The Ku Klux Klan and their Influence on the Education of Mexicans in Kansas City, Kansas, 1922-1925.
ORCID
Robert Cleary 0000-0002-8005-0491
Document Type
Article
Date
Fall 10-15-2021
Keywords
Mexican-American History, Ku Klux Klan, Kansas
Language
English
Disciplines
United States History
Description/Abstract
The post-World War I rise of the Ku Klux Klan developed differently in the Midwest of the 1920s than that of its post-Reconstruction origins. Its members in Kansas City, Kansas, came from professional and trades people who shared the common values of Americanism, anti-Catholicism, and white supremacy, and were invariably Protestant Republicans. The Klan’s interests in directing many aspects of civil life reacted to the growing Mexican community in three adjacent neighborhoods. Beginning in 1922, they successfully influenced education policy to create a segregated school, as well as separate facilities in all three neighborhoods. Resistance to segregated education by Mexican parents beginning in 1924 through the Mexican Consulate attracted attention from state and federal officials, who noted that segregation of Mexican students was not allowed by Kansas law. In 1926, the decline of the Klan corresponded with the eventual agreement that Mexican students could attend high school with Anglo students. Students in grades 1-8 did not achieve integration until the Flood of 1951 destroyed the Mexican-only Clara Barton School.
Recommended Citation
Cleary, Robert, "The Ku Klux Klan and their Influence on the Education of Mexicans in Kansas City, Kansas, 1922-1925." (2021). Libraries' and Librarians' Publications. 201.
https://surface.syr.edu/sul/201
Source
submission
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
