Ku Klux Klan (1915- ). Oregon Chapter No. 8 (Tillamook, Or.)

After World War I the Ku Klux Klan, which had been largely suppressed since the 1870s, underwent a national resurgence under the leadership of William Joseph Simons. It retained its former goals of white supremacy and sectional patriotism, but added new targets of religious, cultural, and social bigotry to its agenda. During the 1920s the Klan grew into the largest anti-African American, anti-Semitic, anti-Roman Catholic, and anti-immigrant organization in the history of the United States. This growth reached Oregon in 1921 when out-of-state Klan organizers arrived in Medford and began enrolling members around the state. The peak of Klan power in Oregon was reached in 1922 and 1923 when Klan lobbyists and political organizations applied continual pressure upon legislative and law enforcement officials. The Ku Klux Klan, Tillamook Chapter No. 8 was active from 1921 through 1938. Its activities were mostly anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. Recruits were found among local ministers and members of churches, most notably the Nazarene, Baptist, United Brethren, and Christian; and among fraternal organizations including the Masons, the I.O.O.F., and the Elks. Klan membership in the early 1920s peaked at 600 to 800, although at any given time there were rarely more than 200 actively participating members. Nevertheless, from 1922 through 1932, most city, county, and state officials from Tillamook were either Klansmen or former Klansmen. The mayor of Tillamook was a Klansman, as was the editor of the Tillamook headlight, which often supported Klan positions. By the end of the 1920s however, the Tillamook Klan had lost much of its aggressive political power, and had deteriorated into "a social organization on the fringes of respectable fraternalism" (Toy 84). By 1938, the Great Depression, public disgust at Klan tactics, and lack of substantive issues had combined to render the Oregon Klan all but obsolete.