Portland journalist to discuss Oregon Klan at Powell’s City of Books
OSU Press publishes book about 1920s “Peddlers of Hate” by Steve Law, a retired newspaper editor
When the Ku Klux Klan took over Oregon politics during the early 1920s, they picked a spot right here in the neighborhood as the headquarters of their anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-immigrant and anti-Black hatemongering.
Portland’s first Klan recruiter in 1921 immediately set up shop at the Multnomah Hotel. Lemuel “Bragg” Callaway, the Klan’s paid recruiter organizing a local chapter, saw Portland as ripe for the taking, as described in former Portland Tribune journalist Steve Law’s new book “Peddlers of Hate.”
“The second version of the Klan built its following by bashing Catholics, immigrants and other minorities,” Law said, “so this century-old saga remains eerily relevant today.”
At the time of the Klan’s arrival, a fifth of Portland residents were immigrants, and more than one in every 11 Portlanders were Catholic. Anti-Catholic forces had just seized control of the Portland School Board in the spring 1921 election, defeating a four-person slate endorsed by the City Club of Portland and by three of the four daily newspapers.
The Portland Telegram published a banner headline “Portland Invaded by Ku Klux Klan” in June 1921, just five days after Callaway’s arrival, but the article aided the Klan in its recruitment efforts. Callaway was fired, presumably for breaking the Klan’s code of silence, but then two other Klansmen scored a public-relations coup at the same hotel, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operates as the Embassy Suites by Hilton Portland Downtown.
Unidentified Klansmen contacted city and federal law-enforcement officials, along with members of the press, to the Oregon Klan’s coming-out presentation at the Multnomah Hotel. City and federal officials answered the call and arrived to the hotel to be greeted by two hooded Klansmen, later identified as “king kleagle” Luther Powell and “exalted cyclops” Fred Gifford, who was appointed to run the Portland chapter so Powell could focus on opening up others around the state.
Once the photo of hooded Klansmen meeting with Portland officials was published, public curiosity about the hate group skyrocketed statewide. Days before Christmas, the Klan attracted more than 6,000 Portlanders to a paid lecture at a downtown hall now called Keller Auditorium. At the peak of the Klan’s influence, it had captured the governor’s and mayor’s offices and had about 50,000 white Protestant members.
“In its ascent to power between 1921 and 1924, the Klan could command audiences of thousands to attend its rallies, lectures, parades and cross burnings in every nook, cranny, city, town and village of the state,” said Darrell Millner, professor emeritus of Black studies at Portland State University.
“Law documents these events in intimate detail, naming names, dates, locations for all to see. It is a scary story.”
Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., will host a conversation with Law about the Klan at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26.