Organized hate: Targets vary but message is the same
Re: “Tacoma KKK gathering from 1924 still provides lesson for today,’” (TNT, 8/27).
My Irish-Canadian great grandparents came to Everett from Ontario, Canada. My Irish-Catholic grandmother told me years ago about the KKK 1924 “visit” to Everett.
My family lived across the street from Riverside Catholic Church and in the middle of the night they woke to see a flaming cross burning in front of the priest’s house. Rucker Hill overlooks the city, and the Klan had placed the cross for all to see.
The target was not African-Americans but Irish-Catholics. My great grandfather was Catholic – Irish and a Canadian with a city job. No doubt many believe it belonged to a “good” American.
The Irish and Chinese had been easy cheap labor for the railroads and other businesses, so they provided perfect targets for the KKK and other racist Americans.
The haters are using African-Americans today as election propaganda, as they used my family in 1924.
Ask yourselves, who will be next? You?
William F. Johnston, Tacoma
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 7:55 AM with the headline "Organized hate: Targets vary but message is the same."