On April 22, 1965, the Sunbury Daily Item published an Associated Press piece by Lee Linder which gave a brief history of the Ku Klux Klan in Pennsylvania. Although it does not specifically discuss any Lykens Valley activities, it gives some clues as to how widespread the influence of the Klan was and includes some of the recruitment events as well as the methods used to intimidate and terrorize those who it opposed – which in the 1920s was anyone or any group who was not a white Protestant.
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KU KLUX KLAN ONCE COUNTED 250,000 IN STATE AS MEMBERS
Editor’s Note: The Ku Klux Klan had possibly 250,000 Pennsylvania members in its heyday [1920s]. If it exists today its operatio9ns are well hidden. this AP state spotlight explores the past and present of the KKK in Pennsylvania.
By Lee Linder, Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Ku Klux Klan has had a stormy existence in Pennsylvania.
It was in its heyday 40 years ago — in the 1920s.
Today it seems to have virtually disappeared. The legislature is being asked to outlaw it.
Between the 1930s and the 1960s, the white-robed hooded secret society, which limits its membership to white Protestants, made several serious efforts to re-establish its power in Pennsylvania. None apparently succeeded.
It has been investigated in Pennsylvania by county district attorneys, by state police, by the FBI. Mayors and governors and legislators condemned it.
A current survey indicates the KKK had about 250,000 Pennsylvania members — plus perhaps twice that many sympathizers — in the 1922-1928 period of its strongest influence.
Cross burnings, the organization’s symbol, occurred frequently all across the state. Parades and picnics attracted sometimes as many as 25,000. Torchlit initiations brought out crowds of curious who paid quarters and half-dollars just to see the activities.
it cannot be pinpointed accurately where the Klan’s greatest Pennsylvania strength was. But its state headquarters appropriately was in Philadelphia. It also maintained a major office in Pittsburgh.
Organizing methods of the Klan, then and now, always have been secretive, although a drive for new members frequently was launched through newspaper advertisements, door-to-door circulars or letters to local leaders.
You got in only if recommended by a klansman, and only after a thorough check of your background. Catholics, Jews, Negroes and foreigners of any kind were banned.
If the Klan exists in Pennsylvania today [1965], its operations are hidden.
Robert M. Shelton, Inperial Wizard with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, said in a recent interview on a Pittsburgh radio station that there are, indeed, Klansmen in the Keystone state, and that various secret groups — not identified — are working with them,
How — and why — and when? Shelton refused to say. But he did assert that the KKK in Pennsylvania is embarking on an educational and recruiting drive.