Examining Rhetoric in Public Addresses
During the first half of the 1920s, Klan speakers travelled the state of Washington and spoke on the merits of the organization. Pro-Klan speeches became almost regularly scheduled events, hosted in the halls of other fraternal organizations such as the Knights of Pythias and the Freemasons. Speakers ranged from local Klan officials to travelling “Imperial Lecturers” who were anyone from ordinary Klansmen to the Imperial Wizard Dr. H. W. Evans. These speeches served as a means for the Klan to attract new members as well as disseminate their ideology both through the speech and through copies of the main points distributed at the events.
Often times the Klan and lawfulness were key topics of speeches. Especially with early speakers who preceded actual local organizing, the Klan’s love for the law was touted in response to the vigilante justice being dealt by other Klans. Speakers denounced reports of Klan violence and attacked the credibility of the press many times resorting to red herrings referencing the supposedly less reported on violence of other organizations.
Klan speakers also attacked imagined threats of lawless individuals that the Klan promised to clean up. Speaking in Spokane September 1st, 1923, Rev. C. C. Curtis of Vancouver, WA, an Imperial Lecturer and high official in the state organization blamed lawlessness on immigrants and touted shaping “America for Americans”. This lends to the Klan’s understanding of the law and their love for the constitution. Their understanding of law is laws to serve “Americans”. While this word can be taken to describe many different groups, the Klan, in calling for one hundred percent Americanism was calling for one hundred percent White Protestant Americanism. The law loved by the Klan was the law that criminalized people of color and foreigners who were often blamed for degeneracy such as bootlegging and illegal gambling.
Rev. C. A. Rexroad of Corbin Park Methodist Church and Exalted Cyclops of the Spokane chapter of the KKK 1923-25, Spoke many times on the Klan and its ideology both to the Spokane community as well as to other surrounding towns. Upon being outed as the leader of the Spokane Ku Klux Klan, Rexroad used his position as Reverend to speak from his own pulpit about the tenants of the Klan. Rexroad Stated that the Klan strongly supported the rule of law and supported those involved in law enforcement wholeheartedly. Describing the Klan as utterly devoted to justice, he stated there would be no night riding or vigilante justice in Spokane. Rexroad then went on to inadvertently describe the reason for the Klan’s support of law.
Discussing the Ballot Measure Initiative No. 49 which, if passed, would effectively ban all private schooling—mandating identical education for all Washington Children, Exalted Cyclops Rexroad explicitly stated that the purpose of the new law was to mandate assimilation of all American children. With the possibility of laws such as this and the existence of many other laws on the books that favored white native-born protestants, the Klan’s love of the law stemmed from their love of the laws ability to force hierarchy. Law enforcement giving the state the legitimacy to enact violence against those breaking with American morals appealed to the Klan as it offered a legitimization of what in many cases Klansmen did illegally.
Following the election of 1924 and the defeat of Initiative No. 49, Eastern Washington Klans hosted the leader of the national organization—Imperial Wizard Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans. The Imperial Wizard spoke in various cities in the region delivering his largest address in Spokane to a crowd of 1000 people. Evans broadly took credit for all political victories in the election of 1924, claiming the Klan had a hand in an undefined success.
Evans especially lauded the passage of the Volstead act which greatly restricted immigration from non-white and non-protestant countries. He stated that with its passage, “the wall was built”. Evans’ speech utilized chillingly echoed rhetoric in praise of harsher restrictions of non-WASP immigration praising the point that foreign nations had thus been stopped from shipping their criminals over to the states. Evans praised the supreme power of the law to bar bootleggers and other criminals from entering what he described as a white man’s country. Evans cited reforms being pushed through in education—conveniently deciding not to mention the defeat of Initiative No 49—as an effective means to force assimilation among American children through legal means. While the school bill had failed days earlier, the Klan was still optimistic other assimilation bills would pass such as an upcoming bill in the Washington State congress that would mandate the rewarding of the King James Bible daily in all public schools. Evans voiced support for the assimilation of Americans with the goal of returning America to what he understood to be its former greatness as a “97% White, Protestant country”. Evans promised to restore America to this mythical past—to make America great again—understanding that only the legitimized authority of the law could create lasting hierarchy.