Notre Dame Students Attack, Stop KKK Rally
Notre Dame University students on this day and the next confronted and then physically attacked KKK members from Chicago who had arrived in South Bend, Indiana, to hold a large public rally.
The Klan members began arriving by train on Friday evening, all were well-dressed except that each one carried a folded white robe under his arm. As they walked toward downtown South Bend, many were escorted into alleys where they were attacked by angry Notre Dame students.
The Klan in the 1920s was very strong in the North, Midwest, and West, particularly in Indiana and Oregon. Chicago had a reported 50,000 Klan members. Notre Dame at that time had about 2,000 students. The Second Klan, as it was called, was very different from the Reconstruction Era Klan (portrayed as “heroes” in the film “Birth of a Nation.” It directed its attacks toward Catholics, Jews, and immigrants, and at its peak claimed a reported 4 million members. The previous fall, Ohio Klan members had attack Dayton University, a Catholic institution, burning crosses on the campus and then in December 1923 set off an estimated 12 firebombs. News of this event had undoubtedly reached Notre Dame, which is why the student were prepared to attack the KKK rally.
On Saturday, the day of the planned public rally, more Klan members arrived by train and they were greeted by hundreds of Notre Dame students, who attacked them and ripped the robes of those who had already put them on. Some football players formed “flying wedges” (a tactic then used by football teams) to attack groups of Klan members. Eventually a “truce” was negotiated: the students agreed not to attack again if the Klan held their rally without members wearing their robes or carrying weapons. A heavy rain, however, caused the rally to be postponed.
Local police did nothing to stop the violence on Friday and Saturday morning. Many officers were known to be KKK members. The president of Notre Dame, meanwhile, had implored the students not to attack the Klan members, but to no avail.
Challenges to the KKK were no unusual in areas where there was significant Catholic political power. Boston Mayor James Curley, for example, banned a KKK rally in 1923. Catholic leaders also joined with African American civil rights leaders in attempting (and in some cases succeeding) in having the racist film Birth of a Nation banned. New York City denied the film a permit in 1922, for example. New York state passed a law requiring organizations with 20 or more members to file their constitutions and membership lists with the state. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law in Bryant v. Zimmerman (1928).
Read more about the Notre Dame incident: Todd Tucker, Notre Dame vs. The Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan (2004)
Read about the history of the Klan: David M. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd ed. (1987)
Read the great new book about the KKK in the 1920s: Linda Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition (2017)
Learn about Hatewatch at the Southern Poverty Law Center
Read about the work of Klanwatch: Bill Stanton, Klanwatch: Bringing the Ku Klux Klan to Justice (1991)