The announcement of an event that was to become the largest Ku Klux Klan demonstration ever held in the Lykens Valley, appeared in the September 26, 1924, edition of the Lykens Standard.
KU KLUX KLAN MEETING AT GRATZ; OCTOBER 4
The K. K. K. organization will bold a celebration at Gratz Fair Grounds, Saturday, October 4th [1924], beginning at noon and lasting until midnight. A big naturalization of men, women and boys will be held at 9:00 p. m. Fireworks are also scheduled. Announcement and details are given elsewhere in this issue.
Since the event was held at the Gratz Fairgrounds on the closing day of the fair, it insured that the attendance would be large. Crowds for the K. K. K. demonstration were estimated at 5000.
See: Ku Klux Klan Rally at Gratz Fairgrounds, 1924.
Less than a month after this Klan meeting, on November 3, 1924, Gratz lost most of its town center to a disastrous fire of suspicious origin. The large hotel at the square burned rapidly while the hotel proprietor and his wife (a Catholic), barely escaped with their two young children.
See also: Thomas Kerstetter Family – Almost Killed in Great Gratz Fire of 1924
While there was no official cause determined for the fire, some Gratz people believed that the Klan had something to do with it.
This post is a continuation of the reporting on hate groups that were active in the Lykens Valley area. It was a widely known fact that the Ku Klux Klan had a significant presence in the Lykens Valley and adjacent valleys during the early years of the 20th Century. This iteration of the Klan was strongly white supremacist and was opposed to equal rights for African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.
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Article from Newspapers.com.
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