The Ku Klux Klan in Wood County, Ohio by Michael E. Brooks

Author:Michael E. Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-08-07T16:00:00+00:00

THE KLAN AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

One of the principal concerns of the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan was the improvement and expansion of public schools. Klan ideology viewed public schools both as a counterweight to Catholic parochial schools and as a means to better assimilate immigrants. Public schools, Klan members believed, were the most important tool to promote and reinforce the values they associated with white Protestant nationalism.

One of the methods the Wood County Ku Klux Klan used to strengthen its connections with public schools was through the use of school visits by hooded and robed members. Typically these prearranged visits involved ritual and ceremonial activities to emphasize the sincerity and seriousness of the Klan, and most visits also included gifts to the school such as flags and Bibles.

Klan visits to schools served an additional purpose, namely that of publicity for the group. Children certainly would have recounted the visits to their parents upon returning home from school, and parents—whether outraged by the visit or sympathetic to the Klan cause—would have naturally discussed the incidents with family members, neighbors and co-workers.

The Perrysburg Journal reported on a December 5, 1923 Ku Klux Klan visit to Perrysburg High School. Students were attending a morning religious service in the school chapel when “they were somewhat surprised and awe-stricken” by the arrival of a contingent of Klan members to the service.153

The eight hooded and robed Klansmen staged a procession down the aisle where they were greeted by Chalmer B. Riggle, superintendent of Perrysburg Public Schools. In addition to a “good sized Holy Bible,” the Klan presented the school with an eight-by-twelve-foot American flag. After singing the patriotic song “America,” the Klansmen processed silently out of the chapel.154

As was the case with similar church visits by Klan members, often the visits by Klansmen to public schools were enabled by insiders. In the case of the Perrysburg High School incident in 1923, fellow Klan member Chalmer B. Riggle likely played a role in arranging the visit, and he also presumably helped arrange similar Klan visits to Perrysburg schools in 1924.

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