Peddlers of Hate: How the Ku Klux Klan Seized Power in 1920s Oregon

The revived Knights of the Ku Klux Klan flourished in Oregon in the early 1920s.With more than sixty chapters established in both large and small communities like Portland, Medford, Astoria, and La Grande, the Klan's power escalated in the region.Klan salesmen, working on commission, successfully enlisted Oregonians with a message of religious prejudice and racism.At the Klan's peak, Portland was home to the sixth largest chapter in the country and there were more members per capita in Oregon than in any other state except one. In Peddlers of Hate, journalist Steve Law draws on published and unpublished sources, new research, and interviews with leading scholars to provide a comprehensive account of how Oregon became one of the Klan's strongest outposts.Representing the Klan as merely a fraternal lodge, Klan recruiters were trained to vilify Catholics, immigrants, Blacks, and Jews.They gained wide support, toppling an incumbent governor and congressman, persuading voters to ban Catholi