Every time I visit my dad in Anaheim, I drive past Pearson Park and down Harbour Boulevard. The crown jewels of the city’s public spaces have many memories of good and bad for me.
That big pool? That’s where my dad taught my sister and me how to swim. Tennis court? My high school friend and I tried to guide our inner Andre Agassi out there and give us laughable results. Near the depression-era statue of famous 19th century actress Helena Modeska is where my ex-girlfriend broke with me. At the northwest corner is a dense cactus garden, where I saw a hidden spot and stabbed myself multiple times.
Pearson Park is the perfect place to attend picnics, summer concerts at historic amphitheater, or play pick-up basketball on the purple and gold courts dedicated to Kobe and Gianna Bryant (Kobe wife Vanessa Bryant went to Catholic school at nearby St. (Boniface).
In addition, in July 1924, Ku Klux Klan held a rally with over 20,000 people.
That night, a 30-foot burning cross surrounded by small things set fire to what was then known as City Park. The Orange County Plain Dealer reported that the crowd flew over the crowd and was equipped with electric lights. One looked like a “big fiery cross” and the other flashed “KKK.” New members were launched decorated with white robes and hoods, but it was also a celebration with a marching band.
In the early elections that spring, the KKK won most of the city council buildings in Lahabra and Blair, with four out of five winning four from Anaheim.
These victories solidified the presence of clans in all sectors of Orange County’s political life, from the school board to the local Republicans and the sheriff’s office led by Sam Jarnigan. Anaheim was a base.
What was happening in my beloved hometown was part of the national revival of the clan that we hadn’t seen since the reconstruction. But like all evil, the reign of the KKK in Anaheim ended in the end.
This 100 years ago on February 3rd – my birthday – Anaheim voters recall four clan councillors. It was the most consequential election in the city’s history, but there was no anniversary commemoration. There is no peep from the current city council, nor any reflection from local publications or posts from local historic society.
I’m not surprised. The Anaheim clan rule is the stains of places where boosterism is a religion and likes to celebrate positivity. But the push to drive the KKK out provides a lesson for our political moments. As Mark Twain probably wrote, history is not repeated, but often rhymes.
At the time, and now, elected officials were denounced immigrants for all the supposed illnesses that torment the country. In the 1920s, Anaheim was a big local issue with bootlegs and Catholics, who were considered foreigners who were thought to be in the Anglo-Saxon Protestant country.
Today, Bray’s “Maga” and the power that dares to oppose the patriotism that people pretend to be them. At the time, the clan preached “100% Americanism,” a slogan given by the American Legion. Ronald Reagan was the first president who promised to “make America great again” and not Vitriol. The KKK has convincing enough voters to overshadow the prejudiced message of Christianity and to entrust them to power with honor, pride and promises to restore the good old days. They slimmed the enemy when they weren’t completely threatening them with cross-burns or death threats.
The clan went to paint the letter pheasant: “Clansmen, I’ll say hello to you.” They looked invincible – until good people of all classes of society rose up.
Local business owners have created anti-clan groups to organize resistance. A whistleblower has obtained the Orange County KKK membership role and has passed town. Roll revealed that nine of the 10 members of the Anaheim Police Station belong to the clan along with four councillors.
Distinguishing. Atty. Alexander P. Nelson of Orange County, left, dist. Atty. Detective James Smith of the Center’s Fresno County, Bertrand Gearhart, and of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, examines the gowns and masks of the Ku Klux Klan seized in the attack on the right cap. This photo was published in the April 30, 1922 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
(Los Angeles Times)
oc dist. Atty. Alexander P. Nelson openly laughed at the group, bought a newspaper ad that removed members of the clan and stated in his speech. The estimate was very conservative. ”
Anaheim Bulletin has published the names of Klan members on its front page, but rival Anaheim Gazette, run by the father of future US Senator Thomas Kuchel, will vote for residents as racist. I urged him to. These correct efforts were successful: four Anaheim Klan councillors were easily recalled, and one non-Clan councillor dodged a recall funded by his own clan. Our hooded order stay at Anaheim City Hall lasted all nine months.
Just as simple as this, you should need to learn at every Anaheim school. But I didn’t know about it until Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa in the late 1990s. I was doing a research project on hate crimes, and when I stopped by black and white photographs of clan members in their horrifying robes marching through town, I was reading a book about clans. That same photo was featured in my high school history textbook, but there was a caption that didn’t mention any particular locale.
Now there was another caption in the photo: Anaheim, California, in the 1920s.
In 2016, a clash was being held during a White Life Matter protest outside Pearson Park in Anaheim, where KKK members were involved.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
My city never wavered its reputation as “Kranahem” as politicians and residents continued to racist segregate even if Kran’s memories disappeared. The pool I had been stirring up a long time ago? Until the 1950s, minorities could only swim the day before they were drained. Cactus Garden? It was created by former Parks principal Rudy Boyen, best known for inventing the delicious berries that bear his name, but the Mexicans are placed in a fenced section of the park until activists sued him. I’ve locked it up.
The Mexican-only school was born after Klan resigned and the city council and school board passed an anti-immigration initiative in the 1990s. Neo-Nazi Rock Bands were free to pass on CDs of crappy music at Angel Stadium in the 2000s and played secret concerts at local bars for the past decade. Like in 2016, a new generation of clans held a “White Live Matter” rally at Pearson Park, driven by a major failure that attracted attention from around the world.
Evil does not disappear like that. What happened in Anaheim a century ago shows how to fight tyranny and white hegemony. If that’s not a lesson we think is important, I wish all of us good luck.
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