July 29, 2008
Chris Rhomberg. "White Nativism and Urban Politics: The 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oakland, California." Journal of American Ethnic History 17.2 (1998): 39-55.
Rhomberg describes an ascendent white, Protestant middle class in the Oakland of the 1920s. The Klan became a vehicle for this political capital, using Oakland Klan no. 9 to place their candidates in positions of power: mayor, sherriff, jailor, commissioner of streets, until the corruption that marred the previous administrations became just as rampant with them. Their power was such that District Attorney Earl Warren (later of the Supreme Court) had to use the press to change public opinion rather than taking the Klan head-on in the courts because "[e]ven at this time, Klan legitimacy in Oakland was high enough that Warren feared that the Klan members on the Alameda County Grand Jury would refuse to indict fellow Klansmen" (49).
Rhomberg describes an ascendent white, Protestant middle class in the Oakland of the 1920s. The Klan became a vehicle for this political capital, using Oakland Klan no. 9 to place their candidates in positions of power: mayor, sherriff, jailor, commissioner of streets, until the corruption that marred the previous administrations became just as rampant with them. Their power was such that District Attorney Earl Warren (later of the Supreme Court) had to use the press to change public opinion rather than taking the Klan head-on in the courts because "[e]ven at this time, Klan legitimacy in Oakland was high enough that Warren feared that the Klan members on the Alameda County Grand Jury would refuse to indict fellow Klansmen" (49).
posted by Mr. Horton at 12:27 AM
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