Burning Crosses in the Rockies

...In Pueblo, the Klan exploited the anger toward the foreign-born population because immigrants were in fact the principal violators of Prohibition laws...

...None of the city's unskilled workers, who constituted 13.5 per cent of the population, were in this klavern...

...In each Colorado town and city," Goldberg writes,"Klan mobilization success was a function of the interplay of four variables: local tensions, government responsiveness, the quality of the klav-ern's leadership, and community perceptions...

...And now that the Klan is back in the news again, it is timely and encouraging as well...

...Given the national experience with the Klan as a gang of nightriders, Goldberg owes it to us to delve deeper into the organization as a whole...

...and Canon City, a remote burg of about 4,500 people...

...Such glimpses confirm the author's point that, for many, the Klan was first and foremost a social organization...

...Apparently realizing this, Goldberg does throw in occasional caveats, but they seem to be afterthoughts: "While such acts are reprehensible and to be condemned, it is also necessary to consider them as tactics" Yet the relative freedom from militancy in Colorado should not blind us to the Klan's nature elsewhere...

...If there is an overriding theme here, it is that the Klan almost invariably gave voice to the sentiments of the public...

...Fear of Catholics, to cite one of the Klan's mainstays, existed in Colorado long before the men in white sheets appeared...

...But such abstract causes could not generate membership unless they drew meaning from the immediate environment'You cannot put into effect any set program,' insisted Hiram Wesley Evans, the Klan's second Imperial Wizard,' for there are different needs in the various localities...

...Although tolerant enough to return-as a peace offering-protection money paid by the Jews of one small town (all four of them), it was hysterical enough to warn the same small town that the Pope was planning to use the new Catholic abbey as a summer residence and "a base from which to infiltrate Protestant America...

...The organization managed to sweep the statewide elections in 1924, yet was too inept to use the power it won...

...But when these warnings were ignored, they generally went no further...

...There were, to be sure, plenty of cross burnings and threats against minorities, particularly the Catholics...

...They joined the Invisible Empire for the same reasons: fellowship and business contacts...

...Thus, they concentrated their efforts on the polling booth, and in 1924 won their stunning statewide victory...

...Relying heavily on newspaper accounts and public records, Goldberg studies the Klan's quick rise and decline in five communities: Denver, Pueblo and Colorado Springs, the state's largest cities in the '20s...

...We belonged to a bunch that was the popular thing to be in...

...In Denver from 1924-'26, for example, 72 per cent of the members came from the "high nonmanual" and "middle nonmanual" occupations: they included doctors, lawyers, editors, businessmen, and government officials...

...Still, judged solely as a study of the Klan in one state, Hooded Empire is an exemplary history...

...Allegiance to their leaders also stirred Colorado Klansmen more than any substantive issue...

...instead, it watched impotently as its plans dissolved...

...This new book proves that the Ku Klux Klan is equally fascinating when it is shown to be less extreme and less effective than its reputation usually suggests...

...What Hooded Empire lacks-indeed, its most serious flaw-is an adequate context...

...The break marked the end of the Klan's real strength in the city...

...Grand Junction, its biggest city west of the Rockies...

...When John Galen Locke, Grand Dragon of the Colorado realm, fell into disfavor with national headquarters in Atlanta, he split the Klan and formed the Minute Men, taking 5,000 of Denver's 17,000 Klansmen with him...

...The Klan offered a program of Americanism, militant Protestantism, fraternity, order, religious intolerance, and racial purity-a plethora of causes from which to choose...

...As matters stand, the Klan comes off looking almost good in Hooded Empire...

...was not official Klan policy and violence was usually perpetrated by independent bands of radicals...

...Whether through the indifference or antagonism on the part of the public, or dissension in its own ranks, it never lasted very long...

...Your program must embrace the needs of the people it must serve.'" Goldberg puts particular stress on the economic status of the Klansmen, most of whom were surprisingly well-off...

...No organization appears invincible when viewed on that level...

...This picture of the Klan is so different from its image that we need a fuller explanation...

...Even those attracted to one or more of the Klan's political objectives were rarely interested in all of them...

...We didn't get too serious about this thing," one Grand Junction Klansman reminisces...

...Goldberg's attention to detail in chronicling those events makes for enjoyable reading and sharpens his focus...

...Later, more than 2,000 men followed Locke into another secret association, one that welcomed Jews and Catholics...

...We are told in passing that, nationwide, "the common Klan remedy for unresponsive government was the election of reliable men," that "terrorism...

...His emphasis is on how the hooded empire adjusted itself to each local situation...

...A significant percentage of Klansmen were members of at least one other group like the Masons, the Elks, or the Lions...

...It worked successfully for prison reform, women's rights and better schools, but ultimately was defeated in large part by internal dissent and corruption...

...The Klans-men preferred to pursue their goal of a white, Protestant America through restrictive legislation, rather than illegal intimidation...

...We learn, for instance, that Denver Klansmen congregated at a restaurant with the subtle name of the Kool Kozy Kafe, and that one of Denver's big social events in 1925 was an "evening of musical entertainment by the 200-piece Imperial Klan Band...

...For the book demonstrates that everywhere the Klan made a stand in Colorado, whatever its initial gains, it soon failed...

...Goldberg fails to link what was happening in the state to the doings of the Klan throughout the country...

...Research has a way of exploding myths, and in the case of the Klan in Colorado during the decade Robert Alan Goldberg examines the shrapnel flies in all directions...

...at times it sounds like a friendly social group that simply happened to have a few strange opinions...

...Reviewed by Hal Goodman White hoods and burning crosses have one benefit, at least: they tend to draw strong reactions, so that discussions about those who have made them their symbols are rarely dull...

...When the politically sophisticated statehouse minority succeeded in nullifying this newly-gained power, the Klan still did not resort to terrorism...

...Perhaps Goldberg's greatest achievement, though, is his unmasking the Klan and showing us the individuals who make up the faceless mob...

...The new governor, Clarence Morley, was aKlansman, and Klan-sup-ported candidates were elected lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, and state supreme court justice...

...On the other hand, in towns where Jews and blacks were not considered a threat, the Klan did not bother them and sometimes actually courted their favor: In 1924 a hooded delegation paid a call on the black congregation of a Canon City Baptist church-to donate $25...