Lynchings

[W. Gray]

This subject is really not appropriate under the specific title "Good Old Days" but did happen under those old days.

If one were to ask the question "How many lynchings took place in Kansas?" what would be your response? My off the cuff remark would be either "zero" or "I did not know any lynchings took place in Kansas."

According to the Summer 2010 issue of Kansas History, A Journal of the Central Plains, p 98-99, in an article by Christopher C. Lovett, Emporia State University, the following number of black lynchings took place during the fifty year period from 1880 through 1939:

1880s, 8
1890s, 7
1900s, 2
1910s, 0
1920s, 1
1930s, 0

This is a total of 18, broken down as follows:

Cherokee County, 2
Crawford County, 4
Douglas County, 3
Labette County, 2
Leavenworth County, 3
Miami County, 1
Brown County, 1
Pawnee County, 1
Saline County, 1

During this same fifty year period, there were 34 lynchings of white victims.

These are raw numbers and the reason or reasons for each lynching was not included.

[Roma Jean Turner]

My grandparents had a picture of two black men hanging from a tree.  This was just in a box of old photos that I saw many times as a liitle girl.  I remember asking about it once and grandma said it happened "over in the next county".  This was not a snap shot but a cabinet photo my guess early 1900's.

[Roma Jean Turner]

My grandparents were born and lived in Wilson Co Ks around Buffalo until 1942.  I believe there is an old thread on here that talked about Klan activity in the area.  Don't have time to find it now.

[W. Gray]

Luckily there were no lynchings in Elk County, however, the below is a cut and paste from one of my 2007 postings:

According to the Elk County history book the Ku Klux Klan became active in the county in the 1920s.

The local Klan purpose was to teach Americanism and was against Negroes, Jews, and Catholics.

Flaming crosses accompanied by men in white robes took place in numerous meadows of the county.

Stories spread that Elk County was the location of whippings and tar and feather incidents.

[Marcia Moore]

     The second Ku Klux Klan (KKK), many times called the Klan of the 1920s, was officially the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.  Its membership was open to white male Protestant native-born Americans "of good moral character" over the age of 18.   It was a formal membership organization, with a national and state structure, that paid thousands of men to organize local chapters all over the country.  Millions joined and at its peak in the 1920s the organization included approximately 15% of the nation's eligible population.  The strong patriotism of the period following World War I that motivated the Ku Klux Klan was also shared by Protestant churches, as the Klan offered the churches an ally in the struggle against the forces of evil and to keep America pure, so some pastors used the KKK to support their local program. 
     In December 1922, the Methodist Episcopal Church at Severy held two revival meetings with Rev. Cody of Independence doing the preaching.  Not only did Cody preach Christianity, he gave lectures on the Ku Klux Klan.  In his lectures he discussed the importance of the Klan, the accomplishments of the organization, and the group's future plans.  Cody convinced a number of people in Severy that the KKK is the "only" organization, and that it stood for 100 percent Americanism.  Much turmoil was created among the congregation over these lectures, and several were against using the church as a promoting agency for a somewhat questionable institution.  Cody's discourses caused considerable controversy amongst the rest of the town, too, giving the people much to think about and question.  Talk on the streets went on for some time, as did rumors. 
     To clear up some of the rumors and to disassociate themselves from the Klan, two Severy citizens placed articles in the Severyite in April 1923.  J.V. Fuller announced that he was not, nor had he ever been, a member of the Ku Klux Klan.  At the same time, Dr. Will Parker made a long statement, proclaiming that he was not a member of the Ku Klux Klan because, "God's word plainly and definitely reveals a plan for the Jew altogether different than set forth in the lectures." 

[Wilma]

I think I would have liked Mr. Fuller and Dr. Parker.

[Roma Jean Turner]

When my grandfather died in 1970, my Aunt and Uncle from Colorado came and threw away boxes of old pictures.  By the time I got there all the old pictures were all gone.  I have always wondered how that picture came to be in their possession.