Not a lot of people know this, but the Ku Klux Klan made an appearance in El Paso history. The influence of the Klan was not as big as that of other cities, but just so you can imagine how big the entire society was, in 1870, the Klan already had one MILLION members! If you want to travel to the 1920's, you have to remember the people of that time did not have the same beliefs as we do today. Blacks, although they now have more rights, were still looked down upon.
Now, let's refresh our memory on the Ku Klux Klan. They believed in native white and often targeted Jews, Catholics, Blacks, anti-prohibitionists, and gays. The Klan has been around since 1865. Six Irish Americans began the society.
The Klan's mission here in El Paso is to stop republicans from moving south. The Klan's first appearance in Texas was in 1861 where they began to kill freed African Americans and burned houses and crops. This was the first Klan, which ceased to exist in 1871. When the Klan was reformed in 1915, more Klan members were sent to Texas to fight new threats such as illegal immigrants.
At the time, El Paso was very vulnerable to the Ku Klux Klan. We were still recovering from the Mexican Revolution. Since we were a border city, the war had a bigger impact on us than the rest of the United States. A lot of people had strong feelings about Mexicans. This made El Paso a good target for the Ku Klux Klan.
By 1921, the Klan had corrupted a large part of El Paso. They had business-men working for them, respected authorities, and people of the Herald's Post editorials. The Klan was able to corrupt the government and post its ideas in the newspaper.
The Klan thought that Roman Catholics were beginning to take over the public school systems. The Klan showed its power when elections for the school board ended. The majority of the votes went to Klan members. School names were changed because of the Klan. They believed that school should be named after Texas Hero's. Many schools were re-named. Highland park became Fanin, El Paso High became Sam Houston High School, Manhattan Heights became Crockett, and Grand view became Rusk. Some schools that were under construction were to be named Austin, Bowie, and Burleson Elementary. Secret meetings were held by the Klan's school board members to discuss two Catholic school principals and a librarian. They were all eventually fired.
Even though the Klan had such power, the civilians of El Paso eventually defeated them in 1923. In April of 1923, the Klan lost its power over the school board. The Klan still lingered around El Paso, but its power was incredibly weak.
