“Who Are These Arrayed in White Robes?” Youngstown Citizen.īoth images illustrate Klansmen in their infamous white robes, but each differs in their interpretation. This understanding of Americanism is demonstrated from both the Klan and Catholic immigrant perspectives in the political cartoons published in the KKK newspaper and American Unity League pamphlet. For the purposes of this paper the concept of Americanism also becomes intermingled with common American ideals like freedom, liberty, and patriotism. The Ku Klux Klan praised Protestantism, white superiority, and natural-born status. How the term is applied depends on an individual’s or group’s preferred customs or ideals. ![]() 1 Americanism is the allegiance to the traditions, institutions, and ideals of the United States. This is demonstrated in two cartoons published in the early 1920s: a political cartoon published in the Youngstown Citizen, the Ku Klux Klan newspaper in Youngstown, Ohio during the 1920s and the cover of the American Unity League pamphlet. Political cartoons and other contemporary forms of media provide substantial evidence of the Mahoning Valley Klan’s obsession with one hundred percent Americanism and perceived guardianship of Protestant morals. The heavy role that Protestantism, and its relationship with idealistic Americanism, played in the Northern Klan’s growth explains the strong anti-Klan motivation among immigrants and Catholic groups throughout the North. For citizens of these two counties, tensions caused by the newly arriving Catholic immigrants against the Protestant natural-born citizens of the area became the root of Klan influence and the subsequent immigrant-led, anti-Klan movement. Anti-Klan activists opposed the growing influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the Mahoning Valley, an area of Northeast Ohio that contains parts of both Mahoning and Trumbull Counties. The Niles Riot, the climax of nearly two years of hostility between the Mahoning Valley Klan and the local Catholic’s anti-Klan opposition, is a defining moment in the anti-Klan movement. Descriptions of gun fire, car flipping, and threats of lynching filled newspaper articles after the riot, illustrating the scene of intense anger and violence. On the morning of November 1, 1925, Klansmen and Catholic immigrants fought on the streets of Niles, Ohio. These are the images and sounds experienced by Niles’ citizens during the climatic event known as the Niles Riot. Chaos reigns on the streets of Niles, Ohio. Cars lay on their sides along the road the contents of their trucks spilling from them like white wounds. Explosions of gunfire drown out the shouts of curses and slurs, creating a deafening cacophony of noise. Loud gunshots rip through the early morning air and fill the streets with sounds reminiscent of a battlefield. The ideology of a true American served as an important factor of the conflict demonstrated in political cartoons, both the Valley Klan and the anti-Klan forces claimed that their beliefs and actions showed that they were the true Americans. ![]() ![]() ![]() Using newspapers and local Klan literature, my paper will argue that the Valley Klan’s motivations mirrored the Northern Klan while defending the claim that the actions of the local Catholic population contributed significantly to the Valley Klan’s collapse, evident by the rapid decrease in membership following the Niles Riot in 1924. In the end, the anti-Klan resistance, led by the Irish and Italian Catholics of the Valley, resulted in the Klan’s early demise. Their Protestant ideologies and obsession with pure Americanism resulted in considerable backlash from local Catholic immigrants. Due to the concerns for moral reform and enforcement of prohibition laws in the Valley, the Klan gained power within the local major cities and smaller towns. In the early 1920s, the Mahoning Valley became one of many areas in the United States to be influenced by the Ku Klux Klan.
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