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The KKK ruled Denver a century ago. Here's how the hate group's legacy is still being felt in 2021.
This spring the ledgers of the KKK in Colorado were released by History Colorado exposing the more than 30,000 names of the men the Klan’s political machine installed as Colorado’s governor, Denver’s mayor and police chief, judges, state senators, and representatives. The Denver Post has been exploring the continuing implications and how comprehensive the poison from the renewed KKK in the 1920s to a wide swath of Coloradoans. It is something I hope other states and cities will do. I am only sorry I can't post the article in its entirety but will cross-post in GDThe KKK ruled Denver a century ago. Here’s how the hate group’s legacy is still being felt in 2021.
About a third of Denver’s white, U.S.-born men were part of the Ku Klux Klan at its height in Colorado
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/06/06/denver-kkk-history/
?w=1015
--snip--
But the ledgers also show how pervasive the Klan was in day-to-day life, where the people they persecuted and intimidated would encounter them. The membership rolls show Klansmen worked at banks, pie companies, railroads, grocery stores, pharmacies, the zoo, the parks, the post office, cab companies, cafes, the stockyard, the city jail, the courthouse, laundry businesses, cab companies and this newspaper. They also worked at Denver landmarks, like Elitch Gardens, the Brown Palace Hotel, Union Station and Lakeside Amusement Park.
Those targeted and demonized by the Klan — Blacks, Latinos, Catholics, Jews, immigrants of any kind — lived in fear, said Robert Goldberg, a history professor at the University of Utah and author of “Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado.” They knew the Klan was pervasive and that many parts of the government charged with protecting them were actively involved in the white supremacist organization. “They were made to be second-class citizens in their home,” Goldberg said. “Their neighbors were either active antagonists or passive bystanders to their pain.”
--snip--
Denver was supposed to be a better, safer city in the 1920s. Leaders from the prior decade promised to clean up crime, end corruption and eliminate drinking. Nationally, World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. --snip--
Enter the KKK.
The Klan of the 1920s was distinct in some ways from the organization that terrorized the South in the 1860s after the Civil War and was responsible for lynching hundreds and suppressing the Black vote. This Klan largely disappeared from the public view by the 1870s.
The second wave of the Klan, which began in 1915 under new leaders, was inspired in part by the movie “The Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the Reconstruction-era Klan’s actions and falsely recast the terrorist organization as a patriotic defender of law and order. While still fervent believers in white supremacy, the second iteration of the KKK expanded its targets to include Catholics, Jews and immigrants of any kind. The new Klan also was far more organized.
--snip--
But the Klan fizzled in the summer of 1925 after Locke was jailed in connection to tax evasion — a contradiction to the man of law and order he pretended to be. His downfall and the failure of the Klansmen in the legislature to pass bills related to the KKK’s goals, like repealing the state civil rights act, contributed to the KKK’s diminishment in Denver.
“The Klan was not defeated in Denver,” Goldberg said, noting there was never any broad uprising against the group. “The Klan died of self-inflicted wounds in Denver.
But the ledgers also show how pervasive the Klan was in day-to-day life, where the people they persecuted and intimidated would encounter them. The membership rolls show Klansmen worked at banks, pie companies, railroads, grocery stores, pharmacies, the zoo, the parks, the post office, cab companies, cafes, the stockyard, the city jail, the courthouse, laundry businesses, cab companies and this newspaper. They also worked at Denver landmarks, like Elitch Gardens, the Brown Palace Hotel, Union Station and Lakeside Amusement Park.
Those targeted and demonized by the Klan — Blacks, Latinos, Catholics, Jews, immigrants of any kind — lived in fear, said Robert Goldberg, a history professor at the University of Utah and author of “Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado.” They knew the Klan was pervasive and that many parts of the government charged with protecting them were actively involved in the white supremacist organization. “They were made to be second-class citizens in their home,” Goldberg said. “Their neighbors were either active antagonists or passive bystanders to their pain.”
--snip--
Denver was supposed to be a better, safer city in the 1920s. Leaders from the prior decade promised to clean up crime, end corruption and eliminate drinking. Nationally, World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. --snip--
Enter the KKK.
The Klan of the 1920s was distinct in some ways from the organization that terrorized the South in the 1860s after the Civil War and was responsible for lynching hundreds and suppressing the Black vote. This Klan largely disappeared from the public view by the 1870s.
The second wave of the Klan, which began in 1915 under new leaders, was inspired in part by the movie “The Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the Reconstruction-era Klan’s actions and falsely recast the terrorist organization as a patriotic defender of law and order. While still fervent believers in white supremacy, the second iteration of the KKK expanded its targets to include Catholics, Jews and immigrants of any kind. The new Klan also was far more organized.
--snip--
But the Klan fizzled in the summer of 1925 after Locke was jailed in connection to tax evasion — a contradiction to the man of law and order he pretended to be. His downfall and the failure of the Klansmen in the legislature to pass bills related to the KKK’s goals, like repealing the state civil rights act, contributed to the KKK’s diminishment in Denver.
“The Klan was not defeated in Denver,” Goldberg said, noting there was never any broad uprising against the group. “The Klan died of self-inflicted wounds in Denver.
Much more at link above, but sorry, there is a paywall.
This image from the article is an important summary, though
The KKK in Colorado
1915: The second wave of the Ku Klux Klan is founded in Georgia.
June 17, 1921: The Colorado KKK announces its presence in Colorado via an open letter published in the the Denver Times newspaper.
May 15, 1923: Klansman Ben Stapleton is elected mayor of Denver. He installs Klansmen at many levels of city government.
Nov. 10, 1923: The KKK lights crosses on fire across Denver, including the steps of the Capitol, to commemorate Armistice Day.
Aug. 15, 1924: Stapleton defeats a recall election to stay in office.
Jan. 16, 1925: Gov. Clarence Morley, a Klansman, takes office.
June 1925: Grand Dragon John Galen Locke is jailed for contempt of court in connection to an investigation of tax evasion.
July 15, 1925: National Klan leadership ousts Locke from the organization. He goes on to form a new, similar group called the Minute Men and splits Denver’s KKK.
Sources: History Colorado, “In the Shadow of the Klan: When the KKK Ruled Denver” by Phil Goodstein, ColoradoHistoricNewspapers.org, the Colorado Encyclopedia
1915: The second wave of the Ku Klux Klan is founded in Georgia.
June 17, 1921: The Colorado KKK announces its presence in Colorado via an open letter published in the the Denver Times newspaper.
May 15, 1923: Klansman Ben Stapleton is elected mayor of Denver. He installs Klansmen at many levels of city government.
Nov. 10, 1923: The KKK lights crosses on fire across Denver, including the steps of the Capitol, to commemorate Armistice Day.
Aug. 15, 1924: Stapleton defeats a recall election to stay in office.
Jan. 16, 1925: Gov. Clarence Morley, a Klansman, takes office.
June 1925: Grand Dragon John Galen Locke is jailed for contempt of court in connection to an investigation of tax evasion.
July 15, 1925: National Klan leadership ousts Locke from the organization. He goes on to form a new, similar group called the Minute Men and splits Denver’s KKK.
Sources: History Colorado, “In the Shadow of the Klan: When the KKK Ruled Denver” by Phil Goodstein, ColoradoHistoricNewspapers.org, the Colorado Encyclopedia
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