When fascism came to Lenawee: The lost cause and the Ku Klux Klan

In February, America learned that True the Vote, the group whose allegations of illegal ballot-stuffing were used as the basis for Dinesh D’Souza’s debunked film “2,000 Mules,” has no evidence to back up its claims (“Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back up its claims,” Feb. 14, 2024).

True the Vote’s allegations were just one in a long line of conspiratorial actions designed to illegally overturn or create doubt about the results of the U.S. presidential election in 2020. Watching much of this, including the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection as it happened, as well as the actions of the various stop/stand/moms’ groups and others in different states, made me wonder about historical origins.

Much of the messaging was familiar to me; in fact, it’s still circulating. I wondered what makes people believe and support this nonsense with its goal of overthrowing the United States government. Who wants to replace our secular democratic republic?

How could one of our own senators wear a Confederate flag mask in the Michigan Capitol building, and how could any elected officials try to invalidate election results? How could movies like “2,000 Mules” and its conspiracy-drenched offshoots possibly be circulating? How could people believe conspiracies about Jews and Muslims and immigrants and unions and the Red Scare and the Great Replacement and the rest of the crazy? Who would buy into any of that?

How could the home of Elizabeth Chandler, Elizabeth Comstock, Laura Haviland and others including the Rev. Henry Tripp, Joel Carpenter, Stephen Allen, the Reeds, the Gilberts, Royal and Sally Watkins, and so many others who gave their lives to save the Union, have fallen so far?

The four-part series that follows is a synopsis of my search for answers. It comes from the Adrian Daily Telegram and Times archives (courtesy of the Lenawee County Historical Society), Wayne State University and University of Michigan Archives, FBI files, and well-documented, published non-fiction accounts.

All politics is local, so that’s my focus. The Telegram archives contain many articles about the Ku Klux Klan and its revival in Lenawee County, reborn after the movie “Birth of a Nation” in 1915 and the fear and hysteria that followed.

The leader of this born-again Klan was William Simmons, a Methodist minister who was also a member of different lodges including the Knights of Pythias, the Masons and the Odd Fellows (English, “Under the Star of the Guard,” U of M archives, 1993, available online).

This new version of the Klan eventually made it up I-75 from the south and then to Lenawee. A letter written to the Adrian Daily Telegram by influential Adrian citizen B.F. Searight extols the virtues of the Klan, claiming it was built on the Christian principles of love and American patriotism.

Mr. Searight also writes about the Klan’s stance against social equality, the importance of “pure blood,” the necessity of protecting the “purity of American womanhood” and the ”integrity of the American home.” Mr. Searight rails against communists, Reds, the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World, a labor union) and accuses the Associated Press of being controlled (by whom isn’t exactly clear).

He ends with a flourish, implying that Romanists (Catholics), Jews, Negroes, immigrants (that is, immigrants who came here later than Klan families and from different places), should understand that their version of the natural order of things is best, with white, nativist, Protestant (but only selected sects) Christians at the top of the heap.

Once the budding union movement (communism, socialism) was destroyed and the Klan’s proposed societal order was in place, all would live peacefully as God intended and not only American soil but the American soul would be saved (letter, Adrian Daily Telegram, Feb. 4, 1924).

To be continued ...

— Pam Taylor is a retired Lenawee County teacher and an environmental activist. She can be reached at ptaylor001@msn.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: When fascism came to Lenawee: The lost cause and the Ku Klux Klan