Ironically, Governor Allen was probably partly responsible for the support that the shop craftsmen were giving the Invisible Empire, for he was the prime advocate of the Kansas industrial court. What facts the attorney general uncovered remain unknown, but there is little doubt that he found Klan organizers embracing the craftsmen's goals and capitalizing upon the fact that those workers who were not on strike were Negroes. In justifying the order, he argued that the activities of 'bodies of masked men assemble for…parading and so-called ceremonies' contributed to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in communities where 'industrial quarrels' were in progress.

As a result of this investigation, the governor on July 8 issued a proclamation prohibiting the appearance on Kansas streets of anyone wearing a mask. Hopkins, to Arkansas City to determine the extent of involvement between the shop craftsmen and the Klan. Nevertheless, Allen dispatched Kansas' attorney general, Richard J. The sheriff of Cowley county informed the Klan, by letter, of the governor's position, and the parade was called off. He further concluded that if the parade were allowed, Klan demonstrations would be held throughout the state. While he did not say so at the time, he believed that the purpose of the parade was to frighten Negro workers who were not on strike. When it was announced two days later that the KKK would hold its first parade in the state on July 7 in Arkansas City, the governor became greatly upset and announced, on July 5, that he would consider such a parade menacing to the peace of the community, especially during the strike, and that he would employ troops if necessary to stop the Klan's celebration. A large number of those who chose not to strike were Negroes. On July 1, 1922, 71 percent of the shop craftsmen in Kansas joined a national strike against the railroads. Governor Allen's decision to seek the KKK's ouster had as its direct cause the activities of the Invisible Empire regarding a strike of railway shop crafts workers in Arkansas City. Yet in late 1922, with the KKK's strength much less than what it would be nationally at the middle of the decade, Kansas' governor, Henry Justin Allen, ordered that action be brought before the state supreme court to oust the organization from Kansas. At the same time, while arguing that the organization was not opposed to Catholics, Negroes, Jews, and the foreign-born, they nonetheless capitalized upon the prejudices held by many citizens towards these groups.Įventually the kleagles spread over the entire state, and even though the KKK had a reputation for violence and intimidation, which these men denied, possibly 40,000 Kansans were enrolled in the Invisible Empire, with perhaps 6,000 of them in Wichita alone. They declared that the 'Invisible Empire' stood for Protestant, Fundamental Christianity, old-fashioned morality, and patriotism.

McCarron (who had made his way north from Houston and Oklahoma City ), the organizers appeared first in southcentral and southeastern Kansas, in such places as Arkansas City, Winfield, Pittsburg, Fort Scott, Caney, and Independence, and in the state's two largest cities, Wichita and Kansas City. Fresh from successful membership campaigns in Oklahoma and working out of the Kansas City, Mo., office of Imperial Representative George C. IN THE SPRING OF 1921, 200 kleagles, of the Ku Klux Klan spread across the nation seeking members for William Joseph Simmons' revival of the KKK of Reconstruction days. NOTE: The numbers in brackets refer to endnotes for this text. Transcribed by Tristan Smith composed in HTML by Tod Roberts ĭigitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society. The Legal Ouster of the KKK From Kansas, 1922-1927Īutumn 1974 (Vol.

Kkk victory march