Description
On July 4, 1923, approximately 200,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) met at Malfalfa Park in rural Kokomo, Indiana [1]. The crowd gathered to celebrate the state’s transition from a KKK Province to a Realm and to inaugurate a new Indiana Grand Dragon [2]. As the great number of attendees suggests, the Klan was well established in Indiana by the 1920s. The KKK originated in the South after the Civil War, but quickly spread to other states, where members pursued their mission to intimidate people that diverged from their profile of an ideal American. Their targets included African Americans, Jews, immigrants, and Catholics.
By the time of the mass gathering in Malfalfa Park in 1923, Indiana was home to the biggest Klan group in the United States [3] and half of Kokomo’s residents were members of the KKK [4]. “Klaverns”, local units of the KKK, were chartered in every county, and Indiana was the only state where the governor and U.S. Senators were controlled by the Klan [5]. Klan leaders thought Kokomo was a perfect site for the massive rally; the town already had enormous Klan support, and it serendipitously contained two Ks in its name [6]. The Malfalfa Park rally was unprecedented in its huge number of supporters and excessive displays. The park was owned by the Kokomo Klavern, so it typically hosted Klan activities [7]. Rallies and initiations were held at the park twice a week, with separate meeting nights for men and women [8].
The enormous rally on July 4, 1923 was well-planned. Train cars were specifically reserved to transport Klansmen and their families to Kokomo, and boys’ bands from Ohio traveled 300 miles to the rally, playing music to promote the event along the way [9].
The citizens of Kokomo who protested the Klan’s massive display of power did their best to dissuade the thousands of Klan members who drove into the city by manipulating road signs on the way to town. The Fiery Cross reported thousands of members were confused by road signs that had been changed to divert them 65 miles northeast to Bluffton, Indiana. Travelling Klansmen also met with violence and opposition on their way to Kokomo, admitting that “every petty thing that could be used was put into force” by those who wished to stop the massive assembly [10].
Despite the efforts of opposing forces, however, the rally went on in excess. A mountain of food was provided to the crowd, featuring hundreds of pounds of hamburger, five thousand cases of pop, two hundred fifty pounds of coffee, thousands of pies, and at least six tons of beef [11]. Still, the enormous amount of food was not enough. People were encouraged to bring their own food in addition to the hundreds of truckloads of food provided. Seven wagonloads of watermelon were bare by noon, showcasing the sheer mass of the crowd that flooded into Kokomo for the one-day event [12].
The man appointed as Grand Dragon that day was David Curtis Stephenson, a Republican politician from Evansville [13]. He arrived at the ceremony in an airplane proudly sporting the letters “KKK,” and emerged swathed in purple robes with the tell-tale eighteen-inch white pointed hood upon his head. His dramatic entrance reportedly elicited an explosion of cheers from the crowd, where several women fainted from excitement [14]. His boastful speech was hardly heard by the large crowd, but by the end of the inauguration, the cheering mob was tossing coins and jewelry onto the platform on which he stood [15].
In addition to the music, speeches, pie-eating contests, and a boxing exhibition, the event featured an elaborate parade. At least ten thousand masked Klansmen and five hundred Klanswomen marched through town, sporting giant American flags and electric fiery crosses [16]. There were floats made by the women and girls of the Klan, and Klansmembers on twelve-foot-high stilts wound through the streets, all marching to the tunes of bands who had travelled to Kokomo from throughout the Midwest [17]. When night fell, the crowd enjoyed an elaborate firework display in which fiery symbols exploded above the heads of thousands of Klansmembers, spelling out KKK-inspired messages and displaying specific scenes. One firework set featured Klansmen on horseback, clad in full regalia, surrounded by kneeling Klansmen and a giant fiery cross [18]. After the firework display, the crowd ended the evening by setting fire to an enormous cross that had cost over $2,000 to build [19].
The days of the Klan’s popularity and political power have faded in Kokomo, and the massive rally of 1923 is only a memory that reminds modern Hoosiers of the power of hate groups in Indiana history. Malfalfa Park, once the gathering place for the largest Ku Klux Klan rally in history, is now used by the YMCA of Kokomo to provide day camp activities for children [20].
Source
[1] “Kokomonians’ Perform a Big Undertaking,” Fiery Cross (Indianapolis, IN), July 13, 1923.
[2] Wyn Craig Wade, The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America (Oxford University Press, 1998): 215.
[3] “Kokomo Site of Largest KKK Gathering in History,” Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, IN), May 2, 1999.
[4] Carson Gerber, “Study Identifies Kokomo as Home of KKK ‘Hate Group,’” Kokomo Tribune, February 28, 2017, https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/study-identifies-kokomo-as-home-of-kkk-hate-group/article_a66da288-fdfd-11e6-91a7-6bab5238e8d1.html.
[5] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 215.
[6] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 216.
[7] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 216.
[8] Kathleen M. Blee, Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s (University of California Press, 2008), 138.
[9] Blee, Women of the Klan: 136.
[10] “Kokomonians’ Perform a Big Undertaking,” July 13, 1923.
[11] Blee, Women of the Klan: 136.
[12] “Kokomonians’ Perform a Big Undertaking,” July 13, 1923.
[13] Karen Abbot, “’Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty’: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 12, 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/murder-wasnt-very-pretty-the-rise-and-fall-of-dc-stephenson-18935042/.
[14] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 217.
[15] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 218.
[16] “Hoosiers and Buckeyes in Celebration,” Fiery Cross (Indianapolis, IN), July 13, 1923.
[17] Blee, Women of the Klan: 136.
[18] “Hoosiers and Buckeyes in Celebration,” July 13, 1923.
[19] Wade, The Fiery Cross: 218.
[20] “Kokomo Site of Largest KKK Gathering in History,” May 2, 1999.