A century ago the Klan was popular in West Michigan. While it seemed to have peaked nationally at the beginning of the decade, it was strongly supported by many in the first half of the 1920s. It was less about hatred of blacks in the region than it was about hatred of immigrants and Catholics, though racism was still a part of the story. But support and membership fell dramatically in 1926 after a murder that occurred just a few hundred yards from my current home. A local Klan Knight, who was Constable of Blue Lake Township, angered by the election of a German American Catholic to the position of Township Supervisor, mailed a bomb to the Three Lakes Tavern that the supervisor owned, killing that man, his daughter, and his daughter’s fiancee. Their wedding was scheduled for the following Saturday, and they together opened what they assumed was a wedding present. The bomber expressed regret about the two children, saying that he didn’t think about the wedding. The aftermath shocked the region and caused many to drop their membership in the Klan, though we all know that hatred and group superiority never really goes away.
I know a lot more about this, but this isn’t a history lesson. I bring it up because I am hopeful for a parallel to today. I hope that like then, the masses of Americans who tacitly supported the various factions who raged against the election of Joe Biden, against Black Lives Matter, and against other immigrant and minority groups, will look at this assault against our Capitol and the principals of our nation and reject it, as they did 94 years ago.I am hopeful they will see the worst of what they have endorsed, and reject those who try to continue this action.