, pg. 24, 31, 37 //The Oregonian//, 6/1 and 6/2, 1925 //The Oregon Journal//, 6/1/1925
 * //Periodicals//**

Frazier, Thomas R., ed. "Konklave in Kokomo." //The Private Side of American History//. 2nd ed. "Konklave in Kokomo," Robert Coughlan, pg. 183-200. Higham, John - "Strangers in the Land: Pattern of American Nativism," 1860-1925, pg. 264-299.
 * Books**