When the Ku Klux Klan roamed Downey

The following story was written by John Adams and appeared in the Downey Eagle on Dec. 3, 1993.

A chapter of local history that many would like to forget concerns repeated appearances in past decades by the Ku Klux Klan.

The Bedsheet Boys, as they are popularly referred to in song, have made a habit of burning crosses and ghosting about in the local night, even claiming they represented the return of the Bible to local schools in the 1920s.

The Darwinian theory of evolution was commonly thought to be a challenge to the Bible’s story of The Creation. This religious furor led to the famous Scopes May 1 “Monkey Trial” and any number of other odd flights of fancy.

The Livewire newspaper reported in 1924 that Dr. Bruce Brown, pastor of South Park Christian Church of Los Angeles, spoke at Downey High School in May of that year on behalf of the Klan, relating the group’s philosophy to Bible texts and affirming his belief in the group.

The same month, another Livewire story reported the organization of a United Church Brotherhood in Downey’s Baptist Church, which Rev. James Robertson assured the congregation “was not to combat the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of which is being perfected in Downey.”

Four Downey churches were filled with Klansmen in May of 1924 during a large rally. More than 2,000 Klansmen arrived and filled the Christian, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

In 1925, local newspapers reported a huge gathering of Klan members had conducted services at Miller Funeral Home for a man who had been mistakenly shot in a confrontation with two sheriff’s deputies.

One of the most popular admonishments the Klan used in these years was the return of the Bible to public schools.

The history of the First Baptist Church mentions a visit by the Klan in 1929. It refers to their occupancy of the church as “rather startling,” and relates how on a Sunday morning the ushers of the church were asked to clear one side of the sanctuary and the Klansmen then marched in wearing full Klans regalia. The plate was passed and each Klansman contributed a dollar, amounting to one of the largest contributions the church received in decades.

The congregation was then asked to remain seated as the Klansmen filed out. The robed men then burned a cross on the front lawn of the church.

As recently as 1982 the Klan formally requested approval from the City Council to move to Downey. But representatives of the Kiwanis Club and the Downey Ministerial Alliance went on record as opposing such recognition or approval.

The mayor, Milton Mackaig, told the Hearst Community Newspapers he had not heard of nor seen the Klan letter to the city council and could not comment on whether it would ever make it to the public agenda.

The ministerial fellowship said it expected the council to take a public stand “in opposition to what the KKK represents.”

The alliance noted that in November 1981, members of the KKK based in Norwalk took positions along two major Downey highways - Imperial Highway and Firestone Boulevard – and distributed Klan fliers while expecting that a Klavern would soon be formed in Downey.

Later, the Klan even staged public recruiting drives in front of Stonewood Plaza, to the consternation of many residents who complained to the local police.

Rev. Rhoda Lee of Emmanuel Gospel Temple was quoted in local newspapers as calling Downey “an island of bigotry and racism in need of spiritual awakening,” and she called on fellow church members and leaders to join her in dealing with the blight.”

Cemetery Vandalism

There are many ways the young outrage their elders but bouncing golf balls off the headstones of Downey’s historic cemetery proved to be one of the most bizarre.

It happened in October 1991, and the results was the passage of a special law to deal with the young linksmen who couldn’t seem to limit their activity to the golf courses of the area.

A special law was necessary after complaints were brought before the city council by a widower who discovered the youngsters slamming golf balls off his wife’s headstone one evening. It required a new law because, as Councilwoman Diane Boggs put it, “No one had ever thought of it (golfing at the cemetery) before.”

The law was passed and if you are weird enough to consider it, don’t. You’ll end up in the custody of the Downey Police.

Downey Cemetery at Lakewood Boulevard and Gardendale Avenue has served as the final resting place for some of Downey’s most notable residents since its founding in 1868.

W.A. Spurlock buried his daughter there and then donated an acre of land where his neighbors could bury their kin as well.

William H. Pendleton later purchased the cemetery and added to the size.

In the late 1870s, the Downey Masonic Lodge located its own graveyard on the eastern boundary of the cemetery. And in 1889 the Downey Cemetery Association was incorporated.

In 1928, the two parcels were officially combined as a single Los Angeles County cemetery.

Prominent persons buried there include Mason D. Crawford, secretary of the Downey Land Improvement Association which subdivided and sold Downtown Downey, and Lucielle Belmont, a Downey woman who was one of the “Early Birds” woman fliers who soloed before 1916.

The cemetery has withstood a trial of another nature recently following the Cemetery Board’s decision to increase taxes. Several critics suggested “concreting over” the graves and skipping the tax hike.

That wave has apparently passed and hopefully Downey’s historic dead may now rest in peace.

This story appeared in the Downey Eagle on Dec. 10, 1993.