Ocoee, Florida,1920: Part 2

On August 5th of 1920, the same newspaper (The Tampa Tribune) that published the stories in the first part of this series published a story titled “Organizing Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Southern Ideals Will be Maintained” which reported that the movement was spreading and growing. The article noted; “Representatives of the Klan are proceeding actively with the formation of the Klan in this state, and it is announced that a branch of the Klan will be organized at an early date in every city and town.”

The paper’s beliefs on the Klan and their growth are clear in the next section. “The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is but a reorganization of the order that ran the carpet-bagger and the scalawag from the South in the stirring days of the Reconstruction period and restored to the white people of the South their rightful place in the nation and the management of their own affairs, was formed in Atlanta in 1915.”