1920-1924 – Ku Klux Klan increases its presence in Lansing, including North Lansing

From Lisa Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U. S. A. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004):  67.

The popularity of the Klan in mid-Michigan reflected fear less of blacks and Jews than Catholics.  One man, named Fred, who lived in North Lansing recalled, ‘We lived in a nest of them [Klan members].” Fred’s father was opposed to the Klan and Fred remembered his father being threatened by his neighbors, “They’ll get you.  You’ll join.” Against his father’s wishes, Fred witnessed a number of Klan events in and around the city, including the cross burning at the Labor Day rally.  As Fred recollected, “the order of priority was first the Catholics, because the Klan feared the Pope was trying to take over the country; second were the Jews. .  . then the blacks.”

Ku Klux Klan Rally, Michigan Avenue in Lansing on Sept. 1, 1924