By David Krogh
Portland author Steve Law was a history teacher before he moved to Oregon and began a journalism career. He worked for newspapers in several different cities including Salem before coming to the Portland Tribune where he wrote several columns about the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Oregon. He spent considerable effort researching a topic that is not only unknown to many Oregonians but likely appears bothersome to many as well.
The KKK in Oregon? No, you say, not in modern day Oregon. But it’s true. Oregon at one time had over 60 Klan chapters in all parts of the State. Law says, “At the Klan’s peak, Portland was home to the sixth largest chapter in the country and there were more members per capita in Oregon than in any other state except one.” How this all happened is explained in great detail in Law’s book, Peddlers of Hate–How The Ku Klux Klan Seized Power In 1920s Oregon.
The KKK in Oregon is a very difficult and controversial subject to deal with, especially for progressives of today in Portland. Subsequently, when Law was asked why he chose this topic to research and write about, he said, “I was inspired by a podcast featuring Bryan Stevenson’s depiction of stolpersteines in Germany. These small brass plates are embedded in sidewalks to mark adjacent homes and businesses of Nazi victims. Germans must step over these ‘stumbling blocks,’ subtly encouraging them to own up to the misdeeds of their predecessors and seek to repair the damage that caused. Stevenson contrasted that with the way the US buries its uncomfortable past, retaining landmarks such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, which honors a former Confederate general and KKK leader. I decided I wanted to ‘un-bury’ past misdeeds in Oregon. I live near Mt. Tabor Park and served on the Board of Friends of Mt. Tabor Park, and learned the 1920s Klan erected flaming crosses there, in plain sight, yet few current Portlanders know about it. I wrote a series of articles about the Oregon Klan for the Portland Tribune, timed to run on the centennial of the Klan’s rise to power in 1922.” Because of those articles Law was encouraged to write his book which the Oregon State University Press picked up.
According to Law, the KKK grew very quickly within Oregon for a variety of reasons. When asked how this occurred, he explained, “World War I engendered intense patriotism and nationalism among Oregonians and racist stereotypes about the enemy, which translated into unease about the wave of immigrants who had recently settled here. Oregon had a long history of hostility toward Blacks and Catholics, and early support for Prohibition. Klan organizers skillfully exploited those sentiments.”
The Klan’s organizers actually used recruiters who were paid a commission to enlist members. Law clarified that the organizers “whipped up support by demonizing others who looked, prayed and spoke differently than the dominant majority. It utilized financial incentives to create a cadre of organizers, and hired fiery Protestant ministers to exploit divisive social issues and portray itself as a morally righteous force. Once you stir up peoples’ animosities and emotions, it becomes easier to mobilize followers for political and financial gain.”
Law said that the techniques used by the Klan were “tried-and-true strategies that weren’t invented by the Klan, and continue to be deployed today.” This situation is very comparable to the rise of the white supremacy and MAGA movements going on right now agreed Law.
What is most surprising regarding the Klan’s rapid rise of power within Oregon is how quickly it crumbled. Law summarized the events in a nutshell. “The Oregon Klan rose to power in meteoric fashion in less than two years, then fizzled as a political force just as rapidly. The Klan’s demise here was mostly self-inflicted, due to corrupt, money-grubbing leaders and their authoritarian management style, which led to widespread jockeying for power, internal dissension, defections and splits. Changing political and social conditions undoubtedly also played a part: post-war anxieties about foreigners eased; Congress enacted strict new limits on non-white, non-Protestant immigrants in 1924; Oregonians turned against Prohibition and drifted away from fraternal lodges.”
It is likely that many former Klan members transferred into different groups of similar interests. The author suggests that “what’s clear is that the Klan ideology never fully died out, as people don’t easily shed long-held biases, beliefs and bigotries. So a white supremacist, racist or nativist in the 1950s could have gravitated from a later version of the Klan to a new ascendant society.”
This book is an informative read with great explanations. For example, it begins with a discussion about how the Klan developed in the first place and then expands that to explain the Klan’s origin in Oregon. Also helpful is the identification of events and people in Oregon (and Portland in particular) who were instrumental in both the Klan’s origin and its demise.
To order Peddlers of Hate, visit the Oregon State University Press website, osupress.oregonstate.edu/index.php/book/peddlers-of-hate. The book is also available in Portland at Annie Blooms and Powell’s Books, as well as several online retailers.
