Throng Watches Klansmen March Through Streets

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, May 25, 1924:  An orderly procession of white robed and masked Ku Klux Klanmen, led by 100 robed and hooded Ku Klux Klan Knights mounted on horses covered with white blankets bearing the Klan insignia, paraded through the streets of Indianapolis last night on foot and in automobiles. A score of bands and several floats were in the parade.  A crowd estimated from 75,000 to 100,000 lined the streets and filled the windows of buildings along the parade route greeting the Klansmen with enthusiasm.  News accounts estimated 6,500 Klansmen while Klan officials said the count was 80,600 including several hundred women in their Klan uniforms with yellow masks and tam-o-shanters instead of peaked hoods.  At the urging of county officials, the parade route was changed from entering the colored and foreign district near Military Park.

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“Throng Watches Klansmen March Through Streets,” The Indianapolis Star, 25 May 1924, p. 1:1

Butler College Entertains at New Site

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, May 18, 1924:  Butler College held an open house at its new Fairview Park site yesterday and a large number of friends of the college came out to inspect the grounds and see a baseball game between the Bulldogs and the University of Chicago.  Members of the Scarlet Quill Club, an honorary society for Butler women, guided visitors over the new campus pointing out the proposed location of college buildings.  Flags in the blue and white Butler colors marked the driveways through the campus and the position of the new buildings.  The proposed site of the athletic field, where the baseball game was played, was decorated with the colors – blue-white and maroon - of the two teams.  The first athletic contest on the Fairview campus before about 2,000 fans ended with an 8-6 Bulldog win.  

“Butler College Entertains at New Site, ‘Scarlet Quill’ Points Out Beauty Spots,” The Indianapolis Star, 18 May 1924, Pt. 2, p. 1:2

Stephenson Heads Defiant Klansmen

From The Indianapolis Star, Tuesday, May 13, 1924:  Ku Klux Klan representatives from ninety-one Indiana county Klan councils, meeting last night at the Cadle Tabernacle, defied the “despotism and imperialistic power” of the national organization and unanimously adopted resolutions of self-determination for the Indiana Klan, electing D. C. Stephenson, “the old man,” grand dragon for the realm of Indiana.  Speaking after the meeting, Stephenson said, “It does not mean secession.  As the strongest and most effective unit in the nation the Klansmen of Indiana take leadership of their own destiny.  They have thrown off an outside control which was out of harmony with their purposes.  By their influence for constructive citizenship, they will bring out what is best in city, state, and nation.  Indiana has 92 per cent of the native-born citizens with the best blood and traditions of America.”  

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“Stephenson Heads Defiant Klansmen,” The Indianapolis Star, 13 May 1924, p. 1:4