Hide Article Text (OCR)
ich growth, d a 20 per cent in-nping can be re-id a 10 per centng activity is pos-ichieved by proper said.Sisk, head of the sion of the State tment, said there larked increase in ! groups in Southfind that much of i recreation pro-e oriented toward eople,” he said, ion. Aberdeen was e of the 1966 South ?ntors congress, en held there theyears.Roadck HillsVI IV UV1IV/V*V MlP) — A new high-ng tested in the esn’t have a word » traffic engineer et the “yield ay” message. ;vice is called a and is designed ght reflections on-sr.light causes deer •ng enough for a before the deerthis month. In the Wessington area, these youngsters took advantage of a warm day to explore the water from their home-* * *j#iv vul \Twas taken, one boy told the photographer, “Now my mom will know I was playing near the water!” (Plainsman Photo)rly 80 per cent of oming into South i aded for the Black-nds area. Tourist her areas of theKKK OnceFoothold InhemeitslarproablCentral South Dakota Townstraffic engineer said a number of*e being InstalledBy KEN CURLEY Plainsman Staff Writer“Until I joined the Klan I was like most every other American — letting the federal government ram the nigger down our throats. If they keep pushing us, the time might come that the white sheets march in the streets to meet ’em.”In the security of distance most Midwesterners overtly frown upon the violence and venomous statements of Klans-men like that of E. L. McDaniel. grand dragon of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan. Intolerance is not a common quality in these parts. But even South Dakotans cannot climb upon the pedestal of virtue as a “bigot-free state”, for the bones of an older Ku Klux Klan still rattle from time to time in our historic closet.HURON, AS A matter of fact, was one of the many minor strongholds for Klansters in the early 1920s. According to several long-time residents who stretched their memories back to that post-war revival of the Klan, the organization did primarily the same thing it does today. It was composed solely of white gentiles fighting for states’ rights and the preservation of the Constitution in its original form.Since Negroes were at a premium then, the “wrath” of the Klan descended upon theron to demonstrate its strength, but never engaged in any sort of violence. One night even consider the Klan here a benevolent organization. One lady, a childsociety, but a political body as well. “I think the Klan was interested at that time in showing some force or help in trying to control the bootlegging, to helpgo\Jarmeonpultheser4 iat the time, remembered that I in any way they could,” said“they wore their white robes one man. On other occasionsand hoods and burned their the Klan used the influence of fires on top of Indian Hill (the ; its membership and was instru-present site of The Plains). The mental more than once in put-funny thing was that they used I ting a mayor or chief of policeto give out groceries to the into office.needvthey didn’t cause any | HURON DID not have a mo-trouble at all. Of course, we nopoly on the cross - burning never went near any of their men. A few miles to the eastmeetings because we were too; in Manchester, citizens playedscared — we were just kids!”Indian Hill was group’s only nighta game of “Kick the Klan” not the with their local organization, meeting “They made a joke out of it,”place. Other persons questioned a storyteller said. “One night said that meetings and burnings they burned a cross a half-block of red crosses would often take from main street. Some of thegroinFera uni dep con eveIIconous somi£ par theTplace in northwest Huron near the airport.boys walked down and picked it jup and set it on the town pump THE KLAN’S anti-Negro, in the center of the place and Catholic and Jew protest dem- j watched it burn. Now the Flam-onstrations amount to little ing Circle was organized more than teen-age shenanigans against the Klan, so they hung in retrospect. One man report-1 two tires on the cross arms andulathejorcopcisikee4*ed that the KKK had once flown let them burn, too. That younga plane over the city with a I bunch was tougher than thlt;huge red cross painted on the Klan, that was all, and the Klan bottom. Still others can recall didn’t do a darned thing. Andthe times when the town really j that was the end of the cross got a “bang” out of the Klan— burning.ofsiordidtate »literally. “They’d set off a cross and a charge of dynamite east of town,” said one confi-“There were quite a few Klansmen scattered throughout the country,” he went on.boa4 i'Pathnlinc anH Jpws Thp ha.SlPdant. “Then, when all the peo- “There was a bunch that held pie were rushing to the spot to some meetings at Iroquois, butsee what had happened, they I can’t remember anybody be-they would sneak over to the ing a darned bit scared. I knowa cj the gov arm pen: Bi ideawest side of town, burn another mv erandad was aDnroached to a;
Newspaper Details
Huron Daily Plainsman
Huron, South Dakota, US
Sun, May 16, 1965
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Mitchell P.
SD, USA 02 Feb 2022
Other Publications Near Huron, South Dakota
Huron Evening Huronite
Daily Huronite
The Huron Tribune
Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite
The Dakota Huronite
