50,000 KLANSMEN HOLD INITIATION RALLY IN PLAINFIELD
Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) On June 3, 1922, the Ku Klux Klan* held an initiation rally at Fraser's Woods. The rally, attended by about 50,000 Klansmen, was held in the pasture of a 70 acre farm in Plainfield**.
8000 automobiles bearing license plates from Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa "streamed into town."
Ceremonies began at Midnight with the lighting of a cross. Bugles sounded and 3000 prospective KKK members "marched to the flaming cross."
The initiation ceremonies continued until dawn.
Michael Lambert writes that the Klan gathering was a result of the convergence of "evolving moral ideologies, establishment of a local Catholic parish, and development of the Lincoln Highway..."
*Ku Klux Klan (KKK) American white supremacist group. First Klan (1865-1872-post Civil War, Reconstruction), Second Klan (1915-1944; peak year 1925, 3 to 6 million members, pro-Prohibition, pro-compulsory public education, opposed Jews & Catholics).
**Plainfield, Illinois is a village located in Will & Kendall Counties.
SOURCES
"Lambert: The REAL Story about Plainfield's Ku Klux Klan History," by Michael Lambert, Community Corner, May 2, 2012, www.patch.com/
"The Night The Klan Gathered in Plainfield," by Ken O'Brien, The Chicago Tribune, June 25, 1995, www.chicagotribune.com/
