Hooded Knights on the Niagara: The Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo, New York
Hooded Knights on the Niagara: The Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo, New York
Introduction
Initial Unsettling Developments in Buffalo (Late Summer 1924):
Marking homes and businesses of enemies with crude symbols and warnings.
Plotting against other religious faiths.
Circulating secret lists of alleged "traitors" to the nation and community.
Mailing anonymous threats to residents who refused silence.
Claiming to be true champions of American justice and freedom.
Strongly implicated in bombing a private residence.
An undercover operative killed one man and seriously wounded another.
These actions brought Buffalo to the brink of open religious warfare.
A local newspaper editor lamented the bigotry and dissension replacing peace and goodwill in a previously harmonious community, ironically, this editor was an active KKK member.
These developments were not by Klansmen, but by their local opponents, indicating a different situation in Buffalo compared to other places.
Klan opponents in Buffalo had access to government power and refused to legitimize the Klan.
This situation highlighted powerful constraints on Klan growth and influence in the urban Northeast.
Founding and Early Years of the Second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) (1915-1920):
Founded in Georgia in 1915.
Initially unlikely to gain a following in distant places like Buffalo.
Headed by "Imperial Wizard" William J. Simmons, a former Methodist circuit rider, described as impractical and chronically inebriated.
Posed as the reincarnation of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan.
Offered recruits little beyond mystic fraternalism and group-rate insurance.
Advocacy of white supremacy, Protestant solidarity, and strict law enforcement provided a basis for action, but Simmons's lack of direction and obsession with arcane ritualism hindered program development.
During its first years, it was a small, obscure fraternal group lacking social relevance, among many bizarre men's societies.
Klan Expansion and Modern Sales Techniques (1920-1921):
Changed suddenly in 1920 when Simmons hired the Southern Publicity Association.
Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler, owners of the advertising firm, recognized the Klan's untapped potential.
Took decisive measures to improve finances and solicitation.
Most important innovation: hiring hundreds of KKK recruiters (kleagles) on a commission basis.
Modern sales techniques yielded immediate rewards, with thousands of new members joining in the South in 1920 and 1921.
Adaptable Recruitment Appeals:
Kleagles' success stemmed from their flexible approach to potential recruits.
Hostile journalists characterized KKK representatives as unscrupulous "salesmen of hate" exploiting post-World War I racism, bigotry, and nativism.
However, kleagles also used other appeals:
"Character building" aspects of membership.
Rich fraternal life.
Opportunity for business contacts.
Potential for improving community conditions.
Any sales pitch that secured a commission was utilized.
Absolute secrecy aided expansion; many joined out of curiosity or not wanting to be excluded from an up-and-coming organization.
Individual decisions to join were not always solely due to racial and religious intolerance.
Klan's Growth and Violence (Mid-1921):
By mid- ext{1921}, the Klan's multifaceted appeal led to scores of local chapters (klaverns) across the South.
Imperial officials began dispatching recruiters nationwide.
In many areas, prominent and influential citizens joined (e.g., Houston, Texas, klavern charter members included "silk-stocking men from the banks, business houses, and professions").
In other communities (e.g., El Paso, Texas), the Klan failed to gain elite support but remained peaceful and law-abiding.
Other chapters, however, soon showed the danger of an unregulated secret society linked to a tradition of extralegal vigilantism.
Throughout 1921, hundreds of Klansmen (almost all Southern residents) participated in violence, using guns, whips, and other weapons to terrorize African Americans and white opponents in certain communities.
National Press Attention and Federal Response (Late Summer/Fall 1921):
Klan expansion and violence alarmed law-abiding citizens and attracted national press.
Publications like Literary Digest, the Nation, Outlook, and Independent detailed Klan outrages.
William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain published a sensational exposé in late summer 1921.
Most influential assessment: Pulitzer-owned New York World's investigation, widely syndicated and presented in installments over three weeks in September.
Characterized the Klan as inherently lawless and violent, exploiting fears of gullible Americans.
Demanded Congress suppress the organization due to its "evil and vicious possibilities" being "boundless."
Federal action followed; House Rules Committee held public hearings from October 11, 1921, to determine need for anti-Klan legislation, focusing on violence and financial corruption.
Surprisingly little solid evidence emerged despite committee efforts to impugn the Klan.
Imperial Wizard Simmons's extended personal testimony was a highlight, emphasizing the order's lofty intentions and fraternal orientation, claiming violence was work of impostors.
Simmons concluded theatrically, stating congressmen were as "ignorant of our principles as those who were ignorant of the character and work of Christ," then collapsed.
Ignition of Klan Growth by Publicity (Late 1921):
National attention, rather than discrediting the Klan, greatly aided its expansion.
Threat of federal anti-Klan legislation evaporated.
Millions of Americans learned about the order for the first time.
Imperial officials exploited this free publicity, ordering kleagles to intensify recruitment nationwide, eager for new recruits and klectokens (initiation fees).
Remarkable response: within months, thriving klaverns established in California, Pacific Northwest, and Midwest; Colorado became a Klan stronghold; tens of thousands joined in the Midwest; "considerable gains" in New York and New England.
Factors Assisting Klan Growth Outside the South:
1. Native-born White Protestant Predominance: KKK's claim that values of native-born white Protestants should dominate the U.S. found a ready audience.
Strong strains of racism, nativism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism long influenced American life, especially in early 1920$s, a time of concern over race relations, foreign immigration impact, and religion in politics.
2. Romantic Image from The Birth of a Nation: Benefitted from D. W. Griffith's popular 1915 film, portraying the first Klan as noble saviors of white civilization.
Non-Southerners could, for 10 initiation fee, partake in the Klan's mystery and excitement.
Klan's Evolution into Civic Action (By 1922):
Appeal extended beyond militant ethnocentrism and romantic imagery.
By 1922, the Invisible Empire intended to engage in political affairs; many joined hoping it would address community problems.
Imperial Wizard Hiram W. Evans (who replaced Simmons in 1922) advised Klan leaders against a fixed program, urging them to embrace local needs.
Consequently, the Klan in many communities became a medium of corrective civic action, focusing more on local issues like public education and zoning laws than its warped ideology.
Major case studies of the second Klan outside the South show it resembled other locally-oriented political and social movements, without its hoods and rituals.
Decline of the Invisible Empire (After 1924):
Sustained by grassroots popularity, the Invisible Empire became a major political force between 1922 and 1924.
State governments in Oregon, Colorado, and Indiana came under Klan control; major victories in municipal elections elsewhere.
By 1924, the perceived power was such that neither major political party would formally denounce it; it seemed likely to be a fixture in the electoral landscape.
At this moment of triumph, it entered a period of steep decline, eventually rendering it powerless.
Causes of collapse: fading romantic image, internecine feuding, scandals involving high-ranking officials, increased opponent activism.
Also possibly a victim of its own success: having notified established leaders of white Protestant dissatisfaction with public affairs, it might have fulfilled its purpose and faded like other mass protests.
Scholarly Investigation of the KKK:
Despite recruiting 3 to 6 million Americans and profoundly influencing national life, the Klan was not immediately subject to intensive scholarly investigation.
Exceptions: a few tracts by sociologists in the 1920s and one historical case study in 1936.
Decades of evasion of serious scrutiny due to: 1) very few records left behind; 2) general conviction among scholars that its nature and appeal didn't merit investigation.
Scholars believed a hate-mongering organization could only thrive among fanatics and low-status individuals, especially in declining rural villages and small towns.
This assessment was considered self-evident to any reasonable and enlightened academic.
Revisionist Scholarship (Past 30 Years):
Historians began to assess this traditional view and found it lacking.
Major regional and national studies in the 1960s showed the KKK was as popular in urban areas as rural, and Klansmen were motivated by a complex variety of concerns, not just racial/religious hatred.
Recent case studies using new social history techniques further revised traditional thinking.
Argued the secret order drew membership from a broad cross-section of the white male Protestant population and generally acted as a typical civic action group.
Suggested the KKK was more mainstream, and Klansmen, though racist/bigoted, were average citizens in context of the times.
Major theme: intolerance characterizing the KKK pervaded all levels of white American society in the 1920s.
Revisionist work over past 15 years focused on communities nationwide (e.g., California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia).
Gap: Klan experiences in the urban Northeast remained unassessed, despite large numbers of Klansmen (e.g., 500,000 in NY and PA alone, tens of thousands more in NJ and New England, 8,000+ at a single Long Island rally).
Purpose of this Study (Focus on Buffalo, NY):
First step to address shortage of work on the second Klan in the Northeast.
Detailed examination of the hooded order's experiences in large industrial city of Buffalo, New York.
Focus on Klansmen themselves: problems, social characteristics, actions (less on national Klan ideology/rhetoric, as these were poor local indicators).
Guided by conviction that scholars must treat subjects with restraint and respect, even those with whom they vehemently disagree.
Author is a devout Roman Catholic, married to a woman of color, committed to progressive causes; found this difficult but avoided self-indulgent denunciation.
Believes careful research and neutral reasoning are needed to adequately assess complex sources of intolerance.
Research Materials and Methodology:
Benefitted from an unusual abundance of primary sources on the Buffalo Klan:
Comprehensive membership list.
Undercover reports on klavern's secret meetings.
Rare KKK business directory.
Newspaper reports were particularly valuable.
Buffalo's six major papers covered local Klan; Buffalo Daily Courier offered most extensive coverage, establishing contacts early on.
Courier served as a core narrative source, despite overt anti-Klan bias and intense pro-Democratic orientation.
Courier reports checked against pro-Republican Buffalo Morning Express (also interested in KKK, but less hostile), and other newspapers used at certain points.
Book Structure:
Chapter 1: Social and political factors contributing to KKK rise in Buffalo.
Chapter 2: Founding and early development of the klavern.
Chapters 3 and 4: Extended evaluation of Buffalo Klan's activities and membership.
Chapter 5: Analysis of the ruthless destruction of the local chapter.
Conclusion: Evaluates findings in context of Klan historiography.
Overall goal: advance scholarship, enlighten readers, and help prevent recurrence of events in Buffalo during early 1920s.
Chapter 1: A Troubled Community
Buffalo, The Queen City of the Great Lakes (1920s):
Well-established major urban center at start of 1920s.
Scores of churches, progressive public school system, three colleges, a university, a fine arts academy, museums, libraries, concert halls indicated rich spiritual, educational, and cultural life.
Dozens of charitable, social, professional organizations, and a municipal government with nearly 8,000 workers indicated advanced urban development.
Modern office buildings and hotels dominated downtown skyline.
Federal census 1920: local population 506,775, 11th largest U.S. municipality.
By 1925: population over 538,000.
Greater Buffalo area (including Lackawanna, Tonawanda, Lancaster, Cheektowaga, West Seneca, Amherst): approximately 580,000 at start of decade, over 640,000 five years later.
Future growth and prosperity seemed assured; city planners predicted metropolitan population would exceed two million by 1950.
Industrial Prosperity and Economic Advancement:
Optimism based largely on recent, remarkable upsurge in local industrial production.
1919: manufactured goods value $634,409,733 ( 256% increase over 1914).
Electrification, modernized facilities, better management led to unprecedented output by 1920 in most chief industries.
Five-year period: Flour milling production increased 137%; meat packing 115%; foundry and machine products 184%; automobile bodies and parts 414%.
Similar gains in steel, chemical, furniture, tanning industries, and smaller economic sectors.
Commerce Department ranked Buffalo 8th largest manufacturing center.
Industry and manufacturing (in vast ring of factories/plants within/beyond city limits) was chief source of growth and prosperity.
Other economic activities were important:
Commercial shipping: second only to Chicago in 1920s.
Over 500 freight trains arrived/departed daily.
Millions of tons of bulk commodities passed through port yearly.
Local trade with Canada steadily increased.
Wholesale marketing of coal, lumber, machinery, food products, automobiles experienced unprecedented expansion.
Commercial banking grew rapidly: over 60 branch banks opened between 1916 and 1926.
Profits distributed as more jobs and higher wages, sustaining a burgeoning retail economy (over 30,000 workers by 1929).
Working Population and Socioeconomic Status:
1920: Buffalo's working population (proprietors, self-employed professionals, salaried employees, wage-earners) numbered 215,323.
Over 75% were white males, but percentage of women and blacks gradually increasing.
Just under 46% engaged in manufacturing/industry; 26.1% in clerical/trade; 17.1% in public, professional, personal, domestic service.
Remainder mostly in transportation.
Distribution changed somewhat over decade, but industry/manufacturing remained largest employers.
Prejudices and social customs influenced occupational status:
African Americans more likely to hold low-status jobs than whites.
Females concentrated in low-manual, semiskilled, service employment.
Among white workers: native-born of native parentage had highest overall status (approx. 50% in nonmanual positions in 1920).
Only 22.8% of foreign-born workers filled nonmanual roles.
Residential Development and Ethnic Zones:
Socioeconomic disparities reflected in residential development.
Elite Districts: West of Main Street, within Twenty-Fifth Ward (see Figure 2), resided prominent business/professional people.
Elegant homes on tree-lined boulevards like Delaware Avenue.
Other affluent neighborhoods: north, near Chapin, Bidwell, Lincoln parkways in Twenty-Third Ward.
These wards had highest percentage of native whites of native parentage.
Middle-Class Areas: Less exclusive.
Eastern sections of Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Wards (west side).
North Park, Central Park, Kensington districts (northeast Buffalo).
New housing near Humboldt Parkway (upper east side).
South-side neighborhoods along South Park Avenue.
Characterized by large native-white-of-native-parentage populations, but residents more likely of German and Irish ancestry than in most prestigious wards.
Inner-City Districts: Poorest wards on lower west and east sides, with noise and pollution from railroads, factories, stockyards.
Substandard housing and typical low-income problems.
Highest ward-level percentages of foreign-born whites.
Matched only by heavily industrialized Twenty-First Ward (northwestern city).
Foreign-Born Population (1920s):
Two important facts:
1. Declining element in city; numbers shrank for first time in decades due to immigration restriction (from 121,530 or 23.9% of total population in 1920 to 118,941 or 20.7% in 1930).
2. Attained unprecedented degree of national and ethnic diversity.
Largest local groups in 1920: Poles (6.2%), Germans (4.1%), Italians (3.2%), Canadians (3.1%), Irish (1.4%), English (1.3%).
Sizable contingents from many other countries.
Over decade: most non-English-speaking nationalities declined in numbers, except Italians (increased 19%).
Combined number of immigrants from Canada and Britain rose by nearly 27%.
Ethnic Composition of Buffalo:
Native-born ethnics of foreign, mixed, and native parentage resided with, among, and near foreign-born.
Wards in heavily Polish, Italian, German, Irish parts of city included highest percentages of second-generation ethnics.
Even in elite districts, nearly a third of native-born white residents had at least one foreign-born parent.
Published federal census data for 1920 doesn't give precise ethnic composition of ward populations, but reliable estimates from manuscript returns indicate six ethnic zones:
Heavily Irish south side.
Polish lower east side.
German upper east side.
Italian lower west side.
Large Anglo-American district (upper west side and northeastern city).
Ethnically diverse (Polish, Anglo, German) sector to the northwest.
Racial Division: African Americans:
Race also divided the community.
1920: nearly 5,000 blacks in Buffalo, mostly in the Sixth and Seventh Wards (lower east side), one of the city's most impoverished parts.
Local African Americans faced racist attitudes limiting socioeconomic mobility (as elsewhere in U.S.).
1927 study by University of Buffalo sociologist Niles Carpenter: many city employers considered blacks "slow thinkers" and "not able to assume any responsibility"; most agreed blacks "should always have a white man as foreman."
Large majority of black workers confined to low-paid unskilled and semiskilled jobs; status improved only marginally in 1920s.
Buffalo's African-American population included talented business/professional people who spearheaded racial improvement and civil rights efforts.
Voiced opinions in black-owned Buffalo American, worked through organizations like NAACP, closely watched developments threatening their community.
Religious Division: Protestants vs. Catholics:
Religion supplemented race as source of potential conflict.
Federal census data 1926: just under 64% of all city church members were Roman Catholic; Protestants only 27.8%; Jews less than 6%.
Figures probably exaggerated Catholic dominance (many Protestants didn't belong to specific denominations), but large number of Irish, Polish, Italian, German ancestry residents meant a majority of Buffalonians were Roman Catholic.
Catholic Church as Institution: One of the largest, wealthiest, best-established organizations in Buffalo.
Maintained 84 churches, 62 parochial schools, published its own newspaper, owned hundreds of acres of valuable real estate.
Under politically astute bishops, Buffalo Diocese forged close relationship with local political/business leaders (earned gratitude for strong stand against socialism and other "radicalism").
Force for social conservatism throughout 1920s; clergy regularly denounced divorce, marital infidelity, birth control ("race suicide"), erosion of traditional family life, abandonment of Christian ideals.
Catholics and Protestants shared common ground on many social issues.
However, differences over controversial matters like prohibition kept traditional suspicions and animosities activated.
Local Politics and Conservatism (1920s):
Reflected general conservative orientation of most Buffalonians.
Despite rising ethnic tensions, large majority of voters enrolled as Republicans.
Even in 1924 (Klan controversy threatened open religious warfare): over 64% of electorate affiliated with Republican party.
Partisanship showed close relationship with ethnicity.
Average Republican enrollment percentages (1922-1924) (time of local KKK activity) showed strength below 50% in only 8 wards (all in heavily Irish and Polish parts of city).
Italian, German, and old-stock wards had sizable Republican majorities.
Large Republican following in upper east side wards suggests significant numbers of German Catholics abandoned longtime Democratic support.
Presidential Elections: Republican party won throughout 1920s.
Warren G. Harding carried city with 63.4% landslide in 1920.
Calvin Coolidge received 57.2% in 1924 three-way race.
Herbert Hoover narrowly prevailed over NY Governor Alfred E. Smith in 1928.
State and Local Races: More unpredictable electorate.
Al Smith: failed NYC in 1918 governor race, defeated locally in 1920 by Nathan L. Miller. Two years later, emphasizing anti-prohibition, trounced Miller locally. Soundly defeated in 1924 by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Narrowly carried city in 1926 against Ogden L. Mills.
Governor's ups and downs showed intermingled, shifting influence of religion, ethnicity, party, and class, resulting in complex and volatile political situation.
Even truer at municipal level, where diverse interests converged intensely.
City politics crucially shaped local Klan experience, requiring detailed examination.
Francis Xavier Schwab: A Controversial Mayor:
Aspirations/attitudes of Buffalo's large population of recent immigrant stock well-represented by Schwab, who dominated city government for most of 1920s.
Born Buffalo's east side 1874, son of poor immigrant parents from Austria/Bavaria.
Seemed unlikely for civic prominence.
Left elementary school for tinsmith's apprentice, claimed real education from "school of experience and the university of hard knocks."
Next decade: worked for local industrial firms, then salesman for Germania Brewing Company.
Hardworking, gregarious, popular among local tavern keepers/restaurateurs (many German-Americans).
Active in Knights of St. John (German-dominated Catholic men's group, similar to Knights of Columbus).
Later used contacts/expertise to manage Buffalo Brewing Company (later Mohawk Products Company, prominent Buffalo brewery).
Assumed joint president/general manager role: impressive rise in business.
Personal Style: Delighted friends, infuriated enemies.
Tall, lean, dark mustache, dapperly attired with distinctive "submarine" silk tie.
Delighted in being center of attention; typically at noon in local saloon/cafe, holding forth among cronies in heavily accented English.
Always ready with encouraging word, friendly smile, small cash handout for less fortunate.
Considered himself special friend/representative of common people.
Populistic sentiments largely unrelated to coherent political philosophy or partisan orientation.
Nominally Republican, actually an independent, free of links to professional politicians.
Motivated more by cultural issues and personal power than pleasing political establishment.
Wild card on local political scene, came to power due to unusual opportunities created by prohibition.
Prohibition and its Discontent in Buffalo:
Implemented in 1920, generated tremendous resentment.
Electorate never consulted, creating impression a small group of zealots (Anti-Saloon League) imposed unrealistic restrictions.
Sense that prohibition wasn't sincere attempt to improve society, but heavy-handed effort to dictate arbitrary behavior standards to those whose traditions included alcohol.
Prominent role of evangelical Protestants (Methodists) in dry crusade bred resentment; Buffalo Catholic Union & Times editor concluded experiment was "tyranny that was foisted upon us by Methodist fanaticism."
Despite attitudes, federal, state, local authorities pressed enforcement in 1920-1921, further outraging "personal liberty" proponents.
Schwab's Mayoral Campaign (1921):
Widespread hostility to prohibition offered ready-made campaign issue.
Knights of St. John circulated petition for Schwab's mayoral candidacy (summer 1921); he announced intention to run.
Initially seemed unlikely Schwab could survive nonpartisan city primary (October 1921).
Well-known for charity work/brewing success, but never ran for elected office, opposed by four veteran politicians, including incumbent Mayor George S. Buck.
Schwab's campaign staffed mostly by inexperienced volunteers.
Catholicism, occupation, ethnic origins, brash personality alienated many voters (while assets in certain quarters).
Currently under federal indictment for violating Volstead Act (two-count charge from 1920 brewery raid where real beer, not "near beer," was manufactured/distributed).
Even many prohibition opponents found voting for law violator unattractive.
Schwab's Anti-Prohibition Platform:
Unlike opponents who avoided prohibition, Schwab made repudiation of Eighteenth Amendment centerpiece of campaign.
Proclaimed desire to restore "sane liberty" to Buffalo by legalizing light wines/beer.
Charged dry laws led to proliferation of unregulated "soft drink" shops selling dangerous concoctions.
Claimed surge in illicit home brewing threatened morals/health of city's children.
Admitted mayor couldn't end prohibition, but promised to reduce enforcement by reassigning police "dry squad," claiming 14 federal prohibition agents could manage "splendid fashion."
Assured voters his indictment wouldn't be a problem, was "content to let that matter rest with the district attorney and the proper authorities."
Schwab's Primary Victory (October 1921):
Schwab's grassroots campaign gained momentum to polling day (October 18).
Final tallies: Mayor Buck received 24,478 votes, Schwab 19,273; other contenders (including those backed by Republican/Democratic machines) trailed badly.
Buck and Schwab (both independent Republicans) would face runoff in November general election.
Buffalo Courier editor observed, returns showed "the people vote as they will, not as political machines and bosses dictate."
Bitter Mayoral Campaign (November 1921):
Following three weeks were one of most bitterly divisive mayoral campaigns in city's history.
Inevitable given stark contrasts: George Sturges Buck (wealthy, prominent family, Yale/Buffalo Law School graduate, elite neighborhood, First Presbyterian elder, leading progressive figure in county/city government) vs. Frank Schwab (second-generation German-American, working-class Roman Catholic, no political experience but liquor industry familiarity).
Sharp divisions along ethnic, religious, class lines anticipated.
Schwab's Campaign Strategy:
Schwab and supporters stayed on offensive, concentrating efforts in central, east, south Buffalo.
Continuously stressed anti-prohibition, pledged to lobby D.C. for light wine/beer legalization: "I want to tell you that prohibition is a curse to the country and to the children, and the mayor can at least protest against it. That is what I propose to do if elected."
Emphasized intent to establish administration sensitive to all residents' ethnic needs: "When I am elected I want you to drop in and see me anytime. Just say, 'Hello, Frank,' and I'll take care of you."
Extended invitation to other immigrant groups: spoke before Polish Singing Circle, Hungarian Brotherhood, Ukrainian Men's League, other ethnic clubs/societies.
At Irish-American Catholic high school gathering, informed coreligionists: "The time has come when they must say the Irish and the Dutch [Germans] amount to much. We are all people of one type and just as good as there are on God's earth…. I appeal to the Irish of the first, second, and third wards to put me over on election day."
Buck's Response and Religious Tensions:
Schwab's strong appeal in ethnic communities distressed Mayor Buck.
Buck accused brewer of pandering to "all of the racial prejudices [and] to all of the discontented elements in our city, promising everything that he thinks is necessary to win a vote here and there."
Decried Schwab's promise to reduce prohibition enforcement: "Respect for the law is the basis of security in a democracy. Defiance of law propagates anarchy."
Buck's view: central issue not advisability of prohibition, but maintaining integrity/authority of established institutions.
Warned Schwab's election would cause "forces of evil which are repressed by constant exertion from the police force will flaunt themselves in the face of decency."
Campaign heated up: religious/ethnic tensions more apparent.
Protestant-dominated Anti-Saloon League vehemently opposed Schwab.
William H. Anderson (NY state superintendent) called Schwab "political faker"; said city electing law violator "deserves exactly what it will get."
Reverend Dr. Charles H. Stewart (North Presbyterian Church) openly opposed Schwab, arguing election would tear community apart.
Called for civic unity, but then urged congregation to vote for fellow Presbyterian, George Buck.
Schwab's Election Victory (November 1921):
Protestant solidarity fell short.
November 8: Frank Schwab scored narrow victory, out-polling Buck 62,747 to 59,986.
Major reason: prohibition implementation + contrasting candidates' backgrounds strongly polarized electorate, giving unusual salience to ethnic, religious, class divisions.
Election totals: Schwab carried Buffalo's older wards (bulk of foreign-born and native-born ethnics).
Strongest Buck support: northern districts, wealthy west-side neighborhoods (Figure 3).
Statistical analysis of Schwab's vote: strong negative correlation with ward-level percentages of native-born whites of native parentage (-.829).
Strong positive correlations with: foreign-born whites (.617) and native-born whites of foreign or mixed parentage (.649).
All correlations statistically significant at .001 (one-tailed test).
Schwab did particularly well in Irish and Polish parts of city, also decisive majorities in Italian wards and Wards Six and Seven (African Americans and Russian Jews lived).
Intriguing: brewer did less well in German districts, reflecting possible Protestant-Catholic divisions within local German community.
Schwab partisans exulted: seemed common people (especially non-Anglo-Saxon stock) truly triumphed, unseating political elite member with one of their own (second-generation ethnic, first Roman Catholic mayor of Buffalo).
Election results rebuffed strict prohibition enforcement advocates, especially despised Anti-Saloon League.
Schwab backers sent gloating telegram to Anderson: "We have just elected the leading brewer of Buffalo mayor of the city. We have canned the dry out of dry. Please notify President Harding, [Anti-Saloon League General Counsel] Wayne B. Wheeler, and John D. Rockefeller. You made 15,000 votes for Schwab by your speech [in Buffalo during the campaign]. In the future, please stay home."
Forgotten: 59,986 voters (48.9% of participants) didn't vote for Schwab; many in this group didn't intend to abandon principles/values they believed should guide community life.
Frank Schwab would soon discover his "education in the 'school of experience and the university of hard knocks' was far from over."
Mayor Schwab's Administration (Early 1922):
Determined to fulfill campaign pledge of accessibility to average citizens.
Answered own phone, opened own mail, moved desk to outer office for personal caller reception.
Remained in close touch through active participation in 27 fraternal societies and numerous organized charity efforts.
Open style, complemented by gregariousness, solidified following in ethnic neighborhoods, reassuring supporters of commitment to their concerns.
Opposition to Schwab's Changes: Significant number of Buffalonians unimpressed, seeing changes as undignified pandering to gullible elements.
Other actions seemed part of coordinated campaign to expand power/political base:
Energetic lobbying for "home rule" legislation for New York cities.
Efforts to reduce power of city hospital commission.
Support for $1.5 million in bonuses for municipal workers.
Proposal for a seat on Buffalo school board.
Proposed ordinance for regulating city's thousands of "soft drink" shops:
Owners required annual license; mayor could refuse license to applicant deemed of poor moral character.
Much "soft drink business" was front for illegal alcohol sales; law meant prominent anti-prohibitionist (beer brewer, federally indicted) would determine who was "morally qualified" to run a speakeasy.
Passed in early March 1922 primarily because other four city commissioners didn't want responsibility for regulation, significantly enhancing mayor's influence.
Commission Squabbles and Schwab's Frustration:
Schwab couldn't always get his way; one angry commissioner reminded him, "You're part of the commission, but you're not all of it."
Colleagues ceded control over soft drink establishments but jealously defended authority in other matters, regularly clashing with mayor and among themselves.
Commissioner of Public Affairs Frank C. Perkins initially hoped to win Schwab over to municipal ownership of utilities, but Schwab resisted.
Perkins lashed out: "I am surprised at you. Good night! I thought you'd stand for something decent."
By summer 1922: relations between Schwab and Perkins threatened fisticuffs.
Schwab refused to support referendum on municipal electric plant, Perkins charged mayor was trying to "knock them out" instead of representing "plain people."
Schwab pounded gavel, shouted, "I won't be insulted by you!"
Debate shut off by another commissioner's motion.
Mayor later advised reporters: "If Perkins continues to insult me, I'll eliminate him myself without any motion."
Schwab's relations with Commissioner of Parks/Public Buildings John H. Meahl and Commissioner of Finance/Accounts Ross Graves also strained.
Meahl resented Schwab's attempt to influence park concessions, warned in May 1922: "I will take orders from no one except the people as to how my department is to be run. If you butt into my department, maybe your department will be butted into."
Pair regularly exchanged insults/sarcastic comments.
Graves' difficulties stemmed from budget differences; accused Schwab of manipulating public accounts to reward supporters.
Graves advised mayor: "Get the idea out of your head that this is Tammany Hall or that Tammany Hall is running Buffalo."
Schwab and three other commissioners united in spring 1922 to pass tax increase, higher municipal employee salaries, new city jobs.
Graves denounced proceedings as "a grand carnival of waste"; stormed out of city hall at later meeting.
After months of squabbling, Schwab convinced he couldn't work effectively with existing commission.
Announced opposition to reelection bids of Graves and Perkins in 1923 city elections.
Of Graves: "In addition to his hypocrisy as a public official, I stand against his reelection because he is rankly inefficient as commissioner of finance and accounts of the city of Buffalo."
Decried Graves' prohibition support: those seeing him daily "know that he not only enjoys a drink, but enjoys a great many of them."
Mayor's sarcasm failed to sway electorate; both Graves and Perkins had strong campaigns and easily defeated "Citizens' Ticket" (backed by commercial-civic elite).
To make matters worse: Commissioner of Public Works Arthur W. Kreinheder (Schwab's amiable colleague) declined reelection, succeeded by William F. Schwartz (already opposed to Schwab's policies).
Unlikely open acrimony and petty feuding (an "hilarious civic circus") would cease soon.
Citizen Discontent and Social Concerns:
Unruly commission behavior displeased citizens desiring efficient, progressive government.
One resident (1922): "Our original generous form of democracy is today plunging us into ruin. That same element which in other days lifted pagan barbarism from the depth, is now dragging our higher civilization into the mud."
Buffalo Express editor lamented lack of idealism/commitment to public service, noting mayor/three councilmen's "enthusiasm with which they voted to increase the salaries of favored ones and otherwise to spend the public money."
Blamed voters for choosing "public servants on the strength of noise and hand-shaking and extravagant promises."
Conservative Buffalo Commercial felt democracy went astray, city controlled by "crew of political demagogues and highbinders."
Context of Broader Social Concerns: Intense dissatisfaction in early 1920s Buffalo connected to unsettling expansion/change after WWI.
Impression: world going "crazy, nuts, and bughouse" (evangelist Billy Sunday).
Seemed American society broke from tradition, entered perilous era where basic civilization standards were under assault.
1922 local social observer: unhealthy materialism and abandonment of morality set nation adrift.
Cited movies, profanity, gambling, tobacco use ( $2,000,000 in 1921), dance evil, immodest women's dress, relaxed public school discipline, profiteering, demagoguery, increased crime (highway robbery/killing).
Major causes: "material development out of proportion to the moral; relaxed home training; … the large and irresponsible element in our great cities; [and] lowered standards in the administration of law."
Changing Behavior of Women and Youth:
Topic of great public discussion: new behavior of American women.
Newspapers, magazines, motion pictures kept Buffalonians informed of provocative trends in hairstyles, attire, sexual escapades of film stars/celebrities.
Buffalo Courier regularly offered titillating stories/photos of attractive, often scantily clad, young women.
Media-influenced new styles/deportment fueled fears of undermined traditional values.
One Protestant minister denounced modern Buffalo woman's "oddity of dress, her lack of aesthetic standards, the hardness and emptiness of face, her uncultured voice, her revolt from customs and conventions which have become almost sacred, her exaggerated sense of freedom and individual expression, and a certain brutal coarseness which shocks lovers of the true, the beautiful, and the good."
Another religious spokesman decried "Buffalo girl of the bobbed hair, rouged cheeks, audacious smile, flippant carriage and daring dialogue." Asked, "What moral right have flappers to overstrain manhood? The one who tempts another is as guilty as the one who yields to the temptation."
Alarm over female behavior fueled concerns over youth in general.
Reverend Robert J. MacAlpine (Central Presbyterian Church) warned congregation: young people's direction "spells certain misfortune for the Republic tomorrow. The flagrant personal liberties now conventional between the young men and women of society, the lowered moral ideals of the great mass of our young women, foreshadow the weakening of our nation's future moral integrity."
Another Buffalonian felt current generation of males lacked positive guiding values: "What [will happen to] the young man of our time, with his easy sense of superiority yet with little sense of the things that make and break, with no real plan of life and no conviction that he needs one, with no breath of purpose in his mentality and no port toward which he definitely moves?"
Call for Social and Spiritual Renewal:
Assessments indicated need to reinvigorate sense of social/spiritual purpose.
One resident, in letter to newspaper, argued: "the first thing that ought to be taught [to children] is respect for authority of parents, of preceptors, of the duly constituted civil authorities, and of the laws enacted by the people through their chosen representatives."
Reverend Dr. Charles H. Stewart, sermon denouncing "excesses and extravagances in the young life of today": "The real remedy for these great and growing evils of our times is, first, to live right ourselves; next, to enforce, with reasonable firmness, discipline and authority in the home. Last and most important of all, [we must] reinstate the religion which for so long we have treated with such utter indifference and even contempt."
Reverend Leon O. Williams called for "recovery of spiritual ideas, a deeper sense of spiritual values, a stronger hold on the things of the mind and heart, a new emphasis on culture." Warned: "So long as the movie sets manners and morals, so long as education sacrifices culture to utility, so long as material gain counts for more than spirituality, [we must reap] the harvest we have so carelessly and thoughtlessly sown."
Labor Unrest and Class, Ethnic Tensions:
Resolution of other community problems also needed commitment to traditional values.
Immediate postwar period: Buffalo/Erie County experienced chronic labor unrest (most notably 1919-20 nationwide steel strike).
Violent clashes between strikebreakers/union members at Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company (future Bethlehem Steel Corporation) required state troops.
Traumatic episode, plus strikes elsewhere, made many wonder if U.S. was permanently dividing along class lines.
Most striking steelworkers were "new immigrant" origins, making unrest indicative of serious, possibly unresolvable, ethnic tensions.
Conflict between labor/capital, with violence, enhanced impression of society falling apart, desperately needing to restore order and unified sense of purpose.
Buffalo Streetcar Strike (1922):
Apprehensions over class conflict/labor unrest especially apparent during 1922 strike, few months after Schwab took office.
Early July: local Association of Street Railway Employees voted to strike International Railway Company (IRC), which refused to negotiate.
Streetcar traffic in city halted, greatly inconveniencing/angering residents.
Initially, much community sympathy for strikers, but protest turned violent.
Union members/supporters hurled stones, bricks, scrap metal at streetcars manned by strikebreaking motormen/conductors.
Few Buffalonians riding IRC vehicles faced physical risk (e.g., dietician attacked by female strike sympathizers after alighting, hair grabbed, clothes ripped, violently kicked by 300 onlookers).
Mid-July: press reported "general rioting" along car lines in heavily Polish east side (residents greased rails, placed boulders, iron girders, debris on tracks).
Violence/destruction of private property seriously undermined public support for strikers.
Mayor Schwab (foremost union supporter) admitted: "recent occurrences indicate that there are many people in the city who do not have the respect for the law and order which is essential to the very existence of a civilized community."
Quickly, mounted/motorized state militia units moved into Buffalo to suppress rioting (accomplished with "considerable brutality," hitting children, beating men with riot sticks, using vile language).
By this time, many residents agreed with Buffalo Chamber of Commerce president: "The sole question properly before the public at this time is whether the law or the mob is to have its way in Buffalo."
Perception of Crime Wave and Call for Stricter Law Enforcement:
Violence of streetcar strike reinforced perception of general lawless behavior.
Buffalo (like many other cities) experienced "crime wave" in early 1920s.
January 1922 Express editor: major feature of previous year was "the [large] number and daring character of crimes."
Difficult to ascertain if crime significantly increased.
Buffalo police department arrest records (1921-1924) reflected political developments more than criminal activity:
1921 (Buck administration): 32,246 arrests (up from 24,436 in 1920).
1922 (Schwab administration): dipped to 25,524.
1923: rose to 29,948.
1924 (after reformers forced new police chief): increased to 34,563.
Considering rapid population expansion and prohibition creating new offenders, figures hardly indicated massive breakdown of law and order.
However, many citizens convinced community under siege by criminals, needed firmer measures.
State District Attorney Guy B. Moore (1922) credited a "crime wave" to: abuse of probation system, excessive court leniency, undue solicitude for criminals, public failure to insist on fair/firm prosecution, lack of public support for prosecutors.
Another resident agreed: failure of will at root of problem; courts could stop it if they wanted.
After sociologist Frank Tannenbaum addressed local group on prison reform, Buffalonian suggested more useful to focus on forceful retribution (1922: "With murders daily, holdups hourly, the present need is more for punishment of lawbreakers than of studying how to make life in prison a pleasure.").
Ernest L. Green urged teaching criminals they would be punished and there was no escape: "As quickly as thunder follows the lightning should punishment follow crime."
Evidence of Deteriorating Situation:
Advocates of strict law enforcement saw ample evidence:
1921: Buffalo experienced record 43 murders.
Following spring: rash of shootings/armed robberies indicated continued violence.
October 1922 city court judge: Buffalo a "city of gunmen, a terrorized city, where any one of us runs the risk of being killed."
Former Erie County Judge George B. Burd (1923): "series of atrocities, crimes committed here—the worst in recent years—has shown that citizens, however decent and law abiding, are not immune from attack without provocation."
Fundamental standards of order/decency mandated renewed commitment to vigorous suppression/punishment of criminals.
Doubts about Schwab Administration:
Growing demand for improved law enforcement intensified doubts about new administration headed by someone openly opposing certain state/federal laws.
Mayor Frank Schwab, in opponents' view, posed a major threat: unscrupulous demagogue whose lax policies would only lead to further social dissolution.
Imperative to closely watch and forcefully oppose him if he undermined rule of law.
Schwab's enemies (including hooded Klansmen) decided to confront him primarily on prohibition and vice laws, issues guaranteed to generate political, cultural, religious controversy.
Schwab's Softened Prohibition Enforcement:
Convinced his election represented popular repudiation of Eighteenth Amendment, Schwab took decisive measures after taking office.
Disbanded police "dry squad" (organized by Buck administration).
Appointed John F. Burfeind (fellow anti-prohibitionist) as police chief.
Unsuccessfully tried to get city commission to pass resolution legalizing light wines/beer.
Schwab genuinely believed prohibition was illegitimate invasion of personal liberty, not endorsing unrestrained alcohol use.
Told Buffalo Times (1922): "I believe in temperance. I was never intoxicated in my life, and I never allowed anyone to work for me who was habitually intoxicated. I drink a glass of beer or an occasional highball. That's all."
Like many German-Americans, he felt responsible consumption of alcohol could be pleasurable/positive part of social life.
Prohibition Advocates and Widespread Defiance:
Mayor's assessment of moderate drinking benefits didn't impress prohibition advocates, regularly presented with evidence of widespread defiance.
By end of 1921: local, state, federal officers made hundreds of arrests, seized huge quantities of malt syrup/hops, thousands of crocks/barrels, dozens of stills (from "Big Bertha of 100-gallon capacity, down to a tea kettle").
Following year: agents continued uncovering sophisticated liquor-making operations and large caches of illegal beverages.
One facility, 300 feet from Louisiana Street police station, had two 50-gallon copper stills and equipment "as elaborate as that of any Kentucky distillery."
Another large-scale operation in heavily Italian lower west side: authorities confiscated ton of sugar, 70 barrels of mash, 20 gallons of whiskey, two huge stills (300+ gallons total).
These discoveries indicated criminal element violating Constitution and making extraordinary profits.
Dry forces: if community failed to oppose (or even encouraged) such behavior, Buffalo would forfeit all claim to moral/civic integrity.
Challenges for Prohibition Enforcement:
Dry advocates faced discouraging situation rallying citizens.
Buffalo's many non-Anglo-Saxon residents overwhelmingly opposed prohibition; demonstrated electoral clout in 1921 city election.
Local Democratic party committed to repeal of NY's strong new prohibition law (Mullan-Gage Act).
Number of city's prominent Republicans (e.g., U.S. Representative Clarence MacGregor) were fervent wets.
Allies: Prohibitionists had few influential friends.
State District Attorney Guy B. Moore fully committed, warned "the present decadent public sentiment which openly winks at the violation of one law [will lead to] disrespect for all law."
U.S. Attorney William J. Donovan extended full cooperation.
Support couldn't compensate for inadequate public support or scant resources.
Even under Republican Governor Nathan Miller, only 20 state prohibition agents assigned to Buffalo district (encompassing 17 western NY counties).
Excluding customs officers, federal agents in local vicinity even smaller number.
Crucial: Buffalo's city government (with 1,000-man police force) willing to assist enforcement.
Schwab's Indictment and Policy Shift (Spring 1922):
Federal officials sent message to Mayor Schwab: serious about enforcing Volstead Act.
U.S. Attorney Donovan announced Schwab would stand trial on 2-count prohibition charge (pending since 1920).
News delighted Schwab's enemies, distressed those concerned about community's national image (Express: "It cannot be looked upon otherwise than as a humiliation to Buffalo that the mayor of the city should be placed on trial in a court.").
Schwab also didn't want proceedings; May 29: appeared in court, entered plea of nolo contendere to one count of possessing illegal beer.
Federal Judge John R. Hazel fined him $500 , dismissed remaining count.
Mayor paid fine with flourish from large roll of bills.
Told press he didn't want to waste time "arguing with the government as to my personal liability in the matter."
Noted misdemeanor conviction didn't constitute impeachable offense under city charter.
However, decided to tread more lightly: less outspoken against prohibition enforcement.
June 7, 1922: tendered resignation as president/general manager of Mohawk Products Company.
Protestant Reform Campaign and Vice Investigation (1922-1924):
By this time, Protestant reformers (Anti-Saloon League, evangelical-dominated Buffalo Federation of Churches) launched major campaign to improve city's moral conditions (continued over two years).
Convinced local vice situation deteriorated under Schwab, activists employed private investigators to gather information.
Released detailed reports on alleged lawlessness/immorality in Buffalo.
One report (undercover operative for Anti-Saloon League): approx. 500 young men entered notorious "tenderloin" district during one-hour period (early May 1922).
ASL State Superintendent William Anderson released findings: "We have a mayor who was elected on a platform of a wide-open town and he is giving the people what they want."
July: report commissioned by Buffalo Federation of Churches: "vice is carried on undisturbed by police officers on the street and that proprietors of disorderly houses are not afraid of the authorities because they do not disturb the businesses."
Four months later: local Methodist minister announced secret investigation uncovered over 30 speakeasies openly operating blocks from city hall; proof, in his opinion, of "utter indifference, incompetence, and crookedness of certain officials in the city."
Clergy Denunciations and Call for Removal (Fall 1922):
By fall 1922: many Protestant clergymen convinced Schwab administration hopelessly corrupt.
Reverend Dr. Robert J. MacAlpine (Central Presbyterian Church) warned: "Definite and comprehensive steps must be taken to redeem the moral integrity of the city. For this state of affairs the chief executive is directly to blame. He has fallen. At the bar of public opinion the Mayor stands convicted."
Reverend Henry S. Palmeter (Hudson Street Baptist Church) argued conditions wouldn't improve "with public officials laughing up their sleeves"; noted, "If God is to be as hasty in punishing Buffalo as He was in destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, it would be well for us to look for foreign domiciles."
Reverend Charles C. Penfold (Sentinel Methodist Church) asserted Mayor/police chief clearly demonstrated incompetence: "and in a thoroughly democratic community it ought to be possible to find a way of relieving them with officials who are both willing and able to act."
December: Buffalo Methodist Ministers' Association requested Governor Miller order formal investigation of Schwab for removal grounds.
Governor (leaving office less than month later) declined to act, but mayor's enemies remained active.
Conclusion of 1922 in Buffalo:
Local affairs courses gave Buffalonians much to ponder.
Controversial new mayor came to power after bitter election dividing community along religious, ethnic, class lines.
Many city's Protestant leaders accused administration of promoting corruption/disregard for law.
Heightened general concern over new behavior of women/youth, labor unrest, perceived crime surge.
All indicated marked deterioration in fundamental social values and standards.
Increasing impulse for citizens to act against dangerous trends, unite decency forces, reinvigorate community with unified social/spiritual purpose.
But how? Most recent city election showed "un-American" elements held upper hand in votes; neither major party appeared satisfactory reform vehicle.
New option: increasingly popular organization (Knights of the Ku Klux Klan) might serve as striking means of expressing anger, discontent, defiance.
Hundreds of Buffalonians had been joining Klan since 1921.
Chapter 2: The Kluxing of Buffalo
Gradual Establishment of the Klan in Buffalo.
Established very gradually, in distinct stages.
Throughout 1920 and early 1921, dramatic expansion of Invisible Empire remained remote phenomenon, little city concern.
Local press featured reports of Klan appeal outside South, but minimal consideration of significant following in Buffalo or other NY parts.
Klan organizers recognized Empire State as bountiful source of recruits.
Initiated membership campaign spring 1921, focused on NYC and lower Hudson River valley.
Grand Goblin Lloyd P. Hooper, operating from Hotel Embassy, using contacts in fraternal/religious organizations, by late summer established klaverns in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx.
Gotham's total Klan membership eventually exceed 15,000, but recruiting sluggish, below expectations.
Hooper and associates contended with vehement, active opposition of NYC Mayor John F. Hylan's administration.
Kleagles began searching for more promising recruiting grounds elsewhere in state.
Early Buffalo Interest in the Klan.
Even before official representative arrived, small group of Buffalonians developed strong Klan interest.
Intrigued by readings/hearings, these residents (including at least 3 prominent men, one a medical doctor) wrote to national KKK headquarters in Atlanta early 1921 for information.
Eventually received ample supply of Klan application forms/pamphlets.
Physician explained interest from familiarity "with the work done by the original Klan many years ago in the reconstruction period following the Civil War."
Examination of revived Klan's literature convinced him of honorable intentions; distributed KKK booklets/questionnaires among friends/lodge brothers.
Public Notice of Klan Recruiting in Buffalo (Late Summer 1921).
Just as New York World and New York Journal-American exposés directed national attention to Klan, Buffalonians received first public notice of local KKK recruiting.
Buffalo Courier claimed uncovering evidence of "plan to extend an invisible empire of terrorism" to city.
Revealed secret order conducting "intensive campaign of weeks in Buffalo for members"; "Ku Klux Klan literature is pouring into Buffalo and is being distributed by Ku Klux Klan sympathizers and advance agents."
Newspaper: Klan promoters generally confined recruiting to fraternal organization members, though factory workers also approached.
Proof of Invisible Empire's desire to organize local klavern: Courier reproduced letter from Grand Goblin Hooper inviting candidates to "meeting of qualified citizens now being arranged in Buffalo."
Vehement Negative Reaction to Klan Arrival.
Buffalo American (African-American publication): revived KKK was "organization of terrorism and hate," "band of cowardly murderers" intending to spread Southern-style racism/vigilantism northward.
Served notice Buffalo's African-American population would oppose order with all means.
Editorialist urged readers to "take time to teach your offspring the manly art of self-defense."
Asserted: "The Negro has naught to fear of this gang of cowards. Give me the four colored regiments, with full permission to shoot, not in the air, but direct at them, and in thirty days I will sell their long white robes to any junk dealer you designate, make a torch of the castle of the high muck-a-mucks and a jack rabbit of the supreme lizard."
Catholic Union & Times shared militant attitude, urged Buffalonians to unite to "Kill the Knavish Klan."
Editor: "The Ku Klux Klan is a menace to the community and a blight upon civilization. The sooner the vile thing is suppressed, the better for the world at large."
Later expressed confidence little local enthusiasm for "veiled brand of bigotry" espoused by secret order from "benighted and bigoted South."
City Newspapers and Officials' Stance on Klan.
City's major newspapers (generally more restrained) also made clear Klan not welcome.
Buffalo Evening Times and Buffalo Enquirer joined Courier denouncing KKK as money-making scheme exploiting religious/racial prejudice of gullible citizens, called for federal investigation.
Buffalo Evening News presented New York World's exposé of Klan violence.
Express and Commercial offered anti-KKK cartoons (one, "The Answer," showed Klansman being booted out of Buffalo).
Press stance almost uniformly derisive/contemptuous, except archconservative Buffalo Truth which reserved judgment.
City Officials: Surprisingly passive, despite negative press and Courier's warning of permanent establishment of "lodge of terror and hatred."
District Attorney Guy B. Moore: "If the members of the Ku Klux Klan hold their meetings in an orderly fashion and strive for proper aims in accordance with the law, they will no more be in danger of prosecution than any other secret organization."
Mayor George Buck opposed vigilance committee, but had no power "to prevent a secret organization from propagating itself."
Police Chief James W. Higgins concurred, even acknowledging no ordinance preventing police officer from joining Klan.
No forceful response from civic/fraternal organizations or Protestant religious leaders.
Ironic exception: Reverend Charles C. Penfold (future Klansman) argued "The Spirit of Christ does not live behind a mask and the sacred name of America does not stand for race hatred or religious prejudice."
Temporary Subsidence of Klan Activity (Late September 1921).
Relative passive stance of city elites seemed justified as excitement over KKK activity subsided.
Press's limited information exhausted, local Klansmen entered extended period of silence.
By late September, Courier confessed: "there seems to be increasing proof that a substantial body of citizens looks with no favor on Kluxism."
Many residents likely felt Buffalo, as progressive/enlightened community, resisted irrational/disruptive intolerance plaguing less fortunate areas.
Klan's Resurgence and First Formal Announcement (Late May 1922).
Late May 1922: clear Buffalo not immune to Invisible Empire's lure.
Visiting Klan official, district kleagle "Mitchell," announced hundreds of city residents ("some of the finest American citizens, men beyond reproach and of sterling character") inducted into order.
Announced Klan meetings held every two weeks in Buffalo for past 8 months.
Mitchell: professional Klan organizer came previous summer, lectured several hundred prospective candidates on fundamentals of secret order.
Many admitted to membership, others joined since.
Klavern hadn't yet received official charter, but reportedly well-organized under 13 provisional officers.
District kleagle: group in perpetual readiness: "It is just a case of pressing a button and within one hour we can get all the Klansmen in a certain place."
Buffalo Klan preoccupied with teaching true Americanism, but anticipated "the time when trouble may occur, when [the Klan] will be prepared to throw its strength on the side of the law and government."
Intensified Recruitment and Public Presence.
First official klavern announcement heralded intensified recruiting effort for several months.
May 23: hooded order advertised in Express featuring masked Klansman.
Few days later: New York King Kleagle F. S. Webster visited Buffalo, held press conference.
Webster: local Klan membership nearly 800; many desired affiliation since recruiting began a week prior.
Emphasized Klan not "anti" organization, but merely pro-American.
"Klansmen don't doubt the loyalty, integrity and bravery of Catholics, Jews, negroes [sic] and foreign born persons. We realize that these classes proved themselves good and brave Americans during the recent war and we are not against them. Catholics bar themselves [from the Klan] by their allegiance to a foreign potentate, in other words, the Pope of Rome. That, in our way of thinking, makes them allegiant to a foreign power."
"The Jews because they do not believe in the birth of Christ and negroes [sic] because of their color. We want only Caucasians, who, so far as their allegiance is concerned, have it all confined within the boundaries of the United States. That does not mean that we are opposed to them. We are organized to maintain American principles and are opposed only to lawlessness and lack of Americanism."
King kleagle further revealed Buffalo Klan intended active role in local affairs: "We have elected Mayors in other cities—I don't see why we can't do it here."
Community Reaction to Increased Klan Presence.
Growing/overt Klan presence unsettled many residents; Courier noted "plainly felt agitation for official action to prevent possible racial outbreaks, religious commotions, disorderly assemblages or riots here."
Rabbi Louis J. Kopald (Temple Beth Zion) denounced Klan as "dastardly underhanded group of citizens who are knifing the best interests of every element of our religion, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant, alike."
Commercial (whose staff eventually included Klansmen) ran front-page editorial: order composed of "narrow minded bigots and wild-eyed fanatics" with "no place in the everyday life of the community."
Hostile attitude received full endorsement of new Schwab administration.
Police Chief John F. Burfeind (unlike predecessor) flatly stated intention to move against KKK, avowing: "I will leave no stone unturned to call a halt on any organization holding meetings or recruiting members in this city which is of a character calculated to inflame racial or religious hatred. That is my plain duty, and I shall not dodge it."
Chief admitted police knew little about Klan, urged citizens to relay information on group's meetings.
Mayor Schwab's Challenge and Klan's Secrecy.
Schwab scoffed at claim of 800 Buffalonians in Invisible Empire, but also said he didn't "see why [the KKK] should be permitted to carry forward its operations here,"
Threatened to break up any gathering within city limits.
Challenged Klan leaders to meet him personally and prove group alignment with American principles/ideals.
King Kleagle Webster quickly accepted, spent entire day at city hall waiting; mayor declined to speak, Webster soon left due to Imperial business.
Klan Strategy: Through summer/early fall 1922, local Klan largely removed from public view, concentrated on quietly expanding membership.
"Kluxing" effort followed similar pattern to other American communities, but Buffalo klavern atypically unconcerned with positive image.
Unlike other fledgling chapters demonstrating social respectability/civic utility (proclamations, cash gifts to fund drives), local Klan apparently preferred mysterious group outside mainstream scrutiny.
Beyond Mitchell/Webster announcements (both outsiders), Buffalo klavern provided no formal acknowledgment of intentions for months.
Not until 1924 did chapter make first official statement (due to controversy) and disclose formal title: Buffalo Klan No. 5.
Faced with unfriendly municipal authorities, hostile press, largely non-Protestant/non-Anglo-Saxon population, Klansmen recognized/accepted likelihood their organization would primarily be a means of defiance, expressing intense dissatisfaction/frustration many white Protestants felt about community affairs.
Klan's Growing Strength and First Outdoor Ceremonial (Fall 1922).
Acutely aware of minority status locally, Buffalo Klansmen by fall 1922 could take comfort in remarkable inroads nationwide.
Recent months: impressive electoral victories in Oregon/Texas; Midwest/western Pennsylvania becoming Klan strongholds; revived recruiting in NYC succeeding.
Gains undoubtedly reassured local knights of order's legitimacy, made them feel part of vast, growing movement destined to transform America's social/political life.
At this time of heady expansion/surging confidence, Buffalo Klan No. 5 decided to hold its first outdoor ceremonial, designed to generate KKK interest and enhance mysterious image.
Event: October 25, 1922, 8pm: automobiles converged on stubble-littered field off Harlem Road, few miles north of Buffalo city limits.
Met by "withered old man" receiving secret password, directing drivers up winding lane to adjacent slope top.
297 cars formed huge circle, brilliantly illuminated by headlights.
Occupants: 40 masked Klansmen in full regalia, approx. 800 candidates in civilian attire; gathered around large pulpit in center.
Suddenly, 40ft-high cross burst into flame just beyond circle, light eerily playing off gaunt trees surrounding assemblage.
Klan officer strode forward, ascended pulpit.
Hooded/masked figure impressive in white robes; wore red silk band on arm, mysterious symbols on sleeves, gilded eagle on breast glistening in electric light.
Klansman addressed recruits, explained (primarily for visiting reporters) Invisible Empire not to promote racial/religious bigotry:
"We are not against the negroes [sic]. As a matter of fact, we want to [cooperate with] the colored race, but we do not want them to violate the sanctity of the homes of Americans."
"As far as Catholics go, we make no discrimination between Catholics and Protestants. The only thing is that Catholics are forced to admit allegiance to a foreign potentate, in other words, the Pope of Rome. That, in our way of thinking, makes them allegiant to a foreign power."
Remainder of ceremony: initiation of new recruits, reciting Klan oath, pledging eternal loyalty.
Shortly before midnight: ritual concluded, Klansmen drove off into damp moonless night (some to Niagara Falls, Batavia, other western NY communities, most into Buffalo).
Last car departed, giant fiery cross tumbled to earth. First open-air ceremonial of KKK in New York ended.
Public Alarm and Klan's New Openness.
News of Harlem Road initiation shocked many skeptical Buffalonians.
Courier: city residents unaware Klan so completely organized; "The secrecy shrouding every movement and meeting of the K.K.K. was complete."
Editor bewildered by Klan thriving despite numerous denunciations: "An appeal to the common sense of men ought to be all that is necessary to break up the order, but this appeal has been made time and again, in many parts of the country, … and yet this Klan that works at night still grows!"
Moreover, Klan now felt confident enough for public meetings within city.
First week of November 1922: business secretary of Buffalo Nest No. 1, Fraternal Order of Orioles, contacted about renting hall on Genesee Street for National Business Men's Association of America meeting.
Orioles consented; November 8: small crowd of 119 men and 17 women attended meeting (actually arranged by professional organizers for KKK).
Featured speakers: Reverend Dr. Samuel H. Campbell and Reverend Basil E. Newton (both from Texas).
Dr. Campbell (tall man, nose glasses, deep powerful voice) did most talking, focusing on peril from blacks, Catholics, Jews.
Negro: "menacing figure, threatening the heart of America today."
Produced purported copy of Knights of Columbus fourth-degree oath, demonstrating inherent Catholic disloyalty; observed Lincoln/McKinley assassinated by "followers of the Pope."
Jews assailed for plots to "seize Russia and Palestine" and "destroy the morals of the world" through entertainment industry domination.
Cited alleged conspiracy between Catholics/Jews to control U.S. through press manipulation: "[The Catholic], backed by Jewish capital, produces the American newspaper that forces into the mind of the youth in this country what he shall think, how he shall think, and why he should think."
Recruitment Drive and Continued Expansion (Late 1922).
Campbell called on residents to "build up an organization in Buffalo, [so] that you may share in the conquest of all these perils and threatening influences that shadow our national existence."
"It's easy to get into this order," he advised. "You rub shoulders with Klansmen every day. Let a whisper go out that you want to join this sacred movement and your worries will cease."
Attendees needed no further convincing: Campbell received rousing applause; every man in hall rose to pledge allegiance to Invisible Empire.
Klan representatives satisfied, left for Lockport/Niagara Falls, delivered same presentation to 600 interested citizens.
Remainder of year: western NY experienced furious Klan membership drive.
Mid-November: kleagles visited Jamestown, Corning, Bath, Batavia, Salamanca, Elmira, Olean, Lackawanna; made sales pitches to enthusiastic prospective recruits in lodge rooms, lecture halls, private homes.
Small railroad town of Hornell: less than week after KKK organizer C. S. Fowler spoke at local Grand Army of Republic hall, Klan announced existence by igniting huge cross on mountain side (intended to intimidate sizable immigrant population).
December: Klan activity spread throughout Finger Lakes region, even into Canada (where kleagles reportedly sought recruits with anti-Quebec appeal).
Continued kluxing in Erie County: Cheektowaga Police Chief Emil Capolla reported December 13 "scores" of "mysteriously hooded" men assembled for induction ceremony at Harlem Road/Broadway intersection; chief, keeping distance, strongly suspected KKK.
Intensified Local Opposition (Second Half of 1922).
Surge in Klan activity in Buffalo/western NY greatly intensified opposition.
September 1922: small group of Buffalonians formed Knights of the Invisible Jungle of the Tiger's Eye, secret club dedicated to "destroying the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., here."
Headquarters on Main Street, near downtown business district.
Pledged to serve as "another link added to the chain that will soon drag the Klan from its hidden realm."
African-American Community: Increasingly forceful opposition.
November: Reverend E. J. Nichols (Shiloh Baptist Church) sermon characterized KKK as "cowardly, underhanded organization"; warned: "We do not want any Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo, and will resist the invasion of these lawless individuals who preserve a mask of what they term righteousness while committing lawless acts."
Buffalo American editor: Klan advised to avoid local blacks: "Our people are aroused and it is known that we mean business. We feel that we are prepared to check the spread of this infamous organization in our fair city of Buffalo. With the Northern Negro, it will be 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth' with this Klan."
Buffalo NAACP chapter denounced KKK, called on Governor Miller to act: "[Thousands] of our people in Buffalo want to see the American Constitution kept inviolate. We will resist with every ounce of our power the invasion of our rights by such a body."
Other Western New Yorkers: Growing number joined black leaders against Klan.
Rabbi Solomon Fineberg (Temple Beth El, Niagara Falls) outraged: denounced order as "most insidious menace to American democracy and government ever devised."
County Supervisor Frank E. Freedman (Buffalo's Seventh Ward) called on Sheriff William F. Waldow to prevent future Klan gatherings outside city limits, warned "unpopulated fields of Erie County may become the rendezvous of these anti-Americans."
Buffalo Deputy Police Chief John S. Marnon: "We cannot tolerate any of this kind of business in our city and I intend to put a stop to it [the Klan] immediately."
District Attorney Guy B. Moore (speech before Zonta Club, Statler Hotel) belatedly acknowledged: "The time has come to crush the Ku Klux Klan," pledging "to do all in my power to punish and to prosecute it swiftly and surely."
Protestant Clergy Speak Out.
For first time, Protestant religious leaders began speaking out against hooded order.
November 1922: Dr. William L. Sullivan (Buffalo's First Unitarian Church) argued KKK wrong if "excites bigotry of race or bigotry of sect," while noting judgment hypothetical until more knowledge.
Few days later: Reverend Earl L. Douglas (Tonawanda First Presbyterian Church) stressed aversion to secret methods: "I want to see crime reduced. I want to see the illicit selling of liquor broken up, but I'll say so without a mask on my face, and I am perfectly sure that to put a mask on my face would be to cultivate cowardice in my own heart."
Bishop Charles H. Brent (Episcopal Diocese of Western New York) called on authorities to "uproot" Klan.
Early next year: Reverend Dr. Robert E. Brown (Richmond Avenue Methodist Church) opined KKK potentially dangerous, "based upon distrust and denial of democracy."
Klan's Disruptive Impact and Official Response (Late 1922).
Tension/uncertainty from "kluxing" campaign contributed to two unpleasant episodes.
December 20: Edward Wild (International Railway Company motorman) received K.K.K. note on brick through window: "Look out. More on the way. Stay home. This is our last warning."
Same month: seven prominent Polish-American businessmen received K.K.K. letters denouncing three Polish Roman Catholic pastors on Buffalo's east side.
Letters not on official Klan stationery, but confirmed suspicion Reverend Walter Chrzanowski (First Polish Baptist Church) affiliated with secret order.
Situation worsened as rumors spread Klan intended meeting in Polish Union Hall.
Local paper cited "scare among the people of the east side recently [owing to] the circulation of letters and pamphlets signed by the Klan."
Soon learned it was a theatrical production, "Ku Klux Klan," sponsored by Polish Protestants.
Authorities remained on guard, posting 75 police with riot guns outside hall; insisted title change to "Ku Klux Klub."
Mayor's orders: police captain attended to ensure "no speeches or words referring to the Ku Klux Klan."
Official Pressure on Schwab Administration: Klan's disruptive impact on civilian affairs pressed Schwab administration to take forceful action.
Mayor (late November): "The very minute that the Klan question is brought to a definite issue in Buffalo, then I will take steps. We all know that the Klan is unconstitutional, un-American and against the better interests of all good citizens."
Soon, two police detectives assigned full-time duty "investigating the affairs of the Ku Klux Klan."
December 11: Schwab (despite lack of legal authority) promised to discharge any municipal worker joining hooded order: "We don't want the Klan in Buffalo…. I will dismiss any city employee or official who becomes a member. I don't think any will be foolish enough to join."
Schwab's Limited Options: Mayor found options severely limited.
Aside from Harlem Road and Orioles' Hall meetings, Buffalo Klan activities shrouded in absolute secrecy.
No local knight positively identified; regular meeting place unknown to authorities; group severed all press contact.
Truly appeared part of an invisible empire.
Despite newspapers/leaders depicting Klansmen as irrational bigots/terrorists, chapter had thus far acted lawfully, violating no state/municipal ordinance, avoiding confrontation.
Deputy Chief John Marnon: "Until some unlawful action is committed [by the KKK], it would seem that the hands of the police are tied so far as arrests are concerned."
Sheriff William Waldow concurred, promising action only for specific violation.
For time being, Buffalo Klan could proceed without fear of legal harassment.
Klan's Quiet Period and Association with Protestant Clergy (Early 1923).
Winter months early 1923: Buffalo Klan No. 5 entered period of relative quiescence; organization temporarily ceased being pressing concern.
Precise nature of klavern's activities speculative, but evidently nurturing friendly contacts with select Protestant clergymen.
Effort promising due to mounting frustration over inadequate vice/prohibition enforcement.
Confronted with former beer brewer as mayor and anti-prohibitionist Al Smith returning as governor, moral reformers found themselves in deteriorating situation, dire need of allies.
Despite initial aversion to masked secrecy, Buffalo's evangelical activists began to assure themselves of group's honorable intentions.
No doubt some had learned/suspected respected friends/colleagues had joined.
Indeed, some reformers almost certainly wondered if Klan (admirable stands on key issues, restrained/disciplined) could be effectively utilized in campaign to improve community conditions.
Klan's Church Visitation and Controversy (Spring 1923).
Spring thaw brought clear evidence of KKK's growing association with Protestant churchmen.
Sunday morning, March 25: Reverend Frank H. Smith (Kenmore Presbyterian Church) sermon, suddenly fell silent, looked at last pew row.
To astonishment of most attendees: three masked Klansmen in full uniform.
Women gasped, some nervous members edged toward exit.
Trio marched side-by-side up center aisle, middle Klansman bearing small red cross.
Reached altar, turned to face congregation: one hooded figure (speaking in "slow, monotonous voice") read short message expressing KKK's devotion to Christian faith and goals as patriotic organization.
Speaker placed letter and small purse on altar, Klansmen (holding hands) brusquely walked out, entered closed car, sped away toward Buffalo.
Aftermath: Kenmore church visitation (on city line) reactivated Klan controversy.
Reverend Smith protested visit "totally unexpected," but remained strangely evasive about precise contents of letter/purse.
Smith immediately resumed sermon after Klansmen's departure, making no comment/observation, seemed curious.
Clergyman's behavior displeased many church members; one warned Klansmen would "leave minus their hoods and white bed sheets" if return visit attempted.
Kenmore Presbyterian congregation engaged in bitter internal debate over action to take.
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor (church's youth auxiliary): anti-Klan proponent presented resolution accusing KKK of fomenting "bitter passions of bigotry and intolerance"; society refused official stand against secret order.
Diversity of opinion characterized church's 10-member board of trustees; rancorous discussion before instructing Smith to read formal statement of disapproval.
Minister complied, emphasizing "final word"; considerable tension persisted.
Early June: due to trustee pressure, Smith announced resignation from pastorate.
Klan's Public Meetings and Grand Island Ceremonial (Spring 1923).
Additional efforts to strengthen Klan in western NY accompanied growing involvement with Protestant clergy.
March 31: 300 Buffalonians attended spirited pro-Klan lecture at Mizpah Hall (Masonic auditorium, Ferry/Herkin streets, west side).
Reverend John H. Moore (professional speaker from Atlanta) addressed gathering on "Ideals of the Ku Klux Klan," urged nonmembers to enlist.
Meeting punctuated by applause/laughter; at conclusion, approx. 200 attendees desired to enter Invisible Empire.
Same time: Express relayed word Buffalo Klan would formally institute new klavern in suburban Tonawanda.
Tonawanda Klansmen, meeting in private homes for months, recently relocated to more spacious facilities, anticipated sizable growth.
Niagara Falls also site of renewed kluxing: Reverend Dr. Oscar Haywood (pro-Klan activities led to removal as associate evangelist of Calvary Baptist Church in NYC) explained order's goals to enthusiastic crowd at Church of Christ (early April).
Grand Island Ceremonial: One month later (May 23 evening), elaborate/awe-inspiring Klan ceremonial on Grand Island (middle of Niagara River).
Hundreds of knights from Erie/Niagara counties ferried across, assembled at remote southern location on Tonawanda Bay edge.
Dressed in white-hooded regalia, members ignited "flaming cross of huge proportions" on hilltop, set off series of giant bonfires along beach.
Large number of motorists traveling River Road on opposite shore witnessed eerie spectacle.
Word relayed to Tonawanda police, who claimed no jurisdiction to act.
Spared intrusion, Klansmen conducted hour-long induction ritual, dispersed into night.
Ended "one of the most picturesque illuminations on [the] Niagara River that has ever been seen."
Shortly after: man identifying as "Kleagle of Niagara Falls" called Express, announced: "We have just put through a class of 148 on Grand Island and they will now receive their charter."
The Walker Law: A Challenge to Klan's Existence (Late 1922-Early 1923).
Klan could take comfort/pride in western NY strength (approx. 2,000 knights in Buffalo, same in outlying communities).
However, developments elsewhere in state seriously challenged society's existence.
Late 1922/early 1923: KKK recruiting surged in major communities (Buffalo, Rochester, Troy, Schenectady, Albany, Syracuse).
Many state/local officials convinced time for drastic action.
NYC Mayor John Hylan: Launched all-out war on organization (Klan membership rumored nearly 50,000); ordered police to break up meetings, secure membership list.
State Lawmakers: Began agitating for anti-KKK legislation.
Senator John H. Hastings (Kings) suggested steps to "destroy the vicious secrecy of the outfit."
Late February 1923: Senator James J. "Jimmy" Walker (NYC, Democratic majority leader in upper house) introduced bill requiring oath-bound associations to file membership lists with state officials.
Walker's proposal passed Senate, survived surprisingly close Assembly vote, signed by Governor Smith on May 22.
New York's Walker Law: Still on books, restricts freedom of association by targeting organizational secrecy.
Expressly exempts labor unions and officially chartered benevolent orders.
Requires: existing membership corporation/ ext{20+} unincorporated association requiring oath as membership prerequisite to file sworn copy of constitution, by-laws, rules, regulations, oath, roster, current officers with secretary of state.
Also requires biannual statements showing "names and addresses of such additional members as have been received."
Impact of Walker Law: Klan opponents touted it as victory for civil rights.
Despite restrictions on freedom of association, considered necessary/proper for state to monitor/regulate sizable organizations infringing on others' rights.
However, political motivations contributed to passage: by 1923 Invisible Empire's electoral clout demonstrated nationwide, NY klaverns poised for political action.
Albany incumbents recognized uncertainty/instability Klan might bring to Empire State politics, hoped Walker Law would reduce KKK influence.
Clear from statute's requirement that oath-bound societies file resolutions/minutes of concerted action to promote/defeat legislation (federal, state, municipal) or support/defeat political candidates.
Fair to say desire to maintain political status quo contributed significantly to legislative action against Klan.
Turning Point: Walker Law enactment a major turning point for NY Klan.
Measure awkard/ineffective against KKK, but passage meant Klan (refusing to divulge membership) now illegal organization.
Having consistently presented themselves as champions of law/government (vs. officials winking at prohibition/vice violations), Klansmen faced uncomfortable new role as lawbreakers.
For many, dubious benefits of continued affiliation didn't compensate for status; thousands drifted away.
For others: law crystallized commitment, fostered desire to strike back at opponents.
NY King Kleagle Emmitt D. (E. D.) Smith (8,000 knights on Long Island): "Governor Al Smith, by signing that bill, barred himself from the Presidency of the United States. The Klan pledges itself never to reveal the names of its members. We will fight to the last breastwork to prevent public disclosure of our identities."
Buffalo Klan's Defiance and Open-Air Meetings (Late May 1923).
Belligerent attitude characterized Buffalo Klan.
Signified defiance with unprecedented open-air meeting in city heart three days after Walker Law took effect.
May 25, 1923 evening: hundreds of non-costumed "kluxers" gathered on large vacant lot near Jefferson/Main streets.
Conducted Klan ritual, burning 12ft-high cross of kerosene-soaked burlap.
Fiery spectacle attracted large crowd spilling into Main Street; police rushed scene, found all hooded order members departed.
Left behind: fiery cross (extinguished by fire department), American flag, KKK pamphlets, canvas streamer emblazoned "Ku Klux Klan."
Police questioning of onlookers/residents yielded little useful info; no Klansman positively identified; witnesses couldn't recall car license numbers.
Same Evening, Other Communities: Invisible Empire on the move.
Midnight: three carloads of Klansmen entered small village of Lancaster.
Distributed Klan literature under doors of homes/businesses.
Village constable in patrol car detected "silent, hooded figures," set off siren; "from all directions there scrambled hooded [Klansmen] stumbling over themselves in their frantic effort to pile into the waiting motors."
Kluxers escaped; next morning Lancaster residents found Ideals of the Ku Klux Klan on doorsteps.
Secret order also visited Batavia: members "canvassed the city, throwing their pamphlets on front porches." Worked late, scaring Batavians.
Massive Initiation and Klan's Influence Claims (Two days later).
Two days after, Express reporter received phone call from unidentified Klan officer, inviting him to local Klan gathering.
Reporter instructed to be at High/Washington streets corner 8:30pm, hat in hand.
Closed vehicle with two masked Klansmen and unmasked driver picked up reporter, immediately blindfolded.
En route: Klansmen kept identities secret (referring to each other by number, e.g., "Next left turn, No. 23").
Attempted to obscure direction with numerous detours.
Reporter covertly peered beneath blindfold: car entered Williamsville, turned south on Transit Road.
Joined large cavalcade of vehicles (each bearing "white streamer or flag, presumably to mark them as Ku Klux conveyance") rolling through Depew/Lancaster with noisy horn tooting.
Procession reached Klan affair site (open field near Transit Road/William Street); reporter permitted to view proceedings.
Midnight: approx. 3,500 knights representing "lodges from all parts of the western end of the state" assembled, some carrying red flares.
Opening prayer "such as might have been delivered in almost any church."
Grand Kleagle of Western New York inducted large class of recruits, asking Kloran (Klan constitution) questions:
"Are you a native-born, white, Gentile American citizen?"
"Do you believe in the tenets of the Christian religion?"
"Do you believe in clannishness and will you faithfully practice same toward Klansmen?"
"Do you believe in and will you faithfully strive for the eternal maintenance of white supremacy?"
Appropriate response received: Klan officer sprinkled candidates' heads with water from goblet, proclaimed them knights of the Invisible Empire.
Gigantic cross burst into flame. Ceremony concluded with "America" singing.
Many Klansmen departed, others socialized until dawn.
Morning after: Express man (sight unencumbered) conducted back to city, interviewed grand kleagle.
KKK official stressed pervasive influence in Buffalo: "Our organization is far reaching. We have members in every section of the city. At a meeting [yesterday] morning there were five members of the Buffalo police force and they have been Klansmen for a long time. The Klan has more than five offices in Buffalo and about the same number of meeting places."
Pledged to resist Walker Law, asked reporter to notify public of klavern's absolute prohibition support: "You can say through your paper that the Governor had better not sign the repeal of the Mullan-Gage [state prohibition] act. We stand for law enforcement and enforcing the Constitution. Regardless of our feelings on the eighteenth amendment, we will see it enforced while it is in the Constitution."
Grand kleagle and companions released contact, drove away.
Official Outrage and Legal Threat to Klan.
Klan's open defiance of Walker Law and claims of police force influence angered local authorities.
Chief Burfeind: "The Ku Klux Klan is not wanted in Buffalo and will not be tolerated. I will send out the entire police department, if necessary, to put a stop to any meeting or ceremonial conducted by the Ku Klux Klan if they appear in disguise or robes."
Chief promised to summarily dismiss any officer joining order.
Deputy Chief Marnon: organization would have "merry time in Buffalo": "This department will not tolerate any Klan activities here and the first hooded man we find will be locked up, no matter who he is."
Mayor Schwab (convinced police needed incentive) posted $50 bounty for "the first arrest and conviction of a member of the Klan."
Klavern recognized Walker Law problem: overt hostility enhanced appreciation.
Precise application unclear, but Schwab administration might use law for raid.
Arrest of even one Klansman could lead to exposure of entire membership and other damage.
Recruiting (and thus revenue) would slump as long as organization forced to exist outside law.
Pressing urgency: Klansmen needed to neutralize legal threat.
Klan's Attempt to Evade Walker Law.
Plan devised: May 31, 1923: four "representatives for the Ku Klux Klan for the Buffalo district," with lawyer, appeared before NY Supreme Court Justice George E. Pierce, filed for state incorporation.
Justice Pierce signed provisional charter; Klansmen took document to county clerk's office (to be sent to Albany for final approval).
Before delivery, KKK representatives erased "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" and inserted "men's fraternal organization."
If undetected, maneuver would enable Invisible Empire to claim status as "benevolent order" (one of two groups exempt from Walker Law membership-disclosure requirements).
Scandal and Exposure of Klan Leadership.
Alteration almost immediately discovered; group embroiled in major scandal.
District Attorney Moore: hooded order might be charged with falsification of official records.
NY Attorney General Carl Sherman secured injunction preventing KKK from future attempts to incorporate as fraternal organization.
Crucially: incident undermined absolute secrecy, press revealed names of chief culprits:
NY King Kleagle E. D. Smith (Binghamton resident).
Buffalo Klansmen Kenneth G. Scott (Grand Kleagle of Western New York, professional Klan organizer).
George C. Bryant.
James B. Mincher.
Klan's Defense and Damage: Klansmen didn't passively deliver themselves up.
E. D. Smith admitted charter changes, but dismissed as "unimportant."
Kenneth Scott emphasized necessity of tactics given unconstitutionality of Walker Law and Klan's mission: "We cannot be compelled lawfully to reveal the lists of those affiliated with the [KKK]. The very fact that the advent of this organization has aroused to protest all the un-American forces in this nation is proof positive of its absolute necessity at this time."
Little doubt altered-charter affair (fallout persisted through summer, no formal indictments) hurt Klan.
Solidified image as rogue organization given to deviousness/deceit.
Even Imperial officials in Atlanta distanced themselves: Imperial Night-Hawk stressed "the national organization has nothing to do with the New York Klan's attempt to incorporate to evade the Walker Law."
By mid-1923, Empire State KKK (especially Buffalo klavern) appeared to have forfeited all claims to public respectability/acceptance.
Chapter 3: Fraternity, Moral Reform, and Hate
Klan Gatherings and Parades (Summer/Fall 1923):
Despite failure to circumvent Walker Law, Klansmen of western NY continued large gatherings.
July 4, 1923: Niagara Falls hosted first annual convention (Klorero) of NY Klan.
Attracted thousands, including large Buffalo delegation.
After day relaxing, 300 knights assembled Riverway Drive 6pm, paraded 4 miles through city to land beyond Porter Road/Gill Creek.
"Klavalcade" colorful: six robed riders astride "fiery piebalds," five-Klansman fife/drum corps, scores of uniformed (unmasked) knights marching in military formation.
Attracted thousands of onlookers lining route "four or five deep," often jeering, sometimes cheering.
Convention Ceremony: Arrived at Porter Road site, Klansmen donned masks, mingled with nearly 15,000 members/guests.
10pm: knights joined hands, formed huge circle around grassy knoll surmounted by flag-draped altar and three giant crosses.
Surrounding scene: ceremonial urns glowing with mysterious red fire.
Klan officials set large crosses ablaze; King Kleagle E. D. Smith inducted new class of 500 recruits.
Ritual complete, night sky exploded with fireworks.
Smith asked assemblage, "What is the penalty for revealing the secrets of the Klan?" - "Death!" roared attendees.
Visiting reporter acknowledged powerful impact of ceremony: "The psychology of the Klan's existence in this state became apparent at once. There was something romantic, almost savage, in this sort of a gathering, out in the open, the emotion stimulated by the mysterious garb, pyrotechnics, and blazing crosses."
New Surge in Klan Activity: Klorero success contributed.
July 25 evening: Buffalo klavern conducted another "spectacular ceremonial" outside eastern city limits (Transit Road/Main Street intersection).
Headlights of hundreds of cars illuminated scene; approx. 3,000 knights/"neophytes" witnessed official chartering of "Williamsville unit."
Two evenings later: 500 carloads of Klansmen assembled outskirts of Hamburg, arranged vehicles in large semicircle around flaming cross.
Kluxers ensured initiation ritual undisturbed, sentries turned away unwanted onlookers.
Late August: "about 2,000 Klansmen from Buffalo and 800 from Erie, Pa., all in white robes and hoods," traveled to Chautauqua County community of Sherman "for the purpose of establishing a local body."
Visitors ignited crosses, inducted klavern's 50 charter members.
Clash with Klan Opponents (October 1923):
Given frequency/size of Invisible Empire's open-air meetings, clash inevitable.
October 18: 1,000 knights from Niagara County assembled at Henry H. Pletcher's farm (few miles east of Niagara Falls) for nighttime initiation of 600 recruits (from Lockport, North Tonawanda, Pekin, Ransomville, Youngstown, Wilson, Newfane, Olcott, La Salle).
Hooded affair attracted passing motorists, kept away by armed guards.
One sentry, Klansman Roy Cramer, pointed gun at onlookers, discharged weapon beneath Edward P. Clifford's car (Lockport resident).
Clifford immediately notified Niagara County Sheriff Benjamin F. Gould.
Before sheriff arrived: approx. 150 Klan opponents from Lockport (some armed with revolvers/sawed-off shotguns) attempted to disrupt initiation.
Courier reporter witnessed: attackers quickly overpowered KKK's outer guards, but sentries cried for help.
Hooded brethren immediately launched counterattack, discharging "automatic double-barreled weapons and Texas Steer variety revolvers" in air as intruders fled before "wave of white-robed figures sweeping down on them."
Anti-KKK forces departed by car; kluxers, flushed with victory, completed initiation.
Ceremony conclusion: Sheriff Gould arrived, arrested two Klansmen for wearing masks in public.
Nearly three weeks later: county authorities charged Roy Cramer with first-degree assault.
Kluxing, it increasingly appeared, was not without its perils.
Fraternalism and Sense of Mission:
Numerous ceremonials/outdoor meetings demonstrated mystic fraternalism was major part of Klan's appeal.
Fulfilled social/emotional needs like other ritualistic societies (Odd Fellows, Masonry branches).
Lack of social acceptance/outlaw status mandated stringent standards of solidarity, discipline, dedication, enhancing sense of mission absent in mainstream fraternal groups.
Outsiders ridiculed almost every aspect, but Klansmen remained confident they pursued noble ends; each knight a soldier in crucial struggle to reorder/revitalize community and nation.
Klan's Foothold and Political Reluctance (Latter Half of 1923).
By latter half of 1923, mysterious lure enabled order to achieve impressive foothold along Niagara frontier.
Total of approx. 2,000 knights in Buffalo, roughly same in outlying Erie/neighboring counties.
To retain/expand membership, KKK needed to address rank-and-file concerns.
Most chapters nationwide: Buffalo klavern considered involvement in politics; rumors circulated of Klannish influence in electoral matters.
Order apparently lacked strength for significant role in 1922 general elections.
1923 city commission races (3 seats) offered promising opportunity; June: former Klan officer informed reporter klavern decided to field 3-man ticket.
Chapter soon abandoned plans.
Reasons for Reluctance: Readily appreciated.
Obvious problem: large percentage of voters Roman Catholic or of new ethnic stock, unlikely to support Protestant nativism.
Issues for rallying white Protestant vote largely co-opted.
Commissioner Frank C. Perkins had firm hold on labor support (stressing IRC opposition).
Incumbent Ross Graves (despite personal taste for liquor) emphasized strict prohibition enforcement.
Both, plus William F. Schwartz (eventual victor), established themselves as political enemies of Mayor Schwab.
Occupied populist ground against Citizens' Ticket (backed by commercial-civic elite), commanded efficient campaigns.
Candidacies didn't give Invisible Empire effective wedge into municipal politics.
No opportunities in state/county races: great majority of incumbents (only one KKK-affiliated) scored easy victories.
Relatively small in numbers, confronted with hostile ethnocultural environment, unable to claim exclusive major issue, Buffalo Klansmen had little hope of dominant political role.
Klan's Evolving Role: Moral Reform Activism.
Didn't mean Invisible Empire entirely politically impotent.
If unable to displace enemies at polls, could force officials to modify policies.
Klan would soon play major role in campaign to improve vice/prohibition enforcement in Buffalo/Erie County.
Effort gained urgency during first two years of Schwab administration.
Prior to this, Klan hadn't openly involved itself in moral reform beyond general statements for better law enforcement.
Preponderance of open Klan activity (nighttime ceremonials, cross-burnings) constituted overt defiance/civil disobedience, but klavern as group hadn't undertaken specific civic action.
Thus, Buffalo Klan only gradually embraced moral reform.
Intensified Moral Reform Crusade (Spring 1923).
Local crusade for improved moral conditions/better law enforcement became exceedingly intense/bitter.
Late May: Buffalo branch of Anti-Saloon League released new report on prohibition enforcement collapse.
Complained: "We should not have to wait until a mayor commits a felony or his four-year term expires before we can put in a man who will do his duty."
Other evangelical groups maintained pressure, eventually persuading city authorities to hold special hearings (July/August) on vice and alleged police department corruption.
Mayor Schwab dismissed most claims, but hearings produced 2,500+ pages of testimony detailing prostitution, drug trafficking, gambling, bootlegging in Buffalo.
Resulted in widespread demand for police department reorganization.
Succumbing to public pressure, Schwab (November) ordered Police Chief John Burfeind to step down, replaced him with Charles F. Zimmerman (highly respected officer acceptable to reformers).
Setbacks for Protestant Activists (1923):
Victory for Protestant activists offset by two developments:
1. Al Smith's return to governor's office (early year).
Latest campaign focused on anti-prohibition; June 1923: secured repeal of Mullan-Gage Act, greatly undermining prohibition enforcement in Empire State.
2. Serious scandal in NY Anti-Saloon League.
July: NY grand jury indicted State Superintendent William Anderson on larceny, forgery, extortion charges related to league fundraising.
Anderson denied wrongdoing, but indictment disorganized organization, significantly reduced ASL's credibility in law enforcement struggle.
Situation worsened early 1924: Anderson convicted of forgery, sentenced to two years in state penitentiary.
Klan and Protestant Ministers as Allies.
By this time, confronted with deteriorating situation and need for allies, 11 local Protestant ministers joined Invisible Empire.
Included three most vocal/prominent critics of city administration:
George A. Fowler: district supervisor of NY Anti-Saloon League, prominent member of Buffalo Methodist Ministers' Association.
Charles C. Penfold: pastor of Sentinel Methodist Church, chairman of Social Committee of Buffalo Council of Churches (formerly Buffalo Federation of Churches).
Littleton E. H. (L. E. H.) Smith: pastor of Ontario United Presbyterian Church, active member of Buffalo Council of Churches.
Ambitious, energetic men in their mid-thirties.
Fowler, Penfold, Smith shared ardent, apparently sincere interest in promoting more moral/law-abiding community by evangelical Protestant standards.
Increasingly frustrated by worsening local conditions, uncooperative Buffalo authorities.
George Fowler's Recruitment: Since Schwab administration, Fowler tried to rally Protestant community against city hall, releasing reports of rampant law disregard.
Revelations little changed local situation, convinced Fowler (summer 1923) to explore other civic activism modes.
Explained: "When the [Klan] started I was interested in an organization of citizens because municipal control of vice in the city was at low ebb. At the same time I heard that [the Reverend Oscar] Haywood was in the city and that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. A friend of mine, interested in the order, invited me to meet and hear Haywood. We met at the Ford hotel and talked for about an hour and a half. These gentlemen indicated to me that the Klan was a patriotic organization. No hint of bigotry which has been attached to the Klan was stressed by them and I assumed that it was not the case. They told me the Ku Klux Klan had been misrepresented by the press and that the organization stood for the maintenance of law and order and that it was not opposed to Jews, Catholics, negroes [sic], and so on…. We went to an office on the east side of the city. I don't know whether I signed a card or whether somebody else did. But it was done with my consent."
Membership in Invisible Empire couldn't compensate for Anti-Saloon League scandal.
Fowler remained active, but influence/credibility diminished; other Klansmen assumed prominent role in moral reform.
Reverend Penfold's Activism (1923).
Reverend Charles C. Penfold established himself as leading Protestant activist.
Called for renewed campaign to address community's "deplorable conditions."
Focused on alleged breakdown of vice/prohibition enforcement downtown, especially lower west side and "tenderloin" district (near Eagle Street).
Skeptical about police crackdown (July) improving vice, organized team of undercover operatives (two federal agents) roaming city gathering info.
Penfold (Investigator No. 1) contributed by spending evenings strolling past suspect cigar stores, soft drink shops, residences.
Brazenly solicited by prostitutes, concluded wide-open conditions prevailed in Buffalo heart.
Testified at special city hearings (August) on vice situation: pastor and associates painted graphic picture of community wallowing in corruption, sliding toward moral ruin.
Impact: Penfold's activism kept evangelicals convinced of need for major city government cleanup, especially police department.
Buffalo Council of Churches endorsed efforts, formally called on Mayor Schwab to improve law enforcement.
Weeks later: Buffalo Baptist Union (representing 28 local churches) proclaimed revulsion "at conditions which have existed, apparently with the consent of the police authorities," demanded mayor "call to account those who are chiefly responsible for the shameful conditions revealed."
Mounting pressure led to Chief Burfeind's resignation (November); Penfold and associates continued attacking city hall, claiming mayor's attitude toward prohibition caused general disrespect for law.
Penfold: "Our whole trouble grows out of the fact that the whole Schwab administration seems to have decided to enforce only such laws as they personally believe in. In the matter of prohibition, they substitute their own views for the law and the result is bound to be anarchy."
Non-Klansmen like Reverend Leon O. Williams agreed, warned: "What we as a people are facing is not merely a breakdown of the means of law enforcement, but it is a breakdown of our sense of the imperativeness of the need to maintain all the laws or to sink into the mire of social and political chaos."
Klan's Rise as a Means of Achieving Results (Late 1923 - Early 1924).
By end of 1923, Protestant reformers abandoned hope of changing Schwab administration's attitudes/policies.
1924: began arguing mayor's removal was essential prerequisite for local improvement, escalating animosity.
In this atmosphere, Klan began to appear as best means for certain Protestant activists, notably Reverend L. E. H. Smith, to achieve results.
Smith: resident of Twenty-First Ward (northwest Buffalo), married with three small children, leading figure in Buffalo Council of Churches.
Arrived three years prior from Philadelphia pastorate, reputation as strong advocate of prohibition and banning Sunday sports.
Enjoyed posing as fearless man of action at war with evil/corruption.
He, more than any other Klansman, spurred Buffalo klavern into action.
Klan's Direct Moral Reform Campaign (March 1924):
Early morning, March 12, 1924: hooded/robed (unmasked) Buffalo Klan No. 5 members visited roadhouses, saloons, hotels just outside city line.
Notified startled patrons/owners they violated law, situation intolerable to klavern; one location: knights warned "sales of liquor to young girls must cease."
Four days later: intrusion at Auto Rest Inn (near Main Street/Transit Road).
Shortly after midnight: 50 costumed Klansmen entered inn, sending female customers into hysterics.
Klan spokesman ordered 150 patrons to calm down, keep seats; accused Auto Rest Inn of breaking law "every day and night," receiving special protection from authorities.
Admonished: if establishment didn't change, Klan would close it.
Delivered message, white-robed vigilantes departed.
Proprietor Mrs. Minnie "Jew Minnie" Clark DiCarlo observed knights acted "like gentlemen and molested no patron in the place."
Official Anger and Klan's Defiance.
Invisible Empire's open involvement in prohibition enforcement angered local authorities.
Erie County Sheriff Frank Tyler: "[If] the Ku Klux Klan attempts to take the law into its own hands, or resorts to any lynching methods, there will be trouble."
Sheriff conferred with Mayor Schwab/Police Chief Charles F. Zimmerman about action against hooded order.
Schwab: Klan visitations might "lead to bloodshed." Explained: "Someone is going to get excited about this nonsense and take a shot at these fellows. Then it's going to be serious."
Klavern Defiant: Sent letter to mayor March 17 (first official message in nearly two years).
Protested: "Klansmen have conducted themselves like gentlemen and have done no more than law abiding citizens would want to do to secure justice in the rottenness of your regime."
Warned: "Make no mistake about our power. There might have been a time when you could have done things with impunity, but not now."
Klavern sent copies of letter to local newspapers; Schwab scoffed: "I am not going to get into any controversy with any damn fools who call themselves Klansmen and are looking for notoriety. That's all they are looking for—notoriety."
Nevertheless, he repeated longstanding offer to meet local knights personally.
Schwab's Confrontation with Klan at Unity Masonic Temple.
Buffalo Klan No. 5 felt time for meeting, but on Klan's terms.
March 22 evening: Mayor Schwab invited speaker before 500 west-side residents at Unity Masonic Temple (Black Rock section).
Unsuspecting mayor just began talk on road construction when nine masked Klansmen in full regalia (some reportedly carrying spears) marched into hall.
Unidentified leader stood before mayor, reminded him he asked to meet Klansmen: "That's what we are doing now. We're calling your bluff."
Schwab (caught off guard) attempted to defend law enforcement efforts, but Klansmen unconvinced.
KKK spokesman: "The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of this city do not think you are doing as much as you could. We have already sent in complaints and named places where the law is being broken. No action has followed. What we want is to see the notorious dens of vice in and around Buffalo closed."
After inconclusive verbal exchanges, knights departed, leaving behind visibly shaken mayor.
Schwab's Resolve and Klan's Investigations.
Black Rock encounter outraged Schwab, convinced him Buffalo klavern had to be crushed.
Next day: called for formal grand jury inquiry into episode, pledging: "I am going through with the investigation if I have to go down with colors flying. The Klansmen acted in a cowardly way. A cur would give an enemy more of a chance than they did."
Police detectives ordered to discover identities of Klansmen who interrupted talk; District Attorney Moore vowed to prosecute knights for unlawful intrusion (max. penalty one year prison).
Alarmed by legal action: March 25 klavern informed press by letter that west-side gathering was regular local KKK chapter meeting; 300 men/200 women in audience all Klan-affiliated.
Klansmen therefore not liable for prosecution, couldn't have "intruded" on their own meeting.
Letter stressed Mayor Schwab overreacting to innocent prank: "The Mayor was done no harm…. In future years he may be able to appreciate the whole affair as a joke."
Schwab's Response: Klan's explanations only hardened Schwab's resolve.
Less than two weeks later: secured informant in klavern, producing detailed KKK activity reports.
Spy revealed identities of previously unidentified Klansmen, adding to list of 126 known/suspected knights compiled by police previous year.
Agent unable to obtain klavern's closely guarded membership files (key to shattering secrecy). Mayor had to bide his time.
Klan's Moral Reform Push: Unaware of threat, Buffalo Klansmen next weeks pushed moral reform program.
Letters with official Klan seal mailed to city officials/Frank Perry (Gaiety Theater manager), complaining about illegal Sunday theatrical performances.
Reverends Penfold/Smith directed another major undercover investigation of vice/liquor violations.
Sufficient info amassed: Klansman Smith secured warrants from District Attorney William Donovan, personally accompanied officers on series of highly publicized raids.
March 29: crusading pastor and prohibition agents descended on "soft drink" shop at 145 High Street, uncovered $10,000+ worth of liquor.
Following evening: raids on other establishments yielded even larger amount of illicit booze.
Similarly successful raids (prompted by complaints from Smith/close associate Klansman David D. Mayne, former Erie County sheriff's deputy/railroad detective) continued through spring/early summer.
Enhanced impression that local authorities shamelessly remiss in enforcing prohibition.
Particularly revealing episode (early April): four government agents accompanied by David Mayne raided bowling alley, discovered sheriff's deputies/city hall employees consuming alcohol; sheepish Sheriff Tyler present with open beer bottle.
Klan's Accusations Against Schwab (Spring 1924).
Klansmen cited raid results as clear evidence Buffalo conditions wouldn't improve while Mayor Schwab in office.
L. E. H. Smith: "I publicly charge the Mayor with having winked at lawlessness. Second, I charge that he has broken the law himself, and, third, I charge that he advised others to become lawless."
New report from Buffalo Council of Churches claimed "conditions of vice and lawlessness in Buffalo are worse than they have been in many years."
Klan member Charles Penfold: document confirmed Mayor Schwab "alone is to blame for the present deplorable state of affairs in Buffalo."
Sentiments not confined to Invisible Empire: Reverend Robert J. MacAlpine (Central Presbyterian Church) avowed "the disgusting moral situation in Buffalo is due to the impeachable infidelity of the Mayor to the duties for which he was elected."
Reverend John D. Campbell (Covenant Presbyterian Church): because of Schwab administration, "Buffalo has become a stench in the nostrils of other cities. Her fair name is besmirched."
Reverend Alva W. Bourne (Glenwood Avenue Baptist Church) wanted mayor to know "the cultured, law-abiding, country loving, child loving and God loving people of Buffalo will no longer wade through the vomit of the underworld."
Early April: Courier believed evangelical leaders launched "concerted campaign" against Schwab.
Schwab's Retaliation and Klan's Growing Acceptance.
By this time, embattled mayor abandoned desire to placate moral reformers.
Announced: "I am convinced that the ministers of Buffalo are not trying to make any constructive campaign of what they call improvement of conditions of the city. [Their campaign] is based on a bitterness and hatred that ill becomes those who profess to be ministers of God."
Due to secret reports just received, Schwab knew KKK intimately involved in moral reform surge.
April 12: openly accused Reverend Smith of heading Klansmen delegation that interrupted his Unity Masonic Temple talk: "Smith was the man who spoke to me behind the Ku Klux Klan mask. I have certain knowledge to that effect, and I challenge him to deny it."
Mayor argued: "any group of ministers which endorses the activities of a recognized Klansman, who is admittedly a member of an intolerant organization, is not deserving of consideration."
Klan's Growing Acceptance: Schwab's accusations little impressed critics.
One non-Klan pastor: "God bless the K. of C. or the K.K.K. or any other organization that will cooperate to give us a cleaner city."
Signs Klan might finally achieve open acceptance among local Protestants.
April 13: Woodside Methodist Church invited Klan organizer Oscar Haywood to speak on order's aims.
Haywood promised: "If you will turn this church over to the Ku Klux Klan, we will make it the biggest church in Buffalo within six months, and the biggest in the state within a year."
Same month: Mrs. Alma Smith (no relation to Reverend Smith), teacher at School No. 16, told eighth-grade class: "Our mayor ought to be the next one tarred and feathered and it would be a good thing for Buffalo if the K.K.K. did something."
Buffalo Council of Churches continued full support for Reverend Smith (who consistently, unconvincingly denied Klan affiliation).
Even District Attorney Moore (despised KKK) felt obligated to cooperate with Smith/operatives.
Early summer 1924: largely due to success in focusing Protestant community's attention on Mayor Frank Schwab's shortcomings, Klan appeared to be easing into role as legitimate force in local affairs.
Undercover Reports on Klavern Activities (April-August 1924).
Increasing involvement in moral reform provided some indication of goals/values/motivations of part of klavern membership.
Basic questions remained: What did knights say/do at secret meetings? Where did Klan meet? Who were leaders? How did Klan function?
Buffalo klavern: remarkable collection of documents (detailed reports of Klan activities from two informants operating April-August 1924) allowed for unusual specificity.
Bulk of reports by unidentified individual who joined early 1923; reasons for informing Mayor Schwab unclear, but seemed displeased with local leadership quality.
Other source: Edward C. Obertean, appointed "special patrolman" by mayor, assigned to infiltrate klavern (entered Invisible Empire June 16, 1924).
Reports of both men appear straightforward/balanced, though primary task was to relay information to discredit KKK.
Bigotry in the Klavern: Despite Buffalo Klan's claims of not being racist/intolerant, reports reveal bigotry pervaded klavern.
Meetings often featured speakers using crude negative stereotypes of Jews, African Americans, Catholics.
Late June 1924 meeting: visiting lecturer avowed: "The Jew's God is the almighty dollar and his creed is commercialism and greed"; noted Klansmen "wanted nothing to do" with blacks, hoped for bill in state legislature "prohibiting the marriage of a Negro and a white person."
Bulk of KKK's spite reserved for Roman Catholics, routinely called "fish," "crossbacks," and "micks," "harps," "flannel mouths" (whether Irish or not).
Pope described as "big bellied, poisoned toad."
Stories circulated: Catholics controlled press, poisoned President Warren G. Harding, plotting with Jews to install Governor Alfred E. Smith in White House.
Some Klansmen believed Catholic agents in U.S. Treasury Department put hidden religious symbols on one-dollar bills in preparation for Pope's arrival.
Informant observed Klansmen Raymond Goss and Harry A. Kiefer tearing bills in half; Kiefer said series of bills had Pope's picture, cross, word "Leo," rosary. Showed representation of each. Said only necessary to tear off corner with Pope's picture.
Goss: tore up ~100 bills in two weeks. Kiefer/Goss believed Klansmen could eliminate bill from circulation by tearing, forcing replacement.
Kiefer: "The bunch that designed the bill are the ones Harding canned. That's the reason the Catholics poisoned him."
Many knights saw themselves in life-or-death struggle against Roman Catholicism.
Klansman Louis H. Conshafter: "someone in the organization [KKK] should bomb the next president of the U.S. if he appointed any Catholics to office."
Albert C. Acker expressed desire to "shoot some of these d----m K. of C."
May meeting: members formally advised Klan decreed "no son of Rome would ever sit in the president's chair."
Klavern not totally inflexible: regularly praised District Attorney William J. Donovan, who, despite Catholicism, was "the only official in the County who will give us a square deal."
No evidence Klan specifically concerned with Buffalo's large Italian/Polish Catholic populations; sectarian animosity focused on predominantly Irish Knights of Columbus and Mayor Schwab (political/religious enemies).
Klavern's Focus on Politics and Mayor Schwab.
Klavern spent more time discussing politics than religion (often intertwined).
Mayor's informants: most members Republican, but felt local party leaders hopelessly corrupt.
Reverend L. E. H. Smith (Klan meeting): "Before we can clean up the Republican party in Erie County, we must clean up the Republican organization."
Klan particularly disliked Sheriff Frank Tyler (little to strengthen prohibition enforcement).
News of federal officers catching Tyler drinking beer (Klan-sponsored raid, April 1924) produced jubilation at KKK headquarters.
Grand Kleagle George C. Bryant exulted: "That's great. This will make great reading in the newspapers."
Another Klan officer: "We have been laying for the Sheriff for some time."
Plotting against Mayor Schwab (dubbed "Frank Xzema Slob" by one klavern wit).
Early 1924: KKK sought evidence linking mayor to illegal liquor interests, hoped to file charges.
General meeting: Reverend Smith (group's chief investigator) claimed near success: "Mr. Chairman and Brothers: You have been calling for action and we have decided to give you action. We have discovered a large bootlegging ring in Buffalo which seems to be guided by some master mind. We have reason to believe that party is the Honorable Mayor. We have the assurance from the District Attorney [William Donovan] that if we can connect him [Schwab] up with it [then he will be] brought up on a federal charge. We also happen to know the Mayor and other city officials frequent places where booze is sold and we are going to make an effort to raid one of these while he is paying a visit."
Mayor (aware of Klan's intentions) avoided compromising situations.
One Klansman: "Boys, the only way for us to get Schwab out of there is for about five men to go out and get him and take him out and never bring him back."
Other knights felt order, however, crippled mayor's political career.
One member believed Schwab would lose next election, even if not removed before then.
Another: "No, no, he won't ever run again. He knows he hasn't a chance."
Limited Political Strength: Confidence about mayor's eventual removal notwithstanding, Buffalo Klansmen held few illusions about political strength.
Unlike many Klan chapters elsewhere, klavern consistently declined to field municipal candidates.
Opted instead to determine "right" non-Klan candidates, then cast Klan's votes as a bloc.
Prior to 1923 city elections: committee (headed by Klansman William J. Casper, National Aniline Company clerk) selected three "best qualified" candidates for city commission.
One choice: eventual winner William F. Schwartz (whom klavern ironically later denounced as "biggest bootlegger in Buffalo").
1925 mayoral election scheduled: Klan hoped for satisfactory reform candidate, but recognized "it will take more than the Clan [sic] vote to elect him."
For present, and probably future, KKK had little choice but to accept role as minority interest group with limited access to governmental power.
Klan's Public Image and Undercover Work.
Despite lack of electoral prospects, Klan aspired to be significant factor in community affairs.
Informant observed leaders scrutinized press reports of Klan activities: "studying the newspapers hungrily to see if anything is published that will react to their advantage—at the same time telling their followers the newspapers are Catholic controlled and fighting the clan [sic]."
Klan distrusted most local press, but felt Commercial and News were balanced.
George Bryant angrily denounced Express: "every time anyone burns a cross around here [that paper] always says, 'Boys did it.'"
KKK delighted that Reverend Smith/David Mayne's undercover investigations garnered favorable publicity, hoped to improve poor public image.
To associate Invisible Empire with purity crusade, klavern issued official statement praising Smith/Mayne, offering "to assist them financially and to give them all the information in our possession relative to the rotten conditions in the city and county."
Klan-Sponsored Raids: Spring/summer 1924: KKK headquarters abuzz with excitement over bootlegging raids.
Smith/Mayne frequently rushed into klavern offices for conferences, then dashed away on urgent business.
One knight admired Mayne, a "fighter." Another: "He sure is, and he will keep on until he gets that man Tyler out of office."
Mayne/Smith personally conducted most undercover work, obtaining illegal alcohol samples with small rubber syringe for federal warrants.
Work perhaps not totally unpleasant: late June, informant spotted minister/assistant with two attractive young women in back of "tenderloin" district cafe (evidently preparing to have place "pinched").
Two investigators updated Klansmen at general meetings; Smith emphasized "the great personal sacrifice he was making to carry on this work."
Fraternal Life and Secrecy.
In addition to participation in law enforcement campaign, klavern offered members standard fraternal life.
General meetings approx. every two weeks, usually at Mizpah Hall (Buffalo west side).
Klan rituals, recruit induction, speeches by visiting lecturers/klavern officials dominated gatherings.
Occasionally, outdoor ceremonial held.
Informant: "Nothing of importance is discussed [at these meetings], on account of it being considered too open."
Secrecy so permeated Buffalo Klan that most rank-and-file knights knew few other members' identities.
Situation enhanced security, diminished possibility of internal challenge to leadership.
Klan headquarters notified knights of functions by mail, but growing fear of mailing list falling into wrong hands.
Devised "block system": "idea being to have each man on record at the office by a number, so it would not be necessary to carry their names on the record cards at the office. Then when a meeting is called one man in each ward would be notified and he would notify a man in each district and so on down to each individual."
Klavern planned mobilization system by November 1924, in time for general elections.
Klan Leadership and Internal Problems.
Klan headquarters: suite of offices, Calumet Building (downtown Buffalo), rented by Kay-Bee Adsign Company (KKK front).
Numerous Klansmen passed through, exchanging news, gossiping, making sales contacts.
Serious business conducted by handful of officers in closed session.
1921-1924: four men headed secret order as Grand Kleagle:
Batty (only identified as such).
Kenneth Scott (professional Klan organizer).
Stewart Queer (former minister, employed by Westinghouse Electric/American Brass).
George C. Bryant (former Pentix Petroleum Corporation manager, also Grand Titan of Province of Western New York).
None particularly talented/inspirational leaders; two nearly wrecked Klan.
Batty (probably outside organizer from Atlanta) embezzled entire klavern treasury, departed by 1922.
Scott: "good personality and [was] well liked by the men for awhile," but removed after becoming too familiar with married members of Klan's women's auxiliary.
Queer: probably Klan's best leader, resigned when klavern refused $50 /week salary; commented Klan "had not given him the right deal and he was sick of it."
George Bryant's Leadership: Early 1924: Bryant (under orders from KKK hierarchy) assumed control, infused group with enthusiasm, but growing dissatisfaction.
Failure of officers to fully account for finances angered members.
February meeting: Klansman State Assemblyman Henry W. Hutt requested Bryant prepare monthly klavern expenditure reports.
Many knights refused to pay dues until they knew where money was going.
Bryant appointed father-in-law William B. Royal and brother-in-law Walter B. Hawke as financial secretaries, fueling suspicions.
Dissident Klansman Milo F. Jarden declared intent to "find out whether this is a family affair, a money-making scheme or what."
Unhappy member speculated "couple of 'black legs'" at head of local Klan.
By summer 1924: didn't appear Bryant would be more successful than predecessors.
Klan's Character: Mainstream Activists, Not Fringe Fanatics.
Reports by Mayor Schwab's informants: organization with few redeeming features, but not warped collection of antisocial fanatics/terrorists.
Scheming against mayor/officials repellent, but probably similar to anti-Klan camp plans.
Racism/religious bigotry embraced by Invisible Empire, though repellent today, hardly distinguished Klan in 1920s.
Similar sentiments almost surely routinely expressed in lodge halls, private clubs, executive boardrooms, Protestant family dinner tables.
Despite anger at local officials, Klan never seemed to consider drastic extralegal action (beyond Walker Law non-compliance).
Followed standard legal procedure for warrants against illegal establishments.
Never engaged in violence against African Americans/immigrants.
Hoped to establish itself as legitimate force within existing power structure.
Characterizing KKK as hopelessly aberrant/lawless fringe group: inaccurate.
Most frightening aspect: ability to attract ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Chapter 4: The Knights of the Queen City
Challenges in Understanding Klavern Membership:
Undercover investigator reports enhance understanding of Buffalo Klan but focus on officials and vaguely describe rank and file.
Key question: Exactly who composed the main body of the Klan—the masked men who gathered around fiery crosses at night?
Most Klan studies hampered by lack of reliable membership data.
Detailed evaluation of Buffalo klavern made possible by a rare document: a list, culled from the Klan's official files, of the chapter's active membership as of early July 1924.
Membership List Details:
Appears accurate and comprehensive, with minor clerical errors/misspellings.
Provides names of 1,910 individuals.
1,747 resided within city limits.
33 lived in nearby Kenmore (which never had its own klavern).
99 came from other communities.
Addresses of 31 Klansmen unknown.
Provides ages of 93.8% of members.
Provides occupations of 96.4%.
Provides employers of 94.1%.
Constitutes one of the most comprehensive and detailed information sources on the Invisible Empire in a large urban area yet discovered.
Occupational Distribution: Challenging Traditional Views:
Most important information for Klan historiography is occupation.
Contemporary opponents routinely argued KKK held little appeal for intelligent, rational, respectable citizens.
Buffalo newspaper editor (1923): Klan attracted "the chinless and those of the slanting brow," consisted of "morons attired in sheet and pillow case."
Most scholarly evaluations (even without supporting data) emphasized alleged ignorance, unsophistication, socioeconomic marginality of Klansmen.
Occupation often serves as nexus of important social/psychological variables (intelligence, family life, education, ethnicity, class standing, personality), providing valuable means of assessing types of men recruited.
Diversity of Occupations: Local klavern members from wide variety:
Doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, bank tellers, mail carriers, jewelers, machinists, janitors, common laborers.
Blue-collar workers: steelmakers, crane operators, tugboat navigators, railroad car repairers.
Gentler trades: photographers, florists, interior decorators, commercial artists, secretaries, a nurse.
Also: firemen, policemen, architects, surveyors, clergymen, clerks, butchers, bakers.
American Brass Company: candlestick makers.
Altogether, Klan drawn from 129 major occupation types.
Occupational Status Comparison (Table 1):
1,707 knights in Buffalo with known occupations (89.3% of entire chapter, 97.7% of city residents).
Organized into six occupational status categories (Robert A. Goldberg's study of KKK in Colorado).
Table 1 compares percentages of klavern members in each category with Buffalo's 1920 male and native-white male working populations.
Result: city's knights were remarkably high-status group, significantly higher percentages in high/middle nonmanual categories, lower percentages in semiskilled/service and unskilled classifications.
Contrast partially anticipated: KKK membership confined to native-born white Protestants (distinctly advantaged socioeconomically), while comparison groups included large numbers of first/second-generation ethnics.
Nonetheless, Klan's overall occupational prestigiousness impressive, especially as data refers to 1921-1924 (some Klansmen likely rose in status).
List only includes members who hadn't ceased affiliation by mid-1924; likely higher percentage of high-status members before Walker Law (1923) and intensified opposition, who might have resigned due to increased legal liability.
Refined Occupational Comparison (Table 2):
Argument: comparing Klan to working populations with many recent immigrants overstates prestige.
Prestige/status are relative; better comparison: native-white male workers of native parentage (generally higher status than native-white male working population at large).
This category excludes many native-white Catholic workers (Polish, Italian, Irish, German origin), and was likely major source of Klansmen.
Probably closest socioeconomic (and limited ethnic/religious) peer group for Buffalo Klan from federal census data.
Caveat: native-white-of-native-parentage population included many non-Protestants (Irish/German ancestry) ineligible for Klan.
Also, large contingent of klavern were Protestants of German ancestry, who may have had at least one foreign-born parent (especially in Buffalo with sizable German foreign-born population).
Significant percentage of non-German Klansmen may have had at least one foreign-born parent (e.g., English/Canadian descent).
Thus, Klan membership and native-white-of-native-parentage male working population may have been mutually exclusive to significant degree.
Table 2 Comparison: Even compared to Buffalo's native-white males of native parentage (most occupationally prestigious group in 1920 census), Klansmen as a group clearly enjoyed higher occupational status.
Both groups had privileged positions compared to Buffalo's foreign-born white male workers (nearly 35% of total male workforce).
Conclusion: Buffalo Klan best viewed as generally prestigious group within a native-white male population that itself enjoyed relative prestige and advantages.
Specific Occupational Representation (Over/Underrepresented):
Occupational data reveal types of employment where knights were over- or underrepresented compared to native-white male working population at large.
Occupation influences/reflects social/personal behavior; provides clues why Buffalonians joined/didn't join Invisible Empire.
Benchmark: if perfect cross-section of 1920 native-white male working population, then 1.61% of native-white men in each occupation would be KKK.
Problems with benchmark: Klan data later (1921-1924), some Klansmen might not have lived/worked in Buffalo in 1920, city occupational profile may have changed.
Nonetheless, 1.61% is probably a fairly reliable (if inexact) means of evaluating patterns of Klan employment for determining over-/underrepresentation.
High Nonmanual Occupations (Table 3):
Table 3: percentage of Klansmen (among city's native-white males) in 8 of 16 high nonmanual occupations held by KKK members.
Two professions significantly overrepresented: clergymen and engineers.
Clergymen: Special appeal of KKK for certain men of the cloth (moral reform, strict prohibition enforcement, militant Protestantism) easily understood.
Many native-white clergymen in 1920 census were non-Protestant; makes Klan's recruiting among eligible clergymen even more impressive.
Engineers: Possible explanation for overrepresentation not as apparent.
Four types of engineering professionals: 13 chemical, 17 mechanical, 7 electrical, 4 civil.
Generally older than fellow knights (average age 37+ years).
Most worked for large industrial/manufacturing concerns, over 25% for National Aniline and Chemical Company.
86.6% (of those in 1924 city directory) headed households; majority resided in middle-class neighborhoods in Buffalo's northern wards.
Workday likely involved calculating, measuring, planning, testing, supervising, coordinating.
Acquired habits of orderliness/precision.
Desire for better ordered, formally bound community (sustained by occupational experiences and native-white Protestant cultural values) likely led them to Invisible Empire, an organization committed to reordering society by traditional Protestant standards.
Underrepresented: Three high nonmanual professions notably underrepresented: chemists, lawyers, teachers (all occupations where native-whites predominated).
Small number of chemists: unknown why.
Lawyers and teachers likely avoided Klan for legal/job security reasons.
Klan-affiliated attorneys risked disbarment after Walker Law.
Many teachers (especially public school) vulnerable to removal by anti-Klan elements.
Legal vulnerability could explain dearth of high government officials.
Middle Nonmanual Occupations (Table 4):
1920 census grouping hinders evaluation, but two occupations showed notable overrepresentation: accountant/auditor and manager/superintendent.
Like engineers, these men earned living by measuring, calculating, coordinating, supervising, but somewhat younger (average age 29.3 for accountant/auditor, 36.1 for manager/superintendents).
Less concentrated in Buffalo's north-side wards.
Wide variety of business concerns employed Klan-affiliated manager/superintendents, from large industrial concerns to small retail establishments.
Small Businessmen: Largest single group of middle nonmanual Klansmen (census data unavailable).
Klan's strongest selling point: "klannishness," obligated Klansmen to direct trade to fellow knights.
For small white Protestant entrepreneurs (often beset by economic uncertainty, perhaps envious of perceived ethnic solidarity of "un-American" businesses), such an appeal could be enticing.
Census data sheds little light on which small businessmen most receptive, but in at least one occupation (restaurant owner), Klan overrepresented (3.17% among native-white male workforce).
Nearly half (48.5%) of Buffalo's restaurants, cafes, lunch rooms in 1920 owned by foreign-born residents, perhaps enhancing Klan appeal.
Intertwining of nativistic and economic concerns may have influenced Klan's sizable contingent of independent grocers.
Klavern Business Directory: Means of ascertaining which small businessmen attracted to Klan.
Directory regularly used (undercover reports); small businessman joining for economic reasons would insist on listing.
Excluding types with less than three klavern members, directory most comprehensively lists barbers, building contractors, painters, photographers, plumbers, realtors.
With exception of barbers/building contractors, these professions had markedly underrepresented foreign-born workers.
Reasonably doubted that "un-American" economic competition led bulk of these small businessmen to Klan.
More probable: these were very competitive fields (especially real estate, building contracting, painting), where businessmen especially willing to use novel means of making sales contacts.
Low Nonmanual Occupations (Table 5):
Salesmen, foremen, private detectives overrepresented among Buffalo Klansmen.
Salesmen: Worked for wide variety of businesses.
36% (of those identifying employers) employed by manufacturing/wholesale enterprises.
34% in retail trade.
Remainder sold real estate, insurance, advertising, securities.
Census data vagaries make it hard to ascertain specific sales fields of over/underrepresentation.
Notable KKK presence among automobile salesmen and securities brokers.
These were highly competitive, commission-based occupations (also true of insurance field, where Klansmen 3.79% of Buffalo's native-white sales force).
Almost surely, lure of business contacts drew numerous sales representatives.
Foremen: Over 50 businesses in Buffalo had at least one Klansman foreman.
2/3 of KKK-affiliated foremen worked for manufacturing concerns (most for large industrial, e.g., National Aniline (13), Donner Steel (9), American Brass (9$)).
Remainder in transportation/service.
Median age at joining: 37.6 years (similar to Klan engineers, slightly older than managers/superintendents).
Just under 89% (in 1924 city directory) classified as household heads.
Mature, successful working-class members, accustomed to supervising, coordinating, making important decisions.
Far from hapless victims of industrial growth, they were skilled overseers of expansion.
Private Detectives: Six joined Buffalo Klan.
Three for detective agencies, two for railroads, one for Manufacturers & Traders Trust Bank.
Affinity for undercover activity apparently brought at least one (David D. Mayne, railroad detective at joining) into Invisible Empire; later one of klavern's most zealous investigators.
Underrepresented: Agents, bookkeeper/cashiers, clerks, stenographer/secretaries (nearly 9% of chapter membership, but Klan generally underrepresented).
Economic factors may have contributed (often poorly paid, Klan fees/dues steep for 1920s).
Attracted larger percentage of non-Protestant native whites than more prestigious nonmanual work, reducing potential recruits.
More vulnerable to job loss than supervisory personnel (foremen, managers, engineers), possibly shying them away.
Skilled Occupations (Table 6):
Just over 30% of Buffalo Klansmen in skilled manual trades.
Table 6: KKK most strongly represented among patternmakers, mechanics, electricians, carpenter/woodworkers, boilermakers, locomotive firemen, compositor/printers.
Klan machinists largest group in category (22.1%).
These were among most prestigious blue-collar occupations, requiring intelligence, training, aptitude; also thoroughly organized by craft unions.
Average age: late 20s to early 30s.
Solid majority (of those in 1924 city directory) reported as heading a household.
Economic/Social Competition Hypothesis: Speculation: large percentage of skilled workers resulted from competition between rival ethnic groups.
Klan scholar Kenneth T. Jackson posited Invisible Empire as defensive reaction to rising aspirations of non-native-white workers.
Tested hypothesis: calculated change in percentage of foreign-born/African-American workers (1910-1920) for five overrepresented skilled occupations (patternmaker, carpenter/woodworker, boilermaker, compositor/printer, locomotive engineer), plus machinists (large contingent), cabinetmakers, stationary engineers, plumbers (low percentages of Klansmen).
Results: In 7 of 9 occupations, foreign-born worker percentage declined (1910-1920); black worker percentage change negligible.
Little evidence large percentage of foreign-born workers in an occupation promoted Klan membership.
Cabinetmakers (foreign-born majority): relative dearth of Klan enthusiasm.
Locomotive firemen/compositor/printers (low/declining foreign-born percentages): more likely to have joined.
Doesn't mean ethnic conflict in workplace had no impact. Dynamics varied. Skilled workers may have joined KKK in response to perceived threats from second-generation ethnics (fellow native whites), especially non-Protestants.
Craft Union Membership: Another factor for skilled workers entering Klan.
Labor organizations often pursued racist policies, opposed foreign immigration; union membership might have primed individuals for Klan membership, reinforced attitudes aiding recruiting.
Unfortunately, craft union membership records for key groups (electricians, machinists) largely missing for Buffalo in 1920s; no adequate comparison with klavern list possible.
Nevertheless, reasonable to suspect, given specific skilled trades where Klan concentrated, at least some union members susceptible to KKK overtures.
Semiskilled and Service Occupations (Table 7):
Klan underrepresented in all occupations in this category with available info, except railroad/streetcar conductors and private policemen.
Underrepresentation among factory workers notable: native-white Protestants in this group almost certainly experienced potentially stressful economic/social interaction with non-Protestants, foreign-born, African Americans.
Also among most likely to suffer during labor unrest.
Economic vulnerability, considerable expense of Klan fees/dues, general lack of interest in middle-class fraternalism/political activism may have hindered recruiting.
Whatever primary cause, Klan did not thrive in lower proletariat.
Conductors and Private Policemen: Overrepresentation anticipated given other categories.
Conductors: essentially foremen of mass transportation, spent workday ordering, coordinating, calculating; accustomed to authority figures, resolving disputes.
Private policemen: also positions of authority.
Six for major railroads, one for National Aniline, one (Chief of Police Herbert N. Davis) for Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Average age 43; most headed households (city directory). Well-established residents.
Unskilled Occupations:
Approx. 7,000 native-white unskilled workers in Buffalo (early 1920s).
Klan roster lists only nine: three baggagemen, one gardener, five laborers.
Conclusion: whatever the KKK may have been elsewhere, in Buffalo it absolutely did not represent a mass movement of the socioeconomically marginal.
Summary of Occupational Findings:
Buffalo klavern membership: broad cross-section of native-white community.
Nonmanual and skilled workers overrepresented.
Semiskilled, service, unskilled laborers underrepresented.
Klan particularly attractive to white/blue-collar employees involved in managing/supervising, small businessmen/salesmen in highly competitive fields, workers in more prestigious blue-collar trades.
Recruitment pattern likely results partly from Klan membership requirements (native-born white Protestants probably concentrated in certain employment forms, contributing to overrepresentation).
Available data doesn't permit closer evaluation of this influence.
Some Buffalonians may have joined due to ethnic conflict in workplace/business, but evidence sketchy at best.
Local Klansmen mostly appeared remarkably secure, established, accustomed to leadership roles relative to male working population at large.
Additional occupational info supports conclusion: klavern drawn from broad economic cross-section of local native-white society.
Buffalo Klan roster lists 670 individuals/businesses employing Klansmen; 1,573 knights worked for these employers (remainder self-employed or no employer listed).
Nearly 75% of employers (502) had only one Klan employee; 91% had three or less.
Klansmen working for such employers constituted 38.7% of members listing employers.
Nearly 33% of klavern members listing employers worked for enterprises with 20+ knights.
Difficult to evaluate Klan representation within specific firms without knowing percentage of native-born white males (let alone native-white male Protestants within city limits).
But evident: hooded order attracted members from large number/variety of enterprises, from smallest retail to largest industrial.
Occupational profile so diverse/wide-ranging that advisable to explore non-occupational factors for why individuals joined Invisible Empire.
Residential Distribution (Figure 4, 5):
Possible factor differentiating Klansmen from most other native-white Protestants: part of city where they resided.
Klavern members might have been typical citizens facing stressful/unusual circumstances in neighborhoods (acute crime, growing numbers of foreign-born).
Residential info provides better understanding of environment shaping Klansmen's social/political outlook.
Figure 4 shows Buffalo Klansmen's residential distribution (from 1921-1924 applications).
Hooded order attracted members from all parts, but clearly concentrated in outlying districts.
Nearly 40% of klavern members lived in just four wards (Twentieth, Twenty-First, Fourth, Fifth), all far from city heart, near municipal boundary.
Another 40% lived in nine other wards ringing older districts.
Only 59% of Buffalo's total population lived in these 13wards.
Conclusion: Klansmen significantly more likely to reside in newer, more middle-class parts of city compared to fellow residents as a whole.
Figure 5: Klansmen as percentage of ward populations of adult (21+) native-white males.
Confirmed Invisible Empire most successful in outlying areas, especially extreme northern/southern wards.
Inner-city districts (where most anxious native-white Protestants might be expected) had little recruiting success.
Major limiting factor: most native-white males there were non-Protestant, thus unqualified for KKK.
But, if order was promising agency of ethnoreligious solidarity/self-defense, one might expect remaining native-white Protestants to be eager to join.
Possibly: precisely because living in close proximity to large, intensely anti-Klan populations, KKK seemed unpromising; or economic/class factors hindered recruiting.
Whatever the reason, Invisible Empire did not prosper in Buffalo's heart.
Ethnic Conflict and Residential Patterns: Doesn't mean ethnic conflict insignificant.
Outlying wards (most Klansmen) generally had lower percentages of foreign-born, but not homogeneously native-white.
E.g., Ward Twenty-One (second highest percentage of Klansmen among native whites) encompassed large Polish/Hungarian enclaves.
Over 25% of residents in heavily kluxed Ward Eleven born outside U.S.
By 1925: majority of Klansmen listed in these two wards had at least one foreign-born neighbor or former residence occupied by non-natives.
Even in Ward Twenty (lowest percentage of non-natives): over 15% of population foreign-born.
Assessing relationship between ward ethnic composition and Klan residential patterns presents considerable challenge.
Statistical Analysis of Residential Factors: Attempt to detect influence of ethosocial/economic factors.
Scatterplots/Pearson correlation coefficients for ward-level percentages of Klansmen (among adult native-white male population) vs. population percentages of: foreign-born whites, foreign-born Poles, foreign-born Germans, foreign-born Irish, foreign-born Italians, native-born African Americans, native whites of native parentage.
Also compared Klansmen percentage with homeowner-to- renter ratio, dwelling-to-family ratio.
Results:
Practically no linear association with % foreign-born Irish (-.027), Germans (.064), and Italians (-.165).
Slight association with Poles (-.240) and African Americans (-.268).
Significantly stronger, but still quite nonlinear, correlation with % foreign-born whites (-.431) and native whites of native parentage (.452).
All correlations statistically significant at .001 (one-tailed test).
Variables related to economic circumstances showed most linear relationship: .597 for homeowner-to-renter ratio and .640 for dwelling-to-family ratio (both significant at .001).
Calculations reflect: bulk of Klansmen lived in relatively prosperous outlying wards, characterized by large native-white-of-native-parentage populations.
Such wards also contained numerically significant foreign-born populations.
Proximity of foreign-born residents surely influenced Klan recruiting, but precise dynamics unknown.
Other factors (religion, ethnic composition of native-white population of foreign/mixed parentage) may have played important roles.
Conclusion: Buffalo Klansmen, considering race, nativity, general socioeconomic status, mostly lived where expected (assuming broad cross-sectional appeal within local native-white Protestant community).
Ethnicity of Klan Members:
Breadth (if not depth) of successful Klan recruiting indicated by ethnicity data.
KKK rhetoric/literature extolled Anglo-Saxon institutions/culture, but in practice accepted applications from almost all native-born white Protestants, whatever ancestry.
Thousands of German-American Protestants in Buffalo: rich source of potential recruits.
Kleagles made considerable headway: by 1924 over 34% of klavern members in city had distinctively German surnames.
Considering Anglicized names, and some Klansmen with non-German surnames having German/German-American mothers, very large percentage (maybe 40% or more) of klavern was of German ancestry.
German-Americans Joining Klan: May seem strange for superpatriotic, nativist society, given anti-German excesses of war era.
Klan provided means of certifying commitment to nation/community (at least white Protestant).
Offered opportunity to turn tables, denounce antagonistic groups as un-American.
More importantly: by early 1920s, bulk of young German-Americans thoroughly assimilated, shared beliefs/values/problems/concerns leading other white native-born Protestants to KKK.
Comparison of occupational status of German-surnamed vs. non-German-surnamed knights revealed remarkable similarity, though German-American Klansmen's occupations slightly less prestigious overall (anticipated for non-English-speaking origins).
Residential Patterns of German-Surnamed Members: Indicated considerable assimilation.
Over 61% lived in outlying wards adjacent to city line, remainder scattered.
Ward Twenty (one of highest native-white-of-native-parentage percentages): 32.3% of Klan members German-surnamed (almost same as total German-surnamed representation in klavern).
Klan recruiting successful in east-side wards (growing Polish population may have enhanced appeal), but German-surnamed Klansmen came in significant numbers from all parts of city.
Klan attracted broad (albeit occupationally prestigious) cross-section of qualified German-American population, just as it did among Buffalo's native-white Protestants as a whole.
Non-Germanic Majority Surnames: Suggested wide-ranging appeal.
Bulk likely traced ancestry to British Isles.
68 had Scandinavian "son" ending (some may have been British).
15 clearly Dutch, 8 French, 5 Polish, 2 Spanish, 2 Italian names.
Difficult to assess over/underrepresentation without reliable figures for ethnic origins of Buffalo's native-white population.
Likely KKK developed at least token following among most major local populations of Protestant European stock.
Age Distribution of Klan Members (Table 8):
Klan recruiting apparently traversed ethnic divisions among Protestants more easily than age groups.
Knights in city: average age 32.7 years at joining; nearly 77% below age 40.
Table 8: Klansmen significantly younger than adult male and native-white male populations from which they were drawn.
Reasons for Youthfulness: Several factors.
Buffalo klavern served as unusual medium of civic action; younger men more willing to contribute time, energy, money.
Nearly 2/3 of Klansmen in 1924 city directory headed households (of whom 30.7% in 20s, 36.3% in 30s, 21.5% in 40s).
1925 state census data: many started families.
Considering social problems in early 1920s Buffalo, young family men (beset by pressures/obligations of caring for others) may have been drawn to KKK to improve conditions.
May have seen group as means of establishing business/social contacts to advance careers.
World War I Veterans: Other generational experiences attractive to younger men.
First scholars attributed KKK success to intolerance, passion, violence, irrationality from war experience.
One sociologist suggested Invisible Empire largely composed of angry, restless war veterans, hard-minded militants threatening to turn Klan into homegrown fascism.
To examine: Buffalo Klan roster compared with 17,797 WWI veterans residing in city at military entry.
Limitation: doesn't indicate Klan-affiliated veterans who moved to Buffalo after war.
Comparison yields valuable information: 118 Buffalo Klansmen (6.75% of city residents) served in Great War.
75 Army, 36 Navy, 6 Marine Corps, 1 Coast Guard.
By war end: 13 commissioned officers, 35 noncommissioned, 70 lower enlisted ranks.
Some experienced combat: at least four wounded; one future knight, Erwin C. McIndoo, cited for valor.
Klavern included Major Edwin G. Ziegler, known war hero (officially praised for "exceptionally meritorious service characterized by untiring zeal and intelligent grasp of his duties in the battle of the Hindenburg Line").
Disproportionate Share of Veterans?: In Buffalo 1920, 143,709 males ages 20-34.
If all 17,797 war veterans were in this group, then 12.3% of cohort saw wartime military service.
By 1923 (when most Klan roster men likely filled applications), cohort ages 23-37, including all 118 Klan-affiliated veterans residing in Buffalo during war.
Total of 983 Klansmen in this age range: calculation shows Klan members with known veteran status constituted 12% of this cohort within klavern.
Figure comparable to city as whole.
Could be higher if more veterans moved to Buffalo after war and joined Klan, but data doesn't permit estimation.
Conclusion: WWI veterans composed only a small minority of Buffalo Klan.
Fraternal Connections:
Probably more than war-veteran status, membership in other men's fraternal societies helped bring Buffalonians into Invisible Empire.
From KKK's arrival (late summer 1921), rumors of Klan recruiting in such organizations (especially Masonry branches) persisted.
These societies largely composed of native-born white Protestants; common secrecy practice afforded Klan recruiters security.
Used bizarre rituals/unusual costumes: members generally more amenable to Klan's strange practices than non-fraternalists.
Buffalo Fraternal Scene (1920s): Offered kleagles abundance of men's societies to solicit recruits:
24 lodges of Free and Accepted Masons.
7 chapters of Royal Arch Masons.
4 lodges of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons.
2 commanderies of Knights Templar.
1 temple of Mystic Shrine.
37 chapters of Odd Fellows.
8 lodges of Knights of Pythias.
5 courts of Foresters of America.
11 tribes of Improved Order of Red Men.
8 camps of Woodmen of the World.
Various units of Maccabees, Elks, Moose, Orioles, and Eagles.
Most official records for these groups unavailable.
Masonic Connection: One important document (directory listing all Buffalo's Masonic lodge officers in 1922) sheds light.
Of 642 officers listed, 40 (5.9%) were Klan members by 1924.
Invisible Empire strongly represented in leadership of two Masonic bodies:
Zuleika Grotto No. 10, Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm.
Northeast Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.
By 1923: future Grand Kleagle of Western NY, George C. Bryant, became "monarch" (chapter president) of Zuleika Grotto No. 10 (1,600-member social organization associated with Blue Lodge Masons).
Colorful group, wore fezzes, green/blue uniforms.
Participated in large marching band, drum corps, military drill team.
1923-1924: Bryant used position to solicit Klan members; allowed KKK lecturer to address regular chapter meeting.
Efforts produced mixed reaction: Klansman later noted Bryant "nearly wrecked the Erie County Masons."
Nevertheless, Bryant retained Masonic office, continued recruiting among lodge brothers.
Northeast Lodge (small group of Masons in Ward Twenty) established in 1921, still developing membership.
Perhaps less constrained by official anti-Klan stance of Masonry than older, better-established Buffalo lodges.
At least five of 14 officers joined Klan by 1924.
Conclusion on Fraternal Link: Significant link between Masons and Klan (KKK's regular use of Masonic facilities).
But, not overemphasized: great majority of Masons avoided Invisible Empire; KKK only significantly infiltrated leadership of two lodges.
Klan had at least one member serving as officer in 25 of 42 Masonic bodies listed in 1922 directory.
Unknown if all solicited recruits, but seemed KKK well-situated to develop healthy following among Masons.
At least one knight (Klansman Albert H. Zink) headed major civic organization that also contributed members:
Chief Rabban in Masonically affiliated Ismalia Temple.
President of Kiwanis Club in 1924.
Buffalo klavern possessed influential contacts within some groups dominating city's mainstream organizational life.
Religious Affiliation:
Final factor: Did KKK attract balanced cross-section of local Protestant community, or concentrated in certain denominations?
Adequately addressing requires determining religious affiliation of sizable random sample of Buffalo Klan.
Unfortunately, not derivable from local records (membership lists of many Buffalo churches from 1920s missing/unavailable).
Methodology: Attempted construction of sample through telephone survey of 5,400 Buffalonians with same last names as klavern roster.
Successfully located 206 descendants/relatives of local KKK members willing to provide info on denominational affiliation of 219 local knights (12.5% of city residents).
Results not statistically reliable random sample, only suggestive; best under circumstances.
Survey Results (Table 9):
178 Klansmen in sample identified as church members; 56 "just Protestant" or unaffiliated.
Table 9 compares with denominational profile of Buffalo's white Protestant church members in 1926.
Klan apparently attracted members from major churches across Protestant religious spectrum.
Most intriguing: high percentage of Lutherans, but possibly due to survey methodology (relatives of German-surnamed Klansmen easier to locate).
Problem: few relatives of Lutheran Klansmen recalled if kinsmen evangelical or non-evangelical.
Nonetheless, survey data suggests Invisible Empire enjoyed wide-ranging, relatively balanced support among residents belonging to major Protestant denominations.
Klan's Overall Religious Orientation: Suggested by activities.
Meetings featured prayers, speeches by evangelical ministers.
By 1924: Klan prominent role in evangelical crusade to improve liquor/vice law enforcement.
10 of 11 clergymen affiliated with Invisible Empire were evangelicals.
However, mistake to view local KKK as uniformly infused with evangelical zeal; undercover reports depict group more preoccupied with secular political maneuvering than moral reform (though concerns often overlapped).
Doctrinal Disputes: Apparently ignored Protestant modernist/fundamentalist dispute of 1920s.
No evidence (newspaper articles, Klan-affiliated sermons, Schwab spy reports, oral interviews) klavern took stand on doctrinal issues.
Likely numerous representatives from both camps within klavern; never let convictions undermine Protestant solidarity.
Many probably agreed with Klansman Mark H. Hubbell (Buffalo Truth editor): "the unseemly squabbling between opposing theorists within the [Protestant] church means a loss in religious values that cannot be compensated for by anything that either side has to offer."
Conclusion on Klavern Membership Profile:
Examination of Klansmen's residence, ethnicity, age, veteran status, fraternal connections, religious affiliation (though not exhaustive) significantly advances understanding of Buffalo klavern.
Compared to fellow native-born white adult males: local knights relatively young, more likely to reside in outlying wards.
Hooded order attracted citizens of both British and non-Anglo-Saxon ancestry.
Appeared to have developed balanced following among city's Protestant church members.
War veterans and fraternalists may have been particularly drawn, but available data doesn't indicate extent.
Overall, combined with socioeconomic status knowledge, strengthens conclusion: KKK exerted broad appeal among Buffalo's white middle-class Protestants, attracted hundreds of otherwise ordinary/respectable citizens from social mainstream.
But this wasn't recognized at time, especially by enemies.
Opponents remained convinced KKK was fanatical, violent organization that needed to be crushed by any means necessary.
Eventually, enemies struck at Klan mercilessly.
Chapter 5: The Destruction of the Buffalo Klan
Anti-Klan Campaign Launches (Summer 1924):
Enemies of the Invisible Empire launched all-out war on the KKK in Buffalo.
Assault from which the secret order never recovered.
Appeared sudden, but actually culmination of gradually intensifying effort from previous summer.
June 1923: Klan conducted numerous ceremonials in defiance of Walker Law; anti-KKK elements organized in earnest.
Meeting in prominent businessman's office (Ellicott Square): group of professionals and businessmen laid groundwork for formal incorporation of the United Sons of America.
Pledged to combat any "group of individuals who have plans for the breaking down of this government, or the destruction of law and order."
Served notice influential citizens believed time to deal with Klan.
Other residents (including Mayor Schwab) endorsed efforts of regionally based Liberty League, sponsoring lectures exposing Klan as money-making scheme.
Third organized group (Crosby Building) gathered information from former Klansman from New York City.
Little known about specific activities, but assumed these groups played active, covert role in assault on local Klan (given subsequent events).
Situation relatively quiescent until spring 1924 when Buffalo klavern inaugurated moral reform campaign and confronted Schwab in Black Rock.
Tensions steadily increased as it became evident Klansmen intended openly exert influence.
Focus on L. E. H. Smith and Threats:
Animosity of anti-Klan forces focused on L. E. H. Smith, who emerged as chapter's most visible/outspoken activist.
After three weeks visiting roadhouses, hotels, restaurants, soft drink places: Smith informed reformers (Ontario Street Presbyterian Church, late March) he was convinced "there is not another place in the country as corrupt as Buffalo."
Went so far as to allege mayor "is crooked and the sooner the people of the city realize it the better."
Praised numerous unidentified Klansmen he said were attending meeting: "I believe that you have done more to crystallize public opinion than any force in a generation. I hope that you will keep on in your attempt to bring about a universal demand for different civic conditions."
Response: Smith's provocative assertions and increasingly open relationship with KKK produced vehemently negative response.
Mayor Schwab threatened to sue for slander.
Minister began receiving threatening notes: "Count your days until the 13th, Beware!" Another: "A bullet is too good for you. Your legs ought to be tied behind a young colt and dragged through the streets of Buffalo. You are an undesirable citizen and not worthy to live here."
Reverend Charles Penfold also received threats; one: "Stop your attacks on our mayor or you are going to get it. … I will blind your child on his way home from school, and will attack when you least expect it. I know that we can get your wife."
Bombing of Smith's Residence (April 1924):
Opponents of moral reform decided to deliver more forceful message.
Shortly after midnight, April 18 morning: large fused bomb exploded on porch of Reverend Smith's residence at 34 Gallatin Street.
Explosion ripped through house, front "crushed in like an eggshell."
Pastor and family away visiting friends, but bomb probably not intended as warning: lights on, size of device suggested murderous intent.
Police never discovered who responsible, but evident Klan controversy escalated to dangerous new level.
Continued Klan Activity and Official Pressure:
Continued Klansmen activity kept tensions high.
KKK released letter promising to "use every means at our command to apprehend the ones responsible for the recent outrage [bombing]."
Early May: group of knights ignited large cross at foot of Ashton Place (heavily Irish South Buffalo).
Klan-sponsored raids on suspect establishments continued.
L. E. H. Smith wrote to Governor Smith, asking if he would remove mayor if "we introduce into your office definite proof that Frank X. Schwab has committed misdemeanors while in public office."
Late May: increasing boldness demonstrated when scores of members in civilian attire drove through Hamburg, Lackawanna, "nearly the entire section of South Buffalo" late at night, put up pro-Klan posters reading "God Give Us Men, Knights of the Invisible Empire."
Thousands of placards placed on telephone/telegraph poles before police arrested 12 Klansmen for illegal posting.
Militant City Administration: Also promoted tension.
Following humiliating Black Rock encounter (late March), Mayor Schwab refused open support for secret order.
Schoolteacher Alma Smith commented to class KKK should tar/feather mayor.
Schwab immediately launched personal investigation, took statements from dozen+ students; April 10: removed Smith without citing specific regulation.
Dismissed teacher denied "ever uttered one word that might be construed as Ku Klux Klan propaganda," but admitted: "if everyone were moved by Klan principles, affairs of the public weal would be better off."
Few days later, April 14 evening: police on full alert receiving word white-robed Klansmen parading near Main/Chippewa streets (downtown Buffalo).
Officers notified mayor, rushed to scene, but procession composed of 200 University of Buffalo students conducting fraternity initiation.
Youths previously secured parade permit, but seven taken into custody for questioning.
One participant in cheese-cloth gown with black felt KKKs forced by police to remove costume.
Hardening Religious Divisions (1924):
Skirmishing between pro/anti-Klan forces had near-farcical aspects, but thinking Buffalonians realized potential for major trouble.
Disturbing trend: discernible hardening of religious divisions.
Local Klan episode always characterized by strong Protestant-Catholic hostility, but both camps avoided open warfare.
1924: developments increased likelihood of unrestrained conflict.
Governor Al Smith's strong bid for Democratic presidential nomination imparted new salience to many Protestants' concerns.
Growing opposition to his candidacy fueled Roman Catholic resentment.
Locally, sense of final reckoning on religious issues enhanced by spectacle of Roman Catholic mayor (newly reelected Supreme Commander of Knights of St. John) openly feuding with Protestant activists (Buffalo Council of Churches) and secret society dedicated to Protestant solidarity.
Quarrel already resulted in home bombing.
1924 seemed year for important decisions, judgments, settling old scores.
Schwab's Exploitation of Religious Ties:
For over two years, Mayor Schwab tried to avoid turning moral reform/Klan issues into religious fight.
Became less restrained after Black Rock confrontation.
April 1924: dismissed Buffalo Council of Churches leadership as "wholesale scandal-mongers."
Weeks later: ordered police to investigate council's chairman, Reverend Don B. Tullis (incorrectly suspected of being Klansman).
Klansman L. E. H. Smith: "Mr. Schwab seems to be insistent upon stirring up some religious prejudice in this vice campaign. We have tried to keep that out."
Situation worsened, mayor openly exploited religious ties.
Late May (Catholic Press Association convention): Schwab accused Invisible Empire of "conducting guerrilla warfare against the Catholic church."
Urged journalists to "fight this battle for the church. Don't pass it up."
Bishop of Buffalo, Right Reverend William Turner, also present, argued Catholics must "shoulder the burden" of opposing "undesirable Protestant citizens" (assessment mayor publicly endorsed).
Weeks later (Knights of St. John national convention): Schwab again called on Catholics to "battle against all bigotry and lies that are welling up in the country through such agencies as the Ku Klux Klan."
Klan's Continued Activities and Binghamton Klorero:
Ignoring gathering storm, Buffalo Klan pressed ahead.
May 30: klavern conducted large outdoor ceremony on private land near Clarence Center, attended by hundreds of knights.
State trooper pursuing traffic violator arrived, KKK pickets turned him away.
Much of following month spent preparing for NY Klan's second annual Klorero in Binghamton.
Early July: hundreds of knights from Buffalo/surrounding communities traveled by train/car to four-day gathering.
Despite incidents (Klan sentry pelted with bricks, buckshot fired into KKK encampment), approx. 4,000 knights had good time.
Most notable: July Fourth parade of 2,000 robed/hooded kluxers through Binghamton heart.
King Kleagle E. D. Smith headed "klavalcade" astride white horse, followed by floats, band, marchers from Klan and Kamelia (order's female auxiliary).
One boisterous contingent: Buffalo Klan No. 5 unit (200 men) led by costumed individual masquerading as Frank Schwab, carried signs "Mayor Schwab's Pets."
Schwab (when told): "God forgive them; they don't know what they are doing."
Burglary of Klan Headquarters (July 1924):
Mayor's desire for forgiveness didn't extend to himself.
For months, planned decisive action; Binghamton Klorero ideal opportunity to strike.
Spies informed him of membership files/mailing lists location; knew most officers out of town.
Agent unknown (police, Klan operatives, anti-Klan organizations).
Certain: late July 3 evening: burglar(s) broke into Klan headquarters (ostensibly Kay-Bee Adsign Company offices) on third floor of Calumet Building.
Early next morning: janitor discovered suite ransacked, papers scattered, equipment smashed, file cabinets jimmied.
Investigation: number of important documents missing.
Buffalo police (denying prior knowledge of headquarters location) speculated burglary work of dissident Klan faction.
Klavern's Distress and Cover-up: Break-in greatly distressed Buffalo Klan No. 5.
Leaders promised to prevent exposure of rank-and-file; now unknown parties accessed sensitive records.
To squelch panic/plant doubt: klavern officers issued press release downplaying intrusion.
Claimed only two Bibles, American flag, $250 cash, "a mailing list of eligible prospects and a few enquiries from those desiring information" taken.
"The files of the actual membership of approximately 18,500 names together with financial records," the letter bluffed, "are not kept at the office."
Klan's Continued Demonstrations and Schwab's Escalation:
Klan tried to keep members' spirits up by continuing large initiation ceremonies.
Three days after burglary: hooded order conducted first outdoor meeting in Tonawanda, burning large cross on canal barge.
Attending Klansmen informed newspapers of planned public parade.
July 15 evening: over 400 knights in full regalia gathered on private land near Swormsville, initiated new class of recruits (ritual lasted well after midnight).
State Klan publication Vigilance said gathering was "the answer of the Klan to the enemies of the order in Buffalo that attempted to secure the membership list by robbing the Buffalo headquarters recently."
Schwab's Additional Pressure: Evident that record theft hadn't dissuaded Klansmen.
July 25: Schwab informed reporters he received anonymous Klansman letter offering to sell Buffalo Klan membership list for $200 .
Letter claimed "many good citizens in this organization," but vehemently denounced "un-American, unprincipled, law-defying, money-grabbing, face-covered ministers who call themselves the inner circle of the Ku Klux Klan of Buffalo."
Tone/structure revealed strong similarity to secret reports Schwab received since April; suggested writer/mayor acquainted.
Indeed, Schwab almost surely orchestrating appearance of roster while disassociating himself from break-in.
Legal obstacle: mayor liable to charges of receiving stolen property if he bought list.
Retrieval of Membership List and Public Display:
Schwab quickly resolved difficulty.
August 1$: mayor announced he received another "anonymous tip" that important Klan materials in Calumet Building basement.
Police officers dispatched, located large sugar bag with KKK literature, uniforms, nearly 2,000 index cards bearing city residents' names.
Took items to downtown headquarters to be "counted and checked."
Pressed for details, mayor remained evasive: "I will not talk about it because I do not wish to give anyone the opportunity to say that I am prejudiced."
Klavern Response: Little time wasted responding to mysterious reappearance.
Attorney Julius Grass (legal representative, active member) demanded immediate return of all items from basement; threatened libel suit if newspapers published alleged membership list.
Officers returned materials August 3; Grass protested they retained transcripts of info on index cards.
Police admitted, argued it was standard procedure to have "itemized and descriptive record" of stolen property.
Problems Exposing Membership: Still posed problems.
Authorities no doubt list accurate, but no way to prove in legal showdown.
Roster inscribed on plain index cards (not official applications), no signatures.
Local newspapers wouldn't publish without substantial verification.
City risked libel for openly claiming named citizens belonged to Invisible Empire.
Degree of official disingenuousness required: police department (on Schwab's orders) placed copy of roster on public display August 4 afternoon.
Assistant Corporation Counsel Andrew P. Ronan: "We do not know whether the list is a list of Klansmen or not. We are taking no chances in making the list public." Argued names simply part of official record of stolen property available to all concerned residents, adding "Anybody may copy the list if he desires."
Public Reaction to Exposed Membership:
Public interest in "record of stolen property" grew.
August 6: 75 residents came to view document, carefully reading names as armed guards stood nearby.
Visitor: "I always suspected that bird." Another: "See that fellow there—well he lives next door to me, can you beat it."
Two days later: visitors increased to 300; viewing by groups, additional copy displayed.
Police extended visiting hours, made third copy available; spokesman acknowledged unprepared for influx.
August 13: ranks of curious swelled to 3,000+; officers transferred copies to more spacious Franklin Street station.
Crowd read lists: "numerous outbursts of anger, displays of bitterness and exclamations of astonishment."
Many residents jotted down names, particularly tradespeople/neighbors.
Klansmen's Response: Most responded with silence.
Courier contacted listed men, all denied affiliation or refused comment.
State Assemblyman Henry Hutt: "Absolutely not. I never was connected with the organization, nor am I now." Informed of evidence attending January meeting, admitted: "I may have, but I don't think so."
Reverend Charles Penfold initially denied connection, eventually indicated involvement: "I believe I have addressed some Klan meetings—but so has Mayor Schwab; so that does not mean anything. I have addressed meetings that looked very much like Klan meetings to me—maybe that is the reason for my name appearing among a number of prospects."
Tragic Incident: Henry H. Lyon (August 1924):
Loss of secrecy disorganized klavern, fueled discontent.
Angry Klansman: officers should be formally censured; theft of files was "pure case of neglect."
Anxiety, embarrassment, anger produced by exposure can only be speculated, but in one instance, resulted in tragic incident.
For months prior to break-in, Henry H. Lyon (highly respected electrical engineer, longtime employee of Buffalo General Electric Company) had been one of klavern's most active members.
Suffered from progressive neurotic condition, found public humiliation unbearable.
Shortly after midnight, August 7, 1924 (less than three days after KKK roster displayed): Lyon took revolver, fatally shot wife and two young sons (ages 8 and 10) as they slept.
Lyon then shot himself in right cheek; died hours later.
Newspaper report of his death described work habits particularly intriguing given Klan's occupational concentration:
"It was said that Lyon was a conscientious, painstaking man in his work and all employees under him respected him. Lyon was chief engineer of the drafting department of the [Buffalo] General Electric Co., which position involved a vast amount of mathematical work. The men under Lyon were required to figure everything strictly according to scale, a fact which reveals the exactness Lyon desired and demanded."
Perhaps obsession with order, regularity, precision led Lyon to Invisible Empire; perhaps also to madness.
Anti-Klan Retaliation and Official Concerns:
Klan's enemies not deterred by Lyon tragedy.
Catholic Union & Times: "The murderer and the suicide joined an organization whose sole reason for existence is to persecute the Catholic Church, to revile her priesthood and sisterhood. Conscience makes cowards of us all."
Community's wrath on others: Police Lieutenant Austin J. Roche (August 11): "business men whose names were found on the list have been boycotted by many of their customers since the list at police headquarters was thrown open to the public. One west-side milk dealer said he lost 106 customers the first day the list was made public."
Rumors: insurance salesmen/stockbrokers lost considerable business, Klansmen dismissed from jobs.
After list displayed: Seneca Flower Shop (owned by klavern member Anson C. Beeman) painted with yellow KKKs.
Downtown shoe store covered with wallpaper strips advising "Catholics, Jews, and Negroes" to take business elsewhere.
August 13 evening: seven South Buffalo homes/businesses (all belonging to Klansmen) marked with large KKKs painted in white lead paint.
Klan opponents posted sign with names of South Buffalo knights at Seneca Street/Norman Place intersection, attracting hundreds of curious Fifth Ward residents.
Following night: vandals covered at least half a dozen residences in Cheektowaga (just across city line) with black and white KKKs of various sizes.
Official Worry: Surge of anti-Klan activity concerned local authorities.
Police Chief Charles Zimmerman warned: "If these demonstrations continue, we will be forced to withhold the list from further exhibitions. Displaying of the lists is not intended to incite any such activities."
Even Mayor Schwab (whose actions encouraged demonstrations) voiced reservations: "While some may think that retaliation is justified, I appeal to them as civic-spirited citizens and as true Christians not to despoil the fair name of the city of Buffalo by any such occurrences which would resemble in any way the tactics of the organization at which they are aimed."
Schwab's Further Exposure of Klan (August 1924):
Mayor not finished with Klansmen.
Correctly anticipating most knights would deny membership, Schwab held additional records in reserve.
August 19: announced disgruntled Klan officer mailed him new membership list.
List included nearly 2,000 Buffalo Klansmen, plus like number from 70+ towns/villages/hamlets in western NY.
Schwab: unlike earlier list, this roster had comprehensive set of official application cards bearing members' signatures.
Forms also provided detailed info on residence, occupation, age, religious belief, Klan rank.
To convince others of fair/legal acquisition, mayor released copy of accompanying letter:
To Frank X. Schwab, Mayor of the City of Buffalo:
"Because you have proven to be such a good sport and because these confirmed liars of the Klan have repeatedly denied their membership and defied you to prove their identity with the hooded anti-Americans and are now crying for help and putting the responsibility upon the shoulders of others, I am sending you by express the remainder of the property taken but not stolen from the Ku Klux Klan headquarters July 3, 1924, by those who had a right to enter for their own protection and whose cards have been removed from this file but who will be ready to reveal the rottenness of the Buffalo Klan when the proper time comes. Remember, Klansmen are sworn to lie when asked if they belong to the Ku Klux Klan. A Klansman Was I."
One of Schwab's spies within klavern signed reports "A Klansman I Am" and "A Klansman I Was." Regularly criticized corruption in leadership; reports stressed unfair treatment of mayor by Klan.
Strong suspicion: membership files acquired by this operative, a person with whom mayor had been in close contact for months.
Schwab's Plan for Humiliation: Immediately, "corps of stenographers" copied Klan records; Mayor Schwab indicated plan to publicly display new list.
Hoped to use membership cards to confront/humiliate Buffalonians who joined Invisible Empire.
Announced: instead of returning materials in bulk, "I am going to insist on the [men] whose names and signatures are in the new list personally coming to police headquarters if they wish to recover their membership cards."
Added religious twist: open letter to city's Protestant clergymen, asking them to "inform the public from their pulpits next Sunday that we will insist upon the Klansmen retrieving their cards."
One week later: police began sending postcards to all residents on list, requesting property pickup.
Police Chief Zimmerman's Opposition to Exposure:
Some city officials felt mayor excessively vindictive, actions would breed trouble.
Most vocal: Police Chief Zimmerman (Protestant, admired reformer, uncle of Klansman Andrew Zimmerman).
Possessed considerable understanding of how otherwise respectable citizens might have been led into Invisible Empire.
August 21 to press: "If it is up to me, I will under no circumstances allow anybody to see the Klan list. The open inspection of the [first list] led to many disorders and unnecessary strife."
Warned: "People are ready to commit murder over the accusations made that they are members of the Klan. A man called up only yesterday and said he would kill anyone who chalked the letters K.K.K. on his home as someone attempted to do."
Advised: only with state supreme court order would he open records to public scrutiny.
Police Lieutenant Austin Roche also had reservations: "I believe that it is unfair to allow persons indiscriminately to view the lists, especially when their reason for wanting to see the list is a malicious one."
Schwab's Order and Compromise:
Schwab tried to compromise to avoid internal administration controversy.
Suggested only newspapers be allowed to examine records: "They [the newspapers] can take it or leave it. I am not giving out the list and neither is the chief. If the newspapers wish to make public a public record, it is up to them."
To avoid further delay, Schwab August 25 issued direct order to Zimmerman: "You will immediately permit members of the press to view the said list in the hands of the property clerk."
Chief (no choice) allowed reporters, angrily avowing he had "washed his hands of everything," but refused to let journalists copy information.
Explained: "I have received several requests from officials of industrial plants and other organizations to do all in my power to keep the list a secret. They informed me that several of their employees have caused disturbances in the stores and plants and they fear further disorders if the new list is made public."
Legal Action and Publication of Klan List:
Chief's arguments against full disclosure didn't convince zealous opponents.
August 28: Charles S. Desmond (ambitious young Catholic attorney, Democratic candidate for state assembly seat held by Klansman Henry Hutt) indicated legal action against Zimmerman.
Desmond argued: "As a public official in charge of public records, [Zimmerman] must show any document in his possession vital to the public interest in reasonable time when asked to do so by a citizen."
Anti-Klan attorney pursued, secured special hearing before NY Supreme Court Justice Charles A. Pooley (early September 1924).
Desmond's main argument: Buffalo city charter guaranteed residents access to public records.
Zimmerman (opposing affidavit) asserted Klan documents not public records, unrestricted access might lead to civil disorder.
September 15: Judge Pooley rejected Zimmerman's argument, ruled Klan list/materials fell within charter provision, allowing public access and copying.
List Circulates: Pooley's ruling largely moot by delivery time.
Early September: rumors surfaced copies of new Klan list secretly circulating.
September 10: confirmed; vendors openly selling published version of roster downtown.
Soon: 5,000+ copies of pamphlet (listed klavern members by trade/profession) available in newsstands.
Title: Expose of Traitors in the Interests of Jews, Catholics, Negroes and All Respecters of the American Principle of Civil and Religious Freedom.
Selling for 50 cents, became instant bestseller.
Unauthorized appearance of info from police custody displeased Chief Zimmerman, who ordered arrest of Gabriel J. Vestola (vendor).
Soon learned Vestola had valid peddler's license, no legal grounds to hold him.
Asked about further city action, Mayor Schwab disavowed personal interest in how list fell into unauthorized hands: "If Chief Zimmerman wishes to arrest any persons for the publication of the list, that's his affair, not mine."
Klan's attorney, Julius Grass, tried to take it in stride: "Now I know where to buy my butter, eggs and milk. [The list is] a good business directory for the Klan."
Publisher Identity Unclear: Remains uncertain who acquired/published list.
Tone of pamphlet suggests one or more of city's predominantly Catholic anti-Klan organizations bore major responsibility.
Ecumenical effort: unnamed publishers represented by Jewish attorney Samuel M. Fleischman.
Fleischman provided press illuminating assessment of personal outrage driving his participation: "I have no malice against any person named in the pamphlet. I am, of course, opposed strenuously to the organization [KKK] for this reason. When it attempts to say that my boy, dearer to me many times than my own life, because he was born unto me a Jew is to be barred from holding public office in this country, and should be voted against in the event he did run for office, by the members of any association, purely because he is a Jew, [then it] is vicious and un-American, and every bit of energy that I possess will be used in wiping out such an organization."
New Spate of Anti-Klan Activity (September 1924):
Appearance/distribution of published Klan list coincided with new spate.
At least four businesses adorned with KKKs (including Edgar H. Herning's auto service station).
Defiant Herning: "I believe in what the Klan stands for. I was brought up Protestant and I have a right to believe in the principles of religion which were taught me. I don't see why anyone should object to that as long as I don't harm anyone." Promised KKK letters on window would remain until responsible parties removed them.
Fenton H. Dimmick (principal of Buffalo Public School No. 1) exhibited less resolve after anti-Klan students sent note: "Old Man Dimmick, If you don't get out, we will get you."
Dimmick immediately requested police protection, protesting he attended only one klavern meeting, didn't consider himself currently affiliated.
Confrontation and Shoot-out: Austin and Obertean (August 1924):
One of most unfortunate/violent episodes associated with Klan exposure kept community on edge for over a week.
Immediately following record theft (July 3), Buffalo Klan No. 5 notified Imperial headquarters in Atlanta, requested assistance.
Soon after: official Klan investigator Thomas H. Austin instructed to travel to Buffalo.
Anticipating trouble, Austin stopped in Binghamton July 7, acquired revolver license.
In Buffalo, Austin checked into Graystone Hotel under assumed name, tried to determine who involved in break-in with local klavern officers.
Suspicions on Edward C. Obertean: Gradually focused on him (former policeman who joined Klan in June).
Vice squad member (1919-1920), dismissed in politically motivated, publicized episode.
Most Klansmen assumed he resented police/city officials.
Assumed he was Protestant (designated Baptist on membership application).
Actuality: Roman Catholic operating as special officer under Lieutenant Roche and Mayor Schwab.
By late August 1924: Klansmen began to piece together truth, confronted Obertean at meeting.
Outraged knights brandished weapons, claimed he was traitor, made dire threats.
Released, Obertean feared for life, confiding to friend: "If they try to get me, you can bet your life that I will mark a couple of them."
Shoot-out (August 31): Tense situation on evening of August 31.
Car bearing Klan investigator Thomas Austin, Kleagle George C. Bryant, and Klansman Carl W. Sturm arrived at Obertean's home (159 Kensington Avenue, North Buffalo).
Three men saw Obertean pass by in car driven by Floyd A. Victor (non-Klansman); gave chase.
Victor pulled over at 128 Durham Street; Bryant (pursuing driver) stepped out, said: "Just a minute, Ed, I want to talk with you."
Obertean simultaneously alighted, declaring: "We might as well settle this right here and now."
Suddenly (witnesses): two flashes of light from Obertean's coat pocket (concealed revolver).
Bullet struck unarmed Bryant in groin, he collapsed in street.
Other slug grazed leg of Carl Sturm, who exited car and ran away, wounded.
Thomas Austin stepped out, five feet from Obertean, shot special officer once in chest.
Obertean spun, Klan investigator shot him three more times in back.
Obertean fell, managed to lift weapon final time, fired two steel-jacketed bullets directly into Austin's heart, killing him instantly.
Less than hour later, Obertean died in local hospital, never made final statement.
Escalated Religious Tensions and Committee for Tolerance:
In wake of north-side shoot-out, religious tensions in Buffalo soared.
Slain officer's sister: "My brother Edward, was a martyr to his religion and church."
Subsequent distribution of Expose of Traitors and Charles Desmond's legal action against Chief Zimmerman fueled fire, creating unpleasant state of affairs for months.
Early September: Mayor Schwab observed "Buffalo has changed from a city noted for its religious tolerance to a city in which bigotry and race distinction [have] been forced to the attention of the great mass of citizens."
Called on community's major church leaders to form tolerance committee around theme "One God and One Country."
Following days: decisively rebuffed by prominent Protestant clergymen.
Roman Catholic Bishop of Buffalo, William Turner, also refused to cooperate despite personal friendship with mayor.
Explained in open letter: "Catholics of Buffalo have been the chief sufferers from religious intolerance. We did not start the conflagration and it is not up to us to get scorched and smudged in the attempt to put out the flames."
Bishop asserted: "The blame and the shame are to be placed elsewhere. The churches that have contributed to the membership of the Klan, the churches that have harbored and encouraged the hooded knights can, if they have the inclination and the authority to do so, bring the matter to a speedy head."
Killeen Investigation and Klan's Retreat (September 1924):
In atmosphere of growing hatred/distrust, many Catholics desired total destruction/humiliation of Klan.
September 4: Henry W. Killeen (attorney, close associate of Charles Desmond) initiated city court proceedings to determine grounds for prosecuting local Klansmen under Walker Law.
Over several weeks: Killeen subpoenaed 41 Buffalonians on KKK roster.
Pressed them in court to reveal how/why they joined Invisible Empire.
Most Klansmen, even under oath, denied affiliation; others testified they filled application forms and attended "patriotic" meetings, but insisted they didn't consider themselves members.
Few individuals (Reverend George A. Fowler, Reverend L. E. H. Smith, Klan attorney Julius Grass) readily admitted joining.
State Assemblyman Henry Hutt decided to come clean: "I am a member of the Klan and I am proud of it. I hope the day is near when the state of New York shall receive a charter from national headquarters for a regular Klan."
Damage to Klavern: Killeen investigation seriously damaged Buffalo Klan No. 5.
Members realized they might be hauled into court, subjected to public humiliation.
Riskened prosecution under Walker Law.
Powerful message delivered: abandon disruptive activity or suffer serious consequences.
Ultimately, most knights accepted inevitable.
From September 1924 on: order greatly reduced activities within city limits.
No more cross-burnings, anonymous messages discontinued, moral reform campaign faded.
Klavern continued secret lodge meetings, but increasingly these were exclusively social occasions.
By late 1924: Buffalo Klan largely neutralized, permanently removed as serious factor in community's political life.
Test Case Against Walker Law:
Klan's opponents could have proceeded with prosecution of every local knight under Walker Law.
After Judge Pooley ruled documents from Klan headquarters public records, anti-Klan forces had ample evidence (especially signed membership cards).
Such effort: complicated, time-consuming, expensive.
Ironically, Klansman Julius Grass suggested alternative during Killeen inquiry:
"I admit that the Ku Klux Klan did not comply with the Walker act in not having filed a list of members and officers. I admit that George C. Bryant [recovering from gunshot wound] is the kleagle of the Klan in Buffalo. Now that is all that my friend Killeen is after in this proceeding. Let him issue a warrant for Bryant's arrest and bring him into court. We—when I say, we, I mean that I represent the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan—are ready to test the constitutionality of the Walker act."
Grass and other Klan leaders aware: course would simplify matters, ease pressure on rank-and-file by focusing on Bryant, increasing likelihood of continued affiliation.
Opponents Agree to Test Case: Best way to proceed.
Late September: District Attorney Guy Moore issued warrant for Bryant's arrest, charging him with Walker Law violation.
October 1$: Bryant surrendered, but legal counsel secured release pending Supreme Court Justice Pooley's ruling on law's constitutionality.
Five days later: Pooley heard arguments.
Bryant's chief attorney, Louis C. Fuller (prominent criminal lawyer from Rochester) argued act was "vicious, pernicious form of class legislation" exclusively targeting Invisible Empire.
"Everybody knows that the Walker act was aimed solely at the Ku Klux Klan. This statute is a dishonor to the state of New York. I am frank to state that the law is anarchistic in spirit and far worse than anything ever suspected of the Klan. Evidently it was enacted because a few politicians, members of the Republican and Democratic parties, by concerted action thought the Klan could disturb the balance of power now controlled by the two major parties in the state legislature."
Rebuttal: District Attorney Moore and Henry Killeen presented bitter/emotional denunciation of KKK, stressing state's right to regulate organizations posing public threat.
Pooley Upholds Walker Law: One month later, Pooley delivered another blow, upholding constitutionality.
Observed: "It is a matter of common knowledge that this organization functions largely at night, its members disguised by hoods and gowns and doing things calculated to strike terror into the minds of the people. It is claimed that they are organized against certain of the citizens by reason of race and religion."
Therefore: Invisible Empire clearly struck at "fundamental principles of our government," state had power "to eradicate it and … is not required to await violations before enacting legislation." Walker Law met legal tests, constitutional.
Decision angered Klan's legal representatives, who claimed law "unreasonable, arbitrary, and discriminatory."
November 10: as George Bryant prepared for arraignment, they appealed Pooley's ruling to NY appellate division.
Bryant posted bail; tribunal wouldn't hear case for months.
Meanwhile, city officials wouldn't use act against other knights until appeal settled.
Legal Actions Against Individual Klansmen:
Didn't mean Klansmen evaded other laws.
Albert C. Acker: Sales rep National Life Insurance and active klavern member; Mayor Schwab learned from sources he was part-time dealer in rubber condoms (legally distributed only by physicians).
August 9: police arrested Acker for possessing/selling "illegal merchandise." Unable to make bail, taken to county jail.
One month later: pled guilty in city court, $50 fine.
Stewart Queer: Former kleagle, chief organizer of Black Rock encounter with Schwab.
City authorities charged him with failing to provide adequate financial support to estranged wife and three children.
September 17: city court judge ordered increased support.
E. Laverne Buell: Display manager, Walter E. Bedell Company.
Few weeks later: convicted of assaulting 17-year-old girl; she willingly spent night with him, but her age made him legally liable.
Reverend Charles C. Penfold: Easiest most sensational charges.
September 19, 1924 evening: three Cheektowaga constables found pastor's car parked in unlighted area (East Delevan Avenue, just across Buffalo city line).
Inside: Penfold and a woman, jointly in "improper position."
Clergyman quickly exited, explained woman was wife, adjusting clothes after pin stick.
Constables unconvinced; brought pair before Justice of Peace Jerome F. Rozan on charges of "outraging public decency."
Justice questioned, became suspicious when "Mrs. Penfold" had difficulty remembering full name/age of only son.
Stated: "You're both lying to me," rendered guilty verdict; ordered return next week for sentencing.
"Parking Parson" Scandal: News of Penfold's activities created stir.
Press promptly dubbed him "parking parson."
Klansman insisted set up: "preposterous lie framed by my enemies who have long threatened to rid the city of me."
Protestant leaders leapt to defense: Reverend Robert E. Brown (Richmond Avenue Methodist Church, non-Klansman) said incident was "cowardly and dastardly attempt to intimidate those who are fighting for law and decency in Buffalo."
Buffalo Council of Churches extended unqualified vote of confidence.
Pastor's congregation (Sentinel Methodist Church) remained loyal; one member asserted leader "martyr to the cause of righteousness. We will back him to the last man and the last dollar until complete vindication has been secured."
Sunday, September 21 services: attendees greeted him with "many warm handclasps and heartening words of welcome."
Penfold's Confession: Defenders soon learned support undeserved.
Two days: Cheektowaga detectives followed alleged Mrs. Penfold, discovered she was Mrs. Freda Lohr (Sentinel Methodist choir member).
Confronted her, she visited Judge Rozan, admitted lying; Mr. Lohr nearby softly "Tell the truth, dear. That is the only thing to do."
Soon: Edward P. Volz (deputy chief, Erie County probation department) interrogated Penfold, who confessed false statements under oath.
September 26: minister presented himself at Cheektowaga fire department for sentencing.
Unruly crowd of anti-Klan partisans (unable to gain admittance) jeered/houted outside; Judge Rozan sentenced Penfold to 30 days in Alden penitentiary (to begin immediately).
Pastor taken to facility; just as guards shaved head, secured release on bond pending appeal.
Small group of friends awaited, including fellow Klansman L. E. H. Smith.
Klan's Response to Sentence: Hooded brethren showed displeasure.
September 27 evening: roving bands of knights ignited crosses in Cheektowaga, hoping to intimidate authorities.
Unluckily for Klan: town constables arrested six responsible for fiery displays.
Cheektowaga Police Chief Emil Cappola (previously reluctant to take decisive action) left no doubt: "There will be no more burning of crosses in this village. I have given my men orders to shoot to kill if the hooded order shows its head here again."
Klansmen wisely took chief at his word, refrained from further demonstrations.
Penfold's Further Problems: Far from over.
District Attorney Moore indicated he would file perjury charges.
Methodist Bishop Adna W. Leonard (integrity before sectarian solidarity) removed Penfold from pastorate.
Mid-October: "parking parson" broken man; appeared "unstrung…. The bolt of scandal that has singed him seemed to have left him dazed, helpless."
November 28: received more unwelcome news; Erie County grand jury indicted him for perjury.
Entered 1925 completely discredited, career in shambles, reputation shattered.
Klavern Struggling for Viability (Latter Half of 1924):
Exposed, hounded, tainted by scandal, Buffalo Klan No. 5 struggled to maintain organizational viability.
After Calumet Building burglary, klavern shifted to office on eighth floor of Bransom Building (Main/East Eagle).
Within days: Lieutenant Roche ferreted out new HQ; Klan moved on.
Early October: officers reduced to holding executive conferences in a quarry at Buffalo Cement Company.
Social Activities: Arranged primarily social/fraternal events.
Late August: Buffalo knights joined hundreds of western NY Klansmen for outdoor ceremony north of Clarence, off Salt Road.
One week later: 400 klavern members/friends traveled to Batavia for Labor Day picnic/parade (Genesee County Klan sponsored).
25,000+ attended, concluded with traditional nighttime initiation/cross-burning.
Remainder of year: klavern held regular indoor meetings at various sites.
Official Klan message intercepted October: 12+ gatherings scheduled for next three months.
Christmas Eve: group of knights in "full regalia" rare public appearance at Protestant Home for Unprotected Children (Niagara Street); distributed sweaters, caps, mittens to 150+ abandoned/orphaned youngsters.
Smith's Decline and Bryant's Resignation:
With George Bryant's Walker Law challenge in courts, and enemies ready to pounce, Buffalo Klan No. 5 avoided overt civic activism.
Passive stance displeased moral crusaders like Reverend L. E. H. Smith, who wanted to continue reform.
Suddenly, November 9$: Smith gravely ill after dining downtown.
Physician suspected "black drop" (arsenic-laced compound favored by underworld assassins).
Smith eventually recovered, resumed some activities, but ceased to be influential local force.
Months later, after protracted quarreling with George Bryant/other officers, Smith tendered formal resignation from Klan.
Deprived klavern of one of few dynamic guiding lights.
Schwab's Vigilance: As Buffalo Klan No. 5 declined (fall 1924), Mayor Schwab remained vigilant, fearing rash move.
Received threats, began carrying revolver, rarely seen without bodyguard.
Continued receiving reports from undercover investigator: one Klan meeting "someone suggested sideswiping the Mayor's car and tarring and feathering him."
Late November: Schwab announced Klan agents tried to waylay his car during trip to Perrysburg, but thwarted assault.
Open letter: Kleagle George Bryant strongly refuted accusations, arguing klavern "has stood for everything that is clean, decent and commendable in civic affairs." Emphasized: "Nothing is more vital to the welfare of the Ku Klux Klan in this state than the personal safety of Francis Xavier Schwab."
Klan Retreats: After children's home visit, Klan went into winter seclusion (pattern of earlier years).
Buffalo Truth (Mark H. Hubbell, Klansman editor) presented steady stream of pro-KKK articles on activities elsewhere, but no news on local klavern.
Spring 1925: Klan took new life. March 31$: chapter held large social gathering for men/women (undisclosed site in city), featured music by Batavia Klan band.
Five weeks later: Buffalo knights/ ext{Erie County brethren conducted initiation at "Austin Field" (named for slain investigator), 50-acre farmland between Lancaster/Elma (recently purchased).
Invited reporter: "Candidates first were assembled in a gully behind a large barn. Electric torches, red flares and a cold moon lighted up the vicinity. Two young women collected $10 bills and checks from the candidates, while the Imperial night hawk credited new Klansmen with their donations. A bomb exploded in the 'charmed circle' as the signal for the candidates' advance." Oath-taking/cross-burning completed ritual.
Schwab's Concerns and Klan's Ebbing Influence: New Klan activity worried Mayor Schwab, who implored Governor Smith to strictly enforce Walker Law.
Besides personal safety, Schwab feared successful recruiting drive might prompt Buffalo klavern to active role in upcoming city elections.
Invisible Empire didn't command sizable vote block, but could exacerbate simmering religious/ethnic resentments, complicating mayor's reelection.
However, Buffalo Klan No. 5 decided no action; by summer 1925, fast dwindling into utter insignificance.
Schwab's Reelection and Klan's Demise:
Local Klan soon faded, but motivating attitudes/assumptions remained viable.
Protestant-Catholic tensions not fully subsided, ensuring many voters opposed Schwab's reelection on religious grounds.
Other residents (some Catholics) appalled by his perceived indifference to vigorous vice/liquor law enforcement and continual controversy of first four years.
Many focused hopes on mayoral candidacy of City Commissioner Ross Graves (strong prohibition advocate, chief rival).
Campaign: Began peacefully.
Schwab/Graves top two vote-getters in nonpartisan primary (mid-October).
Klan (serious internal problems) apparently couldn't muster wherewithal to oppose bitter enemy.
Klavern ordered few buttons: "Beat Schwab," but extent of efforts.
After primary: Ross Graves launched hard-hitting campaign, would have done any Klansman proud.
Openly exploited race: "Schwabism poses as the only genuine uplift movement in the city while it licenses all-night joints where white girls of tender age are lured to hectic dances with black men."
Asserted lax enforcement attracted "underworld riff raff to Buffalo, thus branding the city with the notorious reputation of affording safe haven for crooks, panderers, and gunmen."
Tried to capitalize on religious tensions: accused Schwab campaign of "sending its emissaries from house to house whispering slander and appealing to religious prejudice in a malicious effort to array brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor."
Graves campaign centered on many community concerns Invisible Empire tried to exploit for four years.
Schwab's Supporters: Responded vigorously.
Political ad: "Back of the mud and slime of the Graves campaign, are the snarling, sneaking hordes who crawl along doorsteps in the dead and dark of night."
Generally avoided reopening previous year's wounds.
Mayor himself made no mention of Klan assault role; never mentioned KKK at all.
Given opponent's positions, Schwab realized large Catholic/ethnic vote was his; best to avoid controversy.
Astute approach: November 3$: trounced Graves 77,697 to 55,413.
Courier proclaimed: "stamp Frank X. Schwab as the most popular mayor Buffalo [has] ever had."
Final Collapse of the Klan (1925):
Mayor's landslide victory last in series of 1925 setbacks contributing to precipitous decline of KKK in western NY.
May: appellate division of NY Supreme Court upheld Walker Law (4 to 1), concurring justice comparing Klan to "the Carbonari, the Nihilists, the Fenians, the Tugenbund, and the Molly Maguires."
KKK appealed to NY Court of Appeals (highest state tribunal), little hope of vindication.
Weeks later: internal dispute threatened Niagara County Klan after Imperial officials removed three local officers allegedly using organization for political careers (resulted in mass defections).
Same time: Buffalo Klan No. 5 lost stalwart members, including Reverends George A. Fowler (moved to Oklahoma) and L. E. H. Smith.
Reverend Smith apparently learned important lessons; observed in final speech to knights: "I am loyal to the Klan. I fought its battle. I suffered for it. But I tell you, in this country there's no place for a monarchial government. This kleagle and titan business never did appeal to me but the idealism is here." Urged Klansmen to "clean up their own robes" and remember: "in this country, which was raised up to be an asylum for the oppressed and down-trodden of the earth, there is no place for religious hatred or bigotry."
By September 1925: few remaining local Klansmen similarly discouraged.
Threatened to secede, affiliate with new Independent Klan of America.
Trouble near Batavia: Genesee County knights accused George Bryant of pocketing thousands in robe-deposit fees.
Bryant tried to defend himself at special meeting (arranged by King Kleagle E. D. Smith), but shouted down, barely avoided "bodily injury."
Soon after returning home, Bryant decided he had enough, Klan no longer "good business proposition."
November 1$: relinquished joint titles (Grand Kleagle of Western NY, Great Titan of NY Province No. 8), moved to Florida (hoping to capitalize on real estate boom).
Shortly afterward: Atlanta officials appointed Reverend D. G. Bacon as new kleagle of Buffalo Klan No. 5.
Nearly 70 years old, outsider unacquainted with community; Bacon quickly learned little local interest in keeping klavern going.
Early December 1925: left on trip to Ohio, never returned.
Meanwhile, Buffalo Klan quietly died.
Conclusion
Final Legal Resolution of Walker Law:
January 12, 1926: New York Court of Appeals unanimously upheld constitutionality of Walker Law.
Soon after: George Bryant's legal representatives appealed his case to U.S. Supreme Court.
Briefs submitted October 10, 1927.
Thirteen months later: nation's highest tribunal rendered decision.
Majority opinion by Associate Justice Willis Van Devanter: court ruled it could be reasonably concluded KKK stimulated "hurtful religious and race prejudices," aspired to political power, engaged in violent vigilantism.
Therefore, state governments could regulate organization "within limits which are consistent with the rights of others and the public welfare"; Walker Law met pertinent legal tests, constitutional.
Decision meant Bryant (returned to Buffalo area 1927, operated meat market in Kenmore) would finally face long-pending charge of violating NY's anti-Klan law.
Late December 1928: former Grand Kleagle of Buffalo Klan No. 5 appeared in city court, entered guilty plea, fined $100 .
Paid fine, returned to butcher block, resumed life of welcome anonymity.
Thus concluded Buffalo's experience with the knights of the Invisible Empire.
Unanswered Questions:
Impact of Walker Law passage (spring 1923) on Klan recruiting/socioeconomic makeup of Buffalo klavern?
Who stole Klan's records?
What groups participated in war on KKK?
Role of Buffalo women within Invisible Empire's organizational life? (Studies found little info on women's Klan activities/memberships, e.g., only 125 Klanswomen identified in Indiana by Kathleen M. Blee's Women of the Klan, despite tens of thousands of members.)
Hopes historians will discover sources to shed light on these and other unresolved queries.
Nonetheless, study uncovered sufficient detailed information on Buffalo Klan No. 5 for general conclusions.
Factors Contributing to Klan's Rise in Buffalo:
Perhaps most importantly: late 1921, just as KKK organized in city, bitter mayoral election divided community along ethnic, religious, class lines, imparting unusual saliency to longstanding social divisions.
Controversial style/policies of subsequent Mayor Frank Schwab administration kept ethnoreligious tensions activated.
Political developments at state level (especially Governor Alfred E. Smith's efforts to emasculate prohibition enforcement) also contributed.
Same time: growing concern over changing behavior of women/young people, violent labor unrest, perceived crime surge.
These seemed to indicate widespread abandonment of traditional values and breakdown of respect for established authority.
Confronted with unsettling trends: certain citizens receptive to appeals of growing national organization seemingly offering means of checking social dissolution, or at least forcefully expressing anger/frustration over decay.
Buffalo Klan's Evolution and Demise:
First 2.5 years: Buffalo Klan No. 5 remained shadowy group on fringes of community life.
Held secret meetings/ceremonials in defiance of authorities, but made little effort to cultivate positive public image, apparently failed to develop specific social agenda.
Gradually: Klan associated closely with evangelical activists (assailing Schwab administration for inadequate vice/prohibition law enforcement for months).
1924: klavern directly involved in moral reform campaign.
Issued warnings to suspect establishments, conducted undercover investigations, filed official complaints with state/federal authorities, caused Mayor Schwab political embarrassment.
This proved klavern's undoing.
Schwab/anti-Klan partisans struck back hard; within months order in ruins.
Secrecy shattered, members exposed to legal/extralegal harassment.
Few stalwart Klansmen held firm, but to no avail; bereft of meaningful civic utility, local branch withered away.
Challenges Faced by Klan Leaders in Buffalo:
Community included large, politically empowered ethnic populations intensely anti-Klan.
Major newspapers consistently portrayed KKK negatively.
Invisible Empire's enemies commanded city government resources.
After May 1923: Klan existed outside law's pale.
Despite problems: hooded order attracted sizable following among eligible white male population.
Considering risks, high cost of dues/fees, limited privileges: Klan's appeal in Buffalo seems remarkable.
KKK far from admirable, but clearly inspired impressive commitment, discipline, solidarity.
Motivation of Klan Members:
No historical task more difficult than assessing human motivation, infinitely more complex with hundreds of individuals.
No one will ever know for certain how Invisible Empire's rituals/program (adaptable blend of romantic historical imagery, mystic fraternalism, crusading reformism, militant ethnocentrism) impacted majority of Buffalonians who affiliated.
Ultimately, local klavern (like any sizable group) evaluated primarily on actions and overall membership characteristics.
Klan's Racism, Bigotry, and Civic Action:
Without doubt, major source of Klan's appeal: racism/religious bigotry prevailing within klavern.
Prejudice interwoven with almost all aspects of organizational life, including civic improvement efforts.
However, intolerance never resulted in Buffalo Klan using physical violence against enemies.
Many knights likely enjoyed fear/uncertainty their order provoked, but generally kept baser instincts in check.
Used Invisible Empire not as agency of terror, but as medium of peaceful civic action.
Most klavern activism focused on mainstream concerns, particularly perception local officials promoted social dissolution through lax enforcement of vice/prohibition laws.
Issue previously raised by Anti-Saloon League, prominent Protestant clergymen, Mayor George Buck in 1921 election.
Like most fellow white Protestants, Klansmen desired more orderly, law-abiding community, where traditional values/standards prevailed.
Ironic and indicative of local frustration that they resorted to an organization openly violating law, promoting social discord, and requiring members to lie under oath.
Klavern Membership Connection to Social Mainstream:
Examination of klavern's membership indicates strong connection to social mainstream.
Klansmen composed broad, relatively balanced cross-section of white middle-class Protestant community.
Resided in all parts of city, employed in wide variety of occupations.
Mostly ordinary, well-established citizens, not disaffected fanatics on margins.
Distinctive Characteristics: On average, younger than fellow native-born adult white males, enjoyed more prestigious occupations, more likely to live in outlying neighborhoods (away from largest concentrations of African Americans/foreign-born immigrants).
Incomplete data suggests evangelicals, WWI veterans, fraternal society members particularly disposed to affiliate.
Most significant feature of local membership: overrepresentation of those whose work involved managing, supervising, coordinating.
Men in such occupations (possibly due to work experiences and/or psychological disposition) may have had particularly strong desire for well-ordered, thoroughly regulated community.
Thus, unusually receptive to Klan's appeal as organization dedicated to revitalization of American society by traditional Protestant values.
Evidence of authoritarian impulse at heart of klavern sketchy at best.
Strong commitment to well-ordered community hardly unusual in early 20th century America; no indication managerial Klansmen more active/influential than knights in other occupations.
Basically, group attracted ordinary citizens intensely (and understandably) frustrated by local society's course in early 1920s.
Buffalo Klan's Resemblance to Other Klaverns and Local Variations:
In general features, Buffalo Klan No. 5 closely resembled other klaverns nationwide.
Nearly every extensively studied community: Klan appeared as grassroots activism addressing local concerns (law enforcement, moral reform, government corruption).
Almost everywhere (with notable Southern exceptions): hooded order refrained from roughshod tactics, tried to work within existing legal/political systems, succeeded in attracting broad cross-section of white Protestant middle class.
Klaverns similar socioeconomically, indicated by occupational-status distributions from detailed membership data.
Distributions showed local variation, but white-collar/skilled blue-collar workers (heart of greater American middle class) composed large majority; less prestigious occupations formed distinct minority.
Current research strongly indicates 1920s Klan was, in essence and broadest sense, a middle-class social movement.
Important Differences: Similarities shouldn't obscure differences.
Buffalo Klan No. 5, like most KKK chapters, grassroots activism, but inevitably influenced/shaped by local social/political environment.
Unlike hooded brethren in Indiana, Oregon, Colorado: Buffalo knights confronted large, intensely anti-Klan Catholic/ethnic populations.
Made Klan membership risky, virtually no chance of forging KKK into powerful political machine (as elsewhere).
Due to these problems (and Walker Law passage), KKK remained relatively small, non-influential (albeit troublesome) group.
Buffalo Klan experience suggests racial, ethnic, religious diversity (though causing social tensions) may also undermine Klan's appeal.
In Buffalo, Klan too controversial, too disruptive to serve as effective civic action.
Recognizing this, most white native-born Protestants (though agreeing with much KKK stood for) steered clear of Invisible Empire.
Klan's Limited Accomplishments in Buffalo:
In social/political agenda, KKK accomplished little.
Law enforcement activities scarcely improved local crime situation.
Group never devised effective means of checking erosion of traditional social standards.
Briefly (1924) appeared KKK might mobilize Protestant community against Schwab administration policies.
But organization/controversial methods soon focus of debate, allowing anti-Klan partisans to pose as champions of American traditions/values.
Ultimately, Invisible Empire proved exceedingly counterproductive approach to civic affairs.
Discredited moral reform, resulted in public humiliation of entire local membership, helped ensure landslide reelection of Mayor Schwab in 1925.
Future Scholarship and Broader Implications:
Much research on 1920$$s KKK remains (especially small towns/rural areas).
Future Klan historians will discover significant local/regional variation, but probably even greater similarity.
This study (with other recent scholarship) strongly suggests Klansmen nationwide were ordinary citizens motivated by traditional civic concerns.
Not to say KKK methods appropriate/justified.
Suspect anti-Klan forces did "right thing" in crushing klavern (though staunch First Amendment defenders may disagree).
In religiously/ethnically diverse society, no place for mass movements heedlessly inflaming prejudice and defying basic standards of civic discourse.