Initiative No. 49
Amidst the news of Rexroad’s leadership position, the Klan took Spokane headlines for politics as well. On March 23rd, the Washington State Klan officially endorsed ballot measure No. 49. The letter of the bill proposed to make public education compulsory for all children ages 7 to 16. While the bill was promoted under rhetoric of universalizing education and ensuring the welfare and preparedness of Washington’s children, the subtext of Initiative No. 49, often referred to simply as the School Bill, was a ban on private religious schools—specifically Catholic schools. The Klan backed this bill as well as similar bills in other states such as one in Oregon that passed in 1922 and struck down by the supreme court.
The Klan attempted to flex their political power through this bill. Prominent state leaders such as John Jeffries, Exalted Cyclops of Seattle, and Grand Dragon O. H. Carpenter travelled the state speaking in favor of the bill and its purpose to “Americanize” the American youth. Klansmen, including Spokane Exalted Cyclops Rev. C. A. Rexroad wrote into their local papers and participated in civil debates leading up to the election.
In addition to direct support of the School Bill, the Klan—which often claimed to be a non-political organization—funded and controlled the Washington Good Government League as well as local iterations of the organization. Endorsing the bill through the Good Government League gave the Klan the ability to fabricate additional support for the bill—making it more than simply a Klan initiative. While evidence pointed to the good government leagues being political organs of the Klan, this was not explicitly confirmed until 1926 by then Former Grand Dragon O. H. Carpenter.
The school bill is an excellent example of the ways in which the Klan attempted to shape the state and nation to their agenda of white supremacy. By mandating public school is the name of giving all American children the same quality of education, they were also mandating children have the same content of education—an education geared toward the dominant class in society—white, native born protestants. Ironically, while Klan pundits pushed for universal schooling to curb religious influence, they simultaneously pushed for bible readings and lessons on Protestant values in public schools. Explicitly, the school bill was an assimilation project. The Klan understood that a universal school system would be the best way to mandate children learn white supremacy and protestant values. Klan speakers cited that the nation was founded by protestants and thus American values are protestant values. Much like far-right groups of today, the Klan was angered over what they understood to be the dilution of “American Values” by immigrants coming in that in many cases were catholic and from eastern and southern Europe. As is also echoed today, the Klan praised strict immigration laws passed by a highly conservative federal government. The Ku Klux Klan wanted to do away with parochial schools as they were ideological state apparatuses not in line with the ruling class. Fortunately, the voters of Washington were able to somewhat see through the strategy of the Klan and fearing invisible control, the measure narrowly failed.
While especially in the Spokane region the Klan had some lingering influence following the 1924 election and the failure of the school bill, this defeat proved to be the beginning of the end for the Washington State Klan. Poorly managed, the organization began splitting over local and regional power structure, shrinking to one tenth it’s size between 1924 and 1926.