Oct 31, 2023 —
When we think of the Ku Klux Klan, we often think of burning crosses and lynchings in the South.
But the KKK was active in the North Country, too. In the 1920s and 30s, the white supremacist group terrorized people in St. Lawrence County, driving out most of the area’s Black population.
A local historian is uncovering how the Klan has had a lasting impact on the region’s demographics.
The Ku Klux Klan’s presence in St. Lawrence County rose after the showing of the racist propaganda film “The Birth of a Nation.” Historian Bryan Thompson says the local press was supportive of the film’s racist themes.
Bryan Thompson: Starting in 1922, and after that, the Klan started to gain momentum here. And over the next six to seven years, it was a very prominent force with rallies being held all over the county. The largest rally I found recorded was some 5,000 people on the Potsdam-Norwood Road, where they recruited 500 new members at one rally. There were chapters all over the county. There was a chapter in Brasie Corners, De Peyster, Potsdam, Massena, Ogdensburg, [and] Oswegatchie, to name a few of the places.
Thompson is the historian for the Town of Dekalb in St. Lawrence County. He’s given talks about the Klan and has written about the North Country’s Black communities.
Thompson says anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people would attend Klan rallies. He says they recruited entire social organizations to join their ranks.
"The Klan was a pyramid scheme," Thompson said. "So if you joined, you paid your 10 bucks and the kleagle got so much, and the local chapter got so much, and the national chapter did. If you brought your friend along and he joined, you got $1 of his 10 bucks."
(Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
A KKK cross burning in 1925. (Photo: Harris and Ewing/ Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Thompson says the Klan was focused on forcing out the county’s Black community.
Bryan Thompson: There were a large number of Black workers in Massena working for Alcoa in the early 20s. They managed to, with the help of the local judge, to basically eliminate that Black community. Whereas in 1920, there were over 50 Black men working at Alcoa, by 1930, there were three.
Thompson says the Klan and public officials were using the courts to drive away Black residents. Judges would tell them that they could go to jail or leave town.
Bryan Thompson: Local elected officials, who deliberately in court said, 'You can either have this punishment for speeding, or you can leave town on the six o'clock train.' And that was given over and over again, in printed records, but only to African American people living in the county, with one exception. One Russian immigrant had the same sentence, but that's the only [other] person who got a sentence.
In 1926, St. Lawrence County attorney William Ingram, a Republican, won re-election. The Ku Klux Klan found a candidate to challenge Ingram after he refused to fire all of the county's Catholic employees, historian Bryan Thompson says. (Photo courtesy: Bryan Thompson)
Thompson says the Klan’s violence also targeted Catholics, Jews, and immigrants in the county.
Bryan Thompson: There was one recorded incident where one night a cross was burned on every Catholic household between the Village of Canton and the Village of Pyrites, which at that time was a big paper mill town. And most of the employees were Eastern European immigrants and largely Catholic. And [the Klan] sent letters to many people telling them they should leave the community for the good of the community.
Thompson says mentions of the Klan in local newspapers started to die out when the state passed a law requiring oath-bearing organizations to divulge membership lists. He says records show local chapters existed within St. Lawrence County through the early 1930s.
The Klan’s lasting impact is clear in the county’s racial demographics, Thompson said. Between the mid-1800s and up until the early 1920s, there was a consistent Black population of about 200 people.
Bryan Thompson: By 1930, there's just about 50, black people left. And other than three or four of them, they're all residents of the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Hospital. So the only people who came here for medical treatment are from the whole of Northern New York. And the legend has become there were never any Black people here.
He says white supremacy drove out a population that could have grown during the Great Migration of the mid-1900s. Thompson asks, what could have been if the Black community in the North Country had been allowed to flourish?
Bryan Thompson: We forced our Black community out. [In] Niagara Falls, they stayed. They had 300 Black people there at the beginning of World War II in 1940. By the end of World War II with the migration north and the war industry, they had, in 1950, 3,000 black people. If we had let the 150 black people stay in this Massena, would there have been 1,500 by 1950? And what difference would that have made in terms of supporting a vibrant Black community?
Thompson says knowing this history helps to combat deliberate attempts to whitewash the community’s history. He says if we can learn from it, we’ll be better equipped to challenge similar events in the present and future.
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How the Ku Klux Klan left a lasting impact in St. Lawrence County - North Country Public Radio
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