Inside the Klavern is an annotated collection of the minutes of a
thriving Ku Klux Klan in La Grande, Oregon, between 1922 and 1924. The
most complete set of Klan minutes ever uncovered, these documents
illustrate the inner workings of a Klan chapter of more than three
hundred members at a time when the national membership reached into the
millions and the Invisible Empire was at the peak of its power. Through
an extensive introduction and conclusion as well as brief notes
previewing each installment of the minutes, David A. Horowitz places
these unique documents in historical perspective.
The La Grande minutes demonstrate Klan hostility to Roman Catholics,
Jews, blacks, and "hyphenated" Americans. But they also explain how the
chapter exercised requirements for admission, how officers were
selected, and how Klansmen encountered difficulties enforcing the moral
standards of their order. Because the Klan kligrapp (recording
secretary) Harold R. Fosner recorded not only the official proceedings
but also volunteered extemporaneous comments and gossip, readers get a
genuine feeling for what it was like to attend the meetings. Through his
own obvious excitement and commitment to the cause, Fosner re-creates
the flavor, tone, and atmosphere of these meetings: "Tis beyond my power
of expression to relate the harmony and fellowship which reigned
supreme. . . . Suffice to say that these were the golden moments of our
lives."
His evaluation of Klan propaganda, too, is telling: "The weekly
newsletter from Atlanta, Georgia, contained a little book, the official
message of our emperor, one Col. William Joseph Simmons, read before the
most noble band of men ever assembled and for the noblest cause in the
world. To my firm belief this book is the leading masterpiece of our day
and age."
Horowitz concludes that "although it is tempting to judge Jazz Age
Klansmen by the standards of later generations, the story provided by
the minutes is a complex one--a chronicle of both compassion and
complicity in cruelty, of positive social accomplishment and arbitrary
and dysfunctional divisiveness."
