SENATOR UNDERWOOD TO MAKE OPPOSITION TO KLAN HIS CAMPAIGN SLOGAN
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 7, 1924, Frederic William Wile reports that Senator Oscar W. Underwood* (D-Alabama) plans to elevate hostility to the Ku Klux Klan "as his campaign slogan."
Wile compares the Senator's strategy with that of James Buchanan whose opposition to Know-Nothingism** "carried (him) into the White House."
Senator Underwood will open his presidential campaign in Cleveland, Ohio on January 22, 1924. His battle against the Klan will not only take place in his home territory, the South, but also in the state of Ohio where the KKK is more powerful than any state in the Union other than Indiana.
*Oscar W. Underwood (1862-1929) was born in Louisville, KY & served in the US Senate 1915-1927. OWU was the 1st to be designated as floor leader in the USS & the only person to serve as Democratic leader in both houses of Congress.
**Know-Nothings were nativists who kept their secrecy by denying their existence as a party. KNs opposed Catholics & recent immigrants to the United States.
SOURCE
"Anti-Klan Plank Underwood Plan," by Frederic William Wile, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., January 7, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
