By T.S. Akers
From 1921 to 1926, a series of
murders shook the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. An oil rich tribe, the Osage fell
victim to a nefarious individual who engineered a scheme to kill off tribal citizens
and inherit their headrights, which were the royalty payments each tribal citizen
received from oil leases on tribal lands. The man who masterminded the scheme
was William King Hale, an affluent rancher with banking and business interests
in the area. He also held political power and was active in Osage affairs,
referring to himself as the “King of the Osage Hills.”[1]
Like many influential men in the early part of the twentieth century, Hale was
a Freemason, having been initiated into Grayhorse Lodge No. 124 in 1907. As a
recent Grand Master of Masons of Oklahoma has remarked, there are men who are
Masons and then there are men who are simply members. Owing to Hale’s conduct,
he likely fell into the latter category. Upon his arrest in 1926 for the murder
of Anna Brown, Hale was expelled from the Masonic Fraternity for life.[2]
Hale was not the first Mason whose conduct was not in line with the principles
of Freemasonry, but the incident highlights the importance of guarding the West
Gate (exercising caution in membership selection) to preserve the integrity of
the Fraternity. As we will see, the period from 1916 through the 1920s marked
an era in Oklahoma where guarding the West Gate could have been exercised to
better effect; a lesson that future generations should pay heed to.
In January of 1915, Robert L.
Williams was inaugurated as the third Governor of the State of Oklahoma, after
having served as the first Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.[3]
His biographers have said that Williams was possessed with a blistering tongue,
bad temper, and an aggressive manner. It was further said that he was
intolerant of those who disagreed with him.[4]
Williams was also a Freemason, having received the degrees of Freemasonry in
Durant Lodge No. 45 in 1905.[5]
Williams came to office promising “economy until it hurts.” He cut salaries and
institutional funds and halted scheduled building projects.[6]
Through a concentration of power by eliminating state boards and consolidating
others under the newly created State Board of Public Affairs, Williams became a
strong executive, personally overseeing many appointments to various offices.[7]
He also tended to reward friends with appointments, such as when Ancel S. Earp
was appointed Adjutant General in July of 1916, with the rank of brigadier
general at the age of twenty-three. Earp began working as a secretary for
Williams in 1912. Earp also noted that Williams was difficult to work for and
never said a kind word to him. (Earp became a Mason himself in 1923 in Oklahoma
City Lodge No. 36.)[8]
The
Tulsa County Council of Defense
The Great War would see the
creation of Governor Williams most diabolical institution. The Oklahoma
Legislature did not convene during the war, so when the Council of National
Defense asked the states to form their own councils of defense in 1917,
Williams acted on his own. Not wishing to call the Legislature back into
special session to consider the matter, Williams established the extralegal
Oklahoma Council of Defense, augmented by individual county councils. He
personally appointed each member of the county executive committees. The state
councils were given vague direction from Washington, D.C., and generally took
up issues such as conservation of food and fuel, military preparedness,
promoting Liberty Bonds, and Red Cross campaigns. The state council in Oklahoma
went further by establishing the Oklahoma Loyalty Bureau, requiring Oklahomans
to sign loyalty pledges and report dissenters. They also encouraged cities and
towns to pass anti-sedition ordnances.[9]
It was in the realm of disloyalty that the Tulsa County Council of Defense
proved to be the most aggressive.
The man appointed by Governor
Williams as the Tulsa representative to the state council of defense was Stephen
R. “Buck” Lewis, a Tulsa Freemason. The chairman of the Tulsa County Council of
Defense was Joseph B. Gibbons, also a Freemason. In time, a total of
twenty-three men would come to serve the executive committee of the Tulsa
County Council of Defense in some capacity. Of those twenty-three men, sixteen
were members of the Masonic Fraternity in Oklahoma. The members of the
executive committee who were Freemasons are as follows:
Tulsa
County Council of Defense Executive Committee
Joseph
Burr Gibbons, Chairman
Robert
M. McFarlin, Vice President
Denver
C. Rose, Executive Secretary
Newton
R. Graham
Arthur
L. Farmer
John
B. Meserve
Earl
Sneed
Fred
G. Shaw
Maxwell
S. Blassingame
Harry
W. Kiskaddon
Charles
H. Hubbard
Joseph
H. Evans
Washington
E. Hudson
Orra
E. Upp
George
E. "Ed" Warren
George
E. Williamson[10][11]
Though these councils of defense
were extralegal, the official history of the Oklahoma State Council of Defense
stated that its rulings and “the dictates of the county councils of defense
have been the supreme law of the land.” This is an interesting position as the
state council went on to concede that it was “endowed with no mandatory or
judicial powers under any statute of the commonwealth.” County appointees were
even notified by an accompanying cover letter with their appointments that they
had no legal status.[12]
One of the goals of the county councils of defense was to whip the populace
into a frenzy surrounding the war effort. To achieve this aim across the state,
newspaper editorials were used to great effect. The Tulsa Daily World
often ran editorials advocating for vigilante violence, including lynching. A
popular target of the Tulsa County Council’s angst was the Industrial Workers
of the World (the I.W.W. or the Wobblies), who were pushing to unionize labor
in the Oklahoma oil industry.[13]
After an explosion at a Tulsa oilman’s home in 1917, which was blamed on the
I.W.W., the Tulsa County Council organized a 250-man Home Guard, which served
as the council’s muscle due to the National Guard having been federalized for
service in France.[14]
Funding for the Home Guard was provided by Tulsa Freemason, and defense council
committeeman, Robert M. McFarlin, who was Director and Vice President of The
Exchange National Bank (today’s Bank of Oklahoma).[15]
Headquarters hut of the Tulsa County Council of Defense
(From Tulsa County in the World War, 1919)
In Oklahoma during the early part
of the twentieth century, socialism had gained a foothold with the Socialist
Party candidate for governor in 1914 receiving more than twenty percent of the
vote. The Socialist Party worked closely with organized labor, including the
I.W.W., and condemned American involvement in the Great War. This condemnation
resulted in the Wobblies and socialists at large being viewed as disloyal.[16]
According to The Tulsa Tribune in 1924, the establishment of the Home
Guard was to address “a general uneasiness regarding the possible actions of
the I.W.W.” There was also a fear concerning the presence of spies in Tulsa.[17]
The Tulsa County Council of Defense wasted no time in addressing the perceived
threat of the Wobblies and in November of 1917 had the Tulsa Police raid the
I.W.W. headquarters, arresting eleven men as vagrants. In the trial that
ensued, Tulsa City attorney and Freemason John B. Meserve mostly questioned the
I.W.W. men about their attitudes toward the government and whether they
supported the Liberty Loan drives. Convictions followed and then details of
what happened to the men next are disputed. Tulsa Police removed the men from
the city jail to either transfer them to the county jail or to give them the
opportunity to leave Tulsa. During the process, the caravan was overtaken by
armed men in black robes and the I.W.W. men kidnapped. First taken to the Home
Guard’s armory at Convention Hall, where more robed men joined the group, the
I.W.W. men eventually found themselves at a ravine where it was announced that they
were in the custody of the “Knights of Liberty,” who proceeded to whip, tar,
and feather each man. Statements from the victims identified several Tulsa Police
officers including the chief as “Knights.” They also identified John B. Meserve
and W. Tate Brady, who was a member of the Home Guard. A Tulsa Daily World
headline, covering what became known as the Tulsa Outrage of 1917, read “Modern
Ku Klux Klan Comes Into Being.”[18]
John B. Meserve’s service to the
Tulsa County Council of Defense, acting as the counsel’s prosecutor, was marked
by countless secret investigations and extralegal star chamber proceedings.
Eighty-four such proceedings concerned disloyalty and many of those found to be
disloyal were dispatched to the state’s mental hospitals.[19]
Under the Lunacy Law of 1917, Oklahoma’s three mental institutions were placed
under the direct control of Governor Williams’ State Board of Public Affairs.
That board had the exclusive ability to appoint superintendents at the mental
hospitals. The Lunacy Law further said that any sheriff or peace officer in the
county where an alleged insane person resides could petition the County Court
for an order directing the admission of a person to a mental hospital.[20]
The Home Guard also continued its activities and in 1918 conducted a major
“slacker” raid, rounding up around 2,000 men who could not produce a draft
card, detaining them overnight.[21]
With the end of the Great War, the
Tulsa County Council of Defense somewhat came to an end; they changed their
name and became the Tulsa County Historical Society. What the Tulsa County
Council of Defense did accomplish was creating a heavily charged atmosphere in
Tulsa, an atmosphere that led directly to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. In
fact, some vestiges of the Council were still present in 1921. With the fear of
a socialist uprising, the Tulsa County Council of Defense installed a riot
signal at the Public Service Company of Oklahoma plant in 1917. If citizens
heard the siren or whistle, they were to descend upon downtown Tulsa with their
guns, to become a “bristling arsenal at a moment’s notice.” The riot signal was
later upgraded so that it could be heard for twenty miles.[22]
Numerous eyewitness accounts of the Massacre of 1921 mention hearing a whistle
the morning the white mob descended on Greenwood after a night of exchanging
gunfire across the Frisco Railway tracks; that whistle was most likely the riot
signal at the Public Service Company plant.[23]
Eyewitnesses also identified former Home Guard members as comprising the
special deputies that were roaming Greenwood.[24]
These vigilantes had been created by Tulsa Police commissioner James M. Adkison.[25]
Prior to public service, Adkison had been in the real estate and loan business,
he was also a Tulsa Freemason.[26]
In the aftermath of the massacre, Tulsa’s black citizens were placed into
detainment camps. The man overseeing the camps was former Tulsa County Council
of Defense executive committee member and Freemason Newton R. Graham.[27]
The
Ku Klux Klan
The Tulsa Daily World
announced the birth of the “modern” Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma in 1917.
Nationally, the organization had been established in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1915.[28]
Adopting a constitution in early 1916, the basic principle of the “modern”
Klan, now known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was the promotion of
Americanism.[29]
Considering this principle, in covering the Tulsa Outrage of 1917 when I.W.W.
men were tarred and feathered, perhaps this is what the editor for the Tulsa
Daily World had in mind with their birth announcement. An early appearance
of the Klan occurred at Skiatook in October of 1919 when sixteen Kluxers
(members of the Klan) appeared on horseback in white hoods for a Liberty Bond
drive. Carrying banners targeting three specific men, the Kluxers warned that
ropes awaited them if they refused to buy bonds. Even though members of
the Klan existed in Oklahoma prior to 1920, it was not until that year that the Klan
began officially recruiting in Oklahoma, having first established a presence in
Texas with a firm financial base. While there was no Klavern (a local body of
the Klan) in Tulsa in June of 1921, there were certainly Kleagles (Klan
recruiters) at work in the area. The Race Massacre that occurred in Tulsa on
May 31 and June 1 of that year greatly assisted the Kleagles in their
organizational efforts among an angry and fearful white populace. Tulsa would
first see the establishment of a self-appointed posse, warning lawbreakers and
blacks that dire consequences awaited those who did not conform to approved
conduct, before a Klavern came into existence.[30]
Although the Klan was highly
organized with local, state, and national entities collecting dues and holding
assemblies of varying scale, it was still a secret society. In Oklahoma, no
records or member lists remain, outside of one for a women’s sect of the order.[31]
However, we have some idea as to how Klan recruitment worked in Oklahoma based
on interviews. Writing in the 1930s, with the memory of the Klan’s activities
still vivid in the minds of many, Inez L. Clubb noted that it was “the better
class of citizens that belonged to the Klan.”[32]
In the summer of 1920 when the first Kleagles arrived in Oklahoma City, they
brought with them letters of introduction from various fraternal orders in
Texas. Seeking new members from established patriotic and fraternal orders, the
Freemasons quickly became a primary focus of Klan recruitment; with Masonic and
Klan membership in smaller towns becoming nearly interchangeable.[33]
John H. Montgomery noted that the Klan came to include “many very prominent men
– men you would look on with respect and confidence.” This was echoed by State
Senator Clark Nichols of McIntosh County who said of the Klan in 1923, ”a big
percentage of them were Masons.”[34]
When the Klan conducted a statewide cross burning as a memorial to President
Harding in 1923, the Eufaula Klavern raised there cross on Foley Hill.[35] Situated on the western edge of the city, visible
across all of Eufaula, Foley Hill was thus named as it was the location of the
grand home of Eufaula banker and entrepreneur Cornelius E. Foley. A Past Master
of Eufaula Lodge No. 1, it is not known if Foley was a Klansman, but the message
would have been clear to the citizens of Eufaula that prominent men were
tolerant of the Klan.[36] Klan meetings also operated in a fashion that
was best conducted in lodge halls, highlighting its structure as a fraternal
order.[37]
In Carter County for example, the local Klavern would rent the hall of the Odd
Fellow’s Lodge.[38] The
Klan seems to have met in the Watonga Masonic Lodge hall, if only briefly. In
recent years, Watonga Lodge No. 176 was in possession of a piano that belonged
to the Klavern there.[39]
It has been said that if Oklahoma
Masons were members of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, they were certainly not
prominent Masons. This would highlight the statement that there are men who are
Masons and then there are men who are simply members. Klan membership is
difficult to nail down without membership records; however, it is known that
the Klan was at its height in late 1923 with between 67,000 to 300,000 members
in Oklahoma.[40]
Carter B. Clark indicates that one in ten eligible Oklahoma men were members of
the Klan with two to three hundred local Klaverns existing at various times.[41]
A conservative estimate of Klan membership in Oklahoma appears to be around
95,000 members.[42]
If we look at Masonic membership in Oklahoma from the same period, there were 62,793
men who were Masons. The Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas naturally accounted for
the largest numbers with roughly 3,700 Masons in Oklahoma City and 2,600 in
Tulsa.[43]
Klan membership in Oklahoma City and Tulsa was estimated at 2,500 and 3,200,
respectively.[44]
Dispelling the argument that
prominent Masons did not affiliate with the Klan is the state leadership of
that organization. The man who became the first Grand Dragon of the Klan in
Oklahoma was Edwin DeBarr. One of the original professors at the University of
Oklahoma, DeBarr was the first High Priest of Lion Chapter No. 24, Royal Arch
Masons, established at Norman in 1898. He was both Worshipful Master of Norman
Lodge No. 38 and Eminent Commander of Oklahoma Commandery No. 3, Knights Templar,
at Oklahoma City in 1901. DeBarr then served as Grand Prelate of the Grand
Commandery Knights Templar of Oklahoma in 1902.[45]
Internal politics ultimately led to DeBarr’s removal as Grand Dragon, but he
was appointed to the national position of Imperial Kludd (chaplain) in 1923 and
given a seat on the Imperial Kloncilium, the national advisory board of the
Knights of Ku Klux Klan.[46]
DeBarr was replaced by Newton Clay Jewett, a dental supply salesman.[47]
Jewett, like DeBarr, was an active Oklahoma City Freemason. He was a member of
Siloam Lodge No. 276; Cyrus Chapter No. 7, Royal Arch Masons; and Bethlehem
Commandery No. 45, Knights Templar. Appointed Grand Dragon of the Klan in 1923,
Jewett served as Potentate of the India Shrine Temple in 1924. A member of the
Guthrie Scottish Rite Valley, he was coronetted a 33rd degree in 1928.[48]
Under Jewett’s leadership, the Klan became a political force to reckon with,
second only to the Klan in Indiana.[49]
Edwin DeBarr
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
While membership lists of the Klan
in Oklahoma do not survive to this day, the organization was an institution in
Tulsa. As previously noted, at its peak
in 1923, Klan membership in Tulsa was estimated to be 3,200 strong and Tulsa
Klavern No. 2 had only been established the year before.[50]
To oversee the business affairs of the Klan in Tulsa, a holding company was
created known as the Tulsa Benevolent Association. The five trustees of that
entity, prominent Tulsans in the fields of law, banking, and engineering, were
then officially known as Klansmen. Those five men, listed below, were also
Tulsa Freemasons:
Trustees
of the Tulsa Benevolent Association
Washington
E. Hudson - Chairman
(formerly of the Tulsa County Council of Defense)
John
Rogers - Secretary
Channing
W. Benedict
William
"Shelley" Rogers
Alfred
G. Heggem[51][52]
While these names might not be
well known among Freemasons today, William “Shelley” Rogers was prominent
enough in 1925 to have been appointed Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of the
State of Oklahoma. In his oration at the annual communication of the grand
lodge, Rogers called upon Freemasonry to bring forth “Intense Nationalism” to
reverse what he saw as national disintegration. That disintegration, to Rogers,
was being brought about by “Socialism, Communism, Sovietism, Bolshevism, Internationalism,
Metropolitanism, and Anarchism.”[53]
This ideology, which the Councils of Defense trumpeted, would also come to be a
cornerstone of the Klan in Oklahoma. Outgrowing their initial accommodations,
the Tulsa Klavern spent $200,000 in 1923 to construct Beno Hall at 503 N. Main
Street.[54]
Beno Hall, often referred to as “Be No Hall” as in there would “Be No Jew, Be
No Catholic, Be No Immigrant, etc.,” was a whitewashed, three story, stucco
building, with an auditorium capable of seating 3,000 people. The land that
Beno Hall sat upon was owned by W. Tate Brady, formerly of the Tulsa Home
Guard, and his wife.[55]
While Brady is today an infamous Tulsan, he was not a Freemason.
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan at Belle Isle in Oklahoma City, 1923
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
In addition to the national
objective of Americanism, the Oklahoma Klan concerned themselves with vice and morality.
“Alfalfa Bill” Murray remarked upon the Klan saying: “It is a sad commentary
that just now the hope of good morals and restraint against criminality is
found in a body of men whose organized method is not sanctioned by law.” The
Klan saw thieves, bootleggers, gamblers, and other sinners going unpunished and
turned to vigilantism, a method which was somewhat tradition in Oklahoma.[56]
The young state in the 1920s was not that many years removed from territorial
days when rough justice, including lynching, was frequently doled out. The oil
boom of the period brought many unsavory elements and crime to Oklahoma, as was
evidenced in the Osage Nation. A Muskogee Klansman once remarked:
The threat of the gowned fraternity moves out the gangster,
the bootlegger, and the man who abuses and neglects his wife and children. It
certainly was born of great necessity in this oil country.[57]
It has been said that in Oklahoma,
the volume of Klan violence was likely greater than in any other state and very
well organized. Oklahoma City Klavern No. 1 boasted an eighteen-man whipping
squad, as did other Klaverns; though of fewer numbers.[58]
Adding to the well-organized violence was the presence of law enforcement
officers in the Klan’s ranks. In El Reno for example, the entire police
department and the Canadian County sheriff’s office had joined the Klan.[59]
Tarring and feathering was also a popular means of punishment employed by the
Klan, reminiscent of the Tulsa Outrage of 1917. They particularly targeted
bootleggers and drug dealers.[60]
At Broken Bow in 1922, a couple accused of brewing Choc beer was kidnapped and
beaten by Klansmen.[61]
While black Oklahomans certainly fell victim to the Klan, the record of
violence shows that the majority of the Klan’s targets were errant whites. Klan
activity elsewhere illustrates that Oklahoma was somewhat atypical in this
regard.[62]
Coming back to Americanism, one
must ask, exactly what did the Ku Klux Klan view as Americanism? The Great War
had seen the Councils of Defense take up the fight against those who were
lukewarm about the war effort. Oklahomans in the period continued to have a
strong desire for restrictions on immigration, laws that would assure the
assimilation of immigrants, and controls on the rights of foreigners. The
Kleagles at work in the state, recruiting for the Klan, were easily able to use
this suspicion of immigrants to their advantage.[63]
Another target of the Oklahoma Klan was the I.W.W. and the Socialist Party. A
common sentiment at the time was that the socialist philosophy “favored free
love, destruction of the home, overthrow of the Constitution, and replacement
of the Stars and Stripes with the international ‘Red’ flag.” Membership in the
Klan and opposition to Socialism quickly became synonymous.[64]
Intertwining Americanism and morality, the Klan defined Americanism as:
Protestantism, Puritanism, Capitalism, and Nationalism.[65]
In his 1921 address to the Freemasons of Oklahoma, Grand Master Frank A. Derr referenced
the social unrest of the day, noting labor disputes, and placed the blame upon
“agitators of seditious movements.” In the words of Derr, that all-encompassing
label included “I.W.W. ‘ism, bolshevism, and many other ‘isms.”[66]
With the wartime legacy of antagonism towards those perceived as foreigners, it
should come as no surprise that early Klan recruitment efforts not only focused
on Freemasons, but also members of the wartime Councils of Defense.[67]
Taking the actions of the Councils
of Defense, the Tulsa County Council in particular, and the Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan into consideration, a distinct modern term comes to mind: extremism.
It is without question that the means pursued by the two entities were
extremist: beatings, tarring and feathering, intimidation, etc. What is of
great concern is how the aims of these two entities, and how they achieved
them, are eerily familiar to the activities of modern organizations. In
Oklahoma for example, the sheriff of Canadian County recently established a posse,
which he describes as a “rapid response force of citizens who could be called
upon in a minute’s notice.”[68]
The Tulsa County Council of Defense’s Home Guard was described in much the same
way. Other examples include the Oath Keepers group which vows to the defend the
Constitution against a one world socialist government.[69]
There is the Proud Boys group, which styles themselves as a fraternal
organization with four degrees, who believe that Western culture is superior to
all others.[70]
And there is the Boogaloo movement which desires to overthrow the current
democratic system in the United States, believing it has been perverted.[71]
Sadly, these organizations, which participated in the January 6 Insurrection,
have drawn some Freemasons in with their ideology. This caused the Grand
Masters of both North Carolina and Wisconsin to issue statements concerning
Freemasons associating with extremist groups. The Grand Master of North
Carolina specifically named groups, going on to say that it is impossible to be
a Freemason and to be aligned with such groups.[72]
W. Mark Sexson of Oklahoma, serving as Grand Master of Masons in 1928, spoke to
a similar matter. When some members attempted to bring politics into Freemasonry,
he responded by calling the prospect “a deadly poison in the very blood stream
of our Craft;” adding, “and no Grand Master or Grand Lodge can save Masonry in
Oklahoma from serious injury if it is persisted in.”[73]
Freemasonry in Oklahoma was able to survive the association of its members with
the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, primarily because Freemasonry was in a healthy
position membership wise. It has been said today that Oklahoma Freemasonry is
at a crossroads, where in the next ten years it could become irrelevant if
membership trends are not reversed. At this moment, it is essential to guard
the West Gate in order preserve the Fraternity’s integrity. If extremism is
allowed to proliferate, such as it once was, many good men may find Freemasonry
to be an entity they do not wish to associate with.
[1] Jon D. May, “Osage Murders,” The
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed July 9, 2021, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005.
[2] "Hale, William K." (member profile,
Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma AF&AM).
[3] L. David Norris, “Williams, Robert Lee,” The
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed July 9, 2021, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WI017.
[4] Randy Hopkins, “Birthday of the Klan: The
Tulsa Outrage of 1917,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 98, no. 4 (2019-20): 413.
[5] "Williams, Robert L." (member
profile, Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma AF&AM).
[7] "Robert L. Williams," Oklahoma
Digital Prairie, accessed July 9, 2021, https://digitalprairieok.net/timeline/robert-williams/.
[8] T.S. Akers, Masonic Generals of the
Oklahoma National Guard: 1894-1965 (Oklahoma City: Akers & Sons, 2016),
26-29.
[9] Linda D. Wilson, “Oklahoma Council of
Defense,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed
July 9, 2021, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK038.
[10] William T. Lampe, ed., Tulsa County in the
World War (Tulsa: Tulsa County Historical Society, 1919), 60-61.
[11] Grand Secretary’s Membership Index File (Most
Worshipful Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma AF&AM).
[12] Hopkins, “Birthday of the Klan: The Tulsa
Outrage of 1917:” 413.
[13] Randy Hopkins, "The Tulsa Council of
Defense v. Andrew J. Smitherman," April 22-23, 2021, 2021 Oklahoma History
Conference, https://youtu.be/WHB3avVgxJg.
[14] Hopkins, “Birthday of the Klan: The Tulsa
Outrage of 1917:” 418-422.
[15] Hopkins, "The Tulsa Council of Defense
v. Andrew J. Smitherman.”
[16] Jim Bissett, “Socialist Party,” The
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed July 9, 2021, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=SO001.
[17] R.M. McClintock, Tulsa: A Story of
Achievement (Tulsa: The Tulsa Tribune, 1924), 63.
[18] Hopkins, “Birthday of the Klan: The Tulsa
Outrage of 1917:” 427-431.
[20] Compiled Statutes of Oklahoma: 1921
(Ardmore: Bunn Publishing Co., 1922), 2:2833-2838.
[21] Hopkins, "The Tulsa Council of Defense
v. Andrew J. Smitherman.”
[23] Tim Madigan, "Remembering Tulsa:
American Terror," Smithsonian Magazine, April 2021.
[24] Kimberly Burk, "Forgotten Tulsa: Zarrow
Center exhibit puts a lens on the past," Tulsa People, June 19,
2019, https://www.tulsapeople.com/the-voice/forgotten-tulsa/article_3a50788f-3015-54af-9f4c-79a88eeed825.html.
[25] "Timeline: The 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre," Tulsa World, October 24, 2019, https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/timeline-the-1921-tulsa-race-massacre/collection_1c02a7b4-86ce-11e8-b63d-c3bbb45d4a6c.html#16.
[26] Joseph B. Thoburn and Muriel H. Wright, eds.,
"James Munroe Adkison," in Oklahoma: A History of the State and
its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1929), 3:122.
[27] "No Prisoners at Detention Camp," Tulsa
Daily World (Tulsa, OK), June 15, 1921.
[28] John H. Montgomery, "Oklahoma's
Invisible Empire" (Sr. thesis, Princeton University, 1962), 2.
[29] Inez L. Clubb, "A History of the Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma from 1920 to the Present" (Master's
thesis, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1941), 3.
[30] Carter B. Clark, "A History of the Ku
Klux Klan in Oklahoma" (Ph.D. diss., University of Oklahoma, 1976), 41-46.
[36] “Mr. C.E. Foley,” in McIntosh County
Memories: People, Places, Events, ed. C.W. West (Eufaula: McIntosh County
Historical Society, 1993), 92-98.
[39] "Mapping the Second Ku Klux Klan,
1915-1940," Virginia Commonwealth University, accessed July 9,
2021, https://labs.library.vcu.edu/klan/.
[42] Kenneth T. Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in
the City, 1915-1930 (University of Oxford Press, 1967).
[43] Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge
A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Sixteenth Annual Communication
(Oklahoma City, 1924), 57.
[44] Charles C. Alexander, The Ku Klux Klan in
the Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 45-49.
[45] Edwin DeBarr Masonic Membership Notes (in the
author’s possession).
[48] "Newton Clay Jewett," Find A
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