The Ku Klux Klan in Trumbull County, Ohio, 1923-1925

Abstract

As a study of the local chapter of a national phenomenon during the 1920's, this thesis seeks to interpret the local movement against the background of the social environment of the era. The Ku Klux Klan during the twenties was much more than an organization of embittered haters. It was a product of the social and economic climate of the times, composed of people who banded together in local tribe-like groups out of reactions to changes in the general American society and in defense of their own particular customs and values.

The Mahoning Valley including Trumbull County had undergone immense changes in the forty years preceding the Klan era of the early twenties. In this relatively short period of time it had changed from predominantly agrarian pursuits into one of the largest iron and steel producing and processing areas in the world. With this rapid industrialization came the need for workers, a need only partially filled by migration from the surrounding countryside. As a result thousands of immigrants, mostly from southern and eastern Europe were attracted to the open hearths and blast furnaces of Youngstown and Warren.

Previous to the arrival of these "new" immigrants Trumbull County was predominantly inhabited by the descendants of New England Yankees and Scotch-Irish farmers. Throughout the country there existed a strong identification of Americanism as Protestantism and the Anglo-Saxon American culture was dominant.

Of course such ethnic patterns were not limited to Trumbull County or the Mahoning Valley--they existed across the industrializing sections of the country. What was exceptional was the degree of success the Klan enjoyed in recruiting the members of the older cultural groups. Traditionally the Klan has not been thought of as an urban phenomenon. In Trumbull County however its strength was concentrated around the urban areas. Also the Klan was noted for its strong talk but relative non-militance. Trumbull County was an exception again in that it was the site of one of the most violent confrontations between the Klan and an organized anti-Klan group.

In examining the exceptional Klan experience in Trumbull County it was necessary to probe the intellectual antecedents of the national nativist resurgence of the twenties Klan vis a vis the Klan in Trumbull County.

It is the contention of this thesis that the Klan in Trumbull County was based on fear, not hate. These fears of ethnic, religious and racial change were well founded American traditions. The very real problems of the local society--prohibition enforcement, lack of municiple services, crowded educational facilities and others-- were blamed on the newest members of the society. The Klan lecturers in Trumbull County-- particularly Colonel Evan Watkins--lost little time identifying the foreign born Catholic population as the culprits. The Klan offered group solidarity as a simplistic solution to the problems of the society. This led to a polarization of the society which in turn resulted in the violent climax of tensions in the Niles Riot of November 1924. In the aftermath of the riot the power of the Klan declined and a new balance resulted among the cultures within the society.