A tactic of the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate and to gain membership in the “order” was to “invade” church services while dressed in full regalia and to give a token donation to the church for some project of the church. Not all these Klan intrusions were reported in the newspapers. Here’s one just outside the “borders” of the Lykens Valley area that got coverage in the Pottsville Herald, June 6, 1922.
NOVEL METHOD TO SHOW APPRECIATION OF SHAMOKIN PASTOR
The pastor, the Rev. W. C. Hall, and the congregation of the Seventh Street Primitive Methodist Church, Shamokin, suffered the fright of their lives Sunday evening, when, just as the services were to begin, a delegation of the Ku Klux Klan, many garbed in their white robes, silently and unbidden marched into the church and to the front of the pulpit. After a moment’s halt one of the garbed figures motioned to the pastor to take a position within the altar rail.
The Rev. Hall hesitatingly did so, when the same garbed figure handed him three envelopes, one marker: “To be opened and read to the congregation.” This the pastor did, the letter proving to be a written appreciation of the rev. Hall’s stand for righteousness and morality, and pledging the support of the Klan in his efforts. The other two letter contained substantial contributions, one to the congregation and the other to the Rev. Hall. Their mission accomplished the party withdrew from the church as silently as they had entered.
The Pottsville Republican was widely read in the Lykens Valley area, so the effect of the incident went well beyond Shamokin, Northumberland County.
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News story from Newspapers.com.
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