Three giant fiery crosses lit up a drizzling sky at the county fairgrounds in Albert Lea on Friday, Aug.

Monday, January 21, 2002

Three giant fiery crosses lit up a drizzling sky at the county fairgrounds in Albert Lea on Friday, Aug. 31, 1923. Also illuminated were Ku Klux Klan members in drenched white robes in the field and thousands of people filling the grandstand.

Albert Lea witnessed the Klan’s first public demonstration ever held in Minnesota. A number of men joined the secret society that night.

The Evening Tribune, antecedent of the Albert Lea Tribune, the following day reported the extravaganza

&uot;As they came silently and quickly down the tracks into the brilliancy of the red fire and display of fireworks, their white robes caught the spirit of the great red rain drops as they fell for they changed to red and gold as the members marched to the center of the track and formed in two large semi-circles about the platform with the horsemen standing at attention forming the outer circle.&uot;

The article continues, &uot;Then came the candidates on foot and in civilian clothes, led by mounted Klansmen. Only two candidates were escorted to the platform where the complete oath of the order was administrated aloud in due form. As the last words of the oath were pronounced the three crosses thirty-five feet in height, within the circle of Klansmen round the platform, were fired.&uot;

&uot;The crosses, together with the red fire burning brightly, the fireworks bursting over head, the rain falling straight down and the robed members -&160;all taken as a whole – depicted one of the most spectacular scenes ever witnessed in this part of the state.&uot;

Accordingly, Klan members from all over the region, as far north as St. Cloud and as far south as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, gathered in Albert Lea.

Citizens in the city and from nearby communities packed the fairgrounds. The report said, &uot;The occupants of the cars coming later remained in their parked cars to see -&160;if not to hear – the ceremony.&uot;

&uot;It was a heyday of the Ku Klux Klan in the state,&uot; local historian Roger D. Lonning said.

According to his survey, in 1923 there were at least two cross burns in Albert Lea and Glenville, and meetings inviting Dr. W. S. Harper, a prominent Klan member from Minneapolis, in Albert Lea, Glenville, Clarks Glove, Alden and Hayward.

Lonning also found Tribune articles reporting an initiation ceremony in Austin where 400 new members joined the organization in September 1923, and a parade by 2,500 Klan members in Owatonna in 1925.

Evidence that shows the vigorous activity of the Klan is kept in the Freeborn County Historical Museum – A Klan robe and hood donated by an Albert Lea household.

A fiery cross emblem on the left chest signifies the blood drop that Jesus Christ shed on the cross.

The dress was found around 1988 in a box placed in an attic. It is unknown when this machine-made attire was made. Research by Elizabeth Lincoln of the State Legislative Reference Library says in the Session Weekly March 10, 1995 issue that the Klan had their own plant to manufacture the robes, and the price was $5 apiece in the ’20s. Membership dues were $20, according to the research.

Lonning speculates the organization in Minnesota was more like a social fellowship, which the Klan originally stood for when formed in mid-19th century – less like ones in the south that claimed absolute white supremacy and employed violence.

No records of physical violence in Southern Minnesota by the Klan have been discovered so far.

&uot;In a very strong protestant community in southern Minnesota, it is hard to believe they hurt somebody without being accused,&uot; Lonning said. &uot;The flaming cross was simply a demonstration and warning for citizens to obey the law.&uot;

In a meeting at Spring Lake Park on June 28, P. C. Orn, editor of the Klan’s publication &uot;Call of the North&uot; in St. Paul, pleaded for assisting law enforcement officers. A Tribune article wrote, &uot;He pointed out that a uniformed officer of law, because of his uniform and because he is known as an officer of the law, is unable to detect many violations of the law.&uot;

&uot;He declared that the order does not take the law into its own hands; that it does not send threatening missives; that it does not itself inflict punishment; but it only reports violations,&uot; it said.

But race and other issues the Klan is attributed were not excluded from their agenda at all.

Lonning remember an article in which a Klan leader from Northfield was claiming the danger of Mexican immigrants in the community around 1926.

Also during the August ceremony in Albert Lea, Orn, standing in front of a table decorated with a burning cross and the Stars and Stripes, made a speech for an hour and half. He said, according to the article, &uot;Any ‘Native Born’ American citizen is eligible to become a member who has the best interest of his community, city, state and nation at heart, owing no allegiance to any foreign government, political party, sect, creed or ruler, and engaged in a legitimate occupation, and who believes in the tenets of Christian religion, white supremacy, protection of our pure womanhood.&uot;

Orn continued listing the qualifications such as a closer relationship of pure Americanism, the upholding of the Constitution of the United States, the sovereignty of the state rights, the separation of church and state.

The Klan’s activity in the state rapidly became abated by the mid-20s.

Lonning thinks the fall was largely due to a state law enacted in 1923 that prohibits people from wearing masks in public to conceal their identity. The law, introduced by Myrtle Cain, one of Minnesota’s first female representatives, passed the House by a 96-2 vote and the Senate unanimously.

Nationally, the Klan was dissolved in 1944 when it could not pay $500,000 in back taxes to the federal government. Though in the South the Klan resurged in response to the civil rights movement in the mid-’60s, southern Minnesota remained quiet.

&uot;The Klan is a good example of how an original principle, which was not really harmful in itself, could go beyond control. It is fortunate that our community did not experience that,&uot; Lonning said.

Lonning is continuing his survey on the Klan’s history in the region.

&uot;A lot of people in Albert Lea may be shocked that the Klan was so prevailing in our community,&uot; Lonning said. &uot;But I think it is important to know it. If we push the past under the rug, it could raise its ugly head again.&uot;