On this day in 1922, the kligrapp (secretary) and exalted cyclops of the Portsmouth branch of the Ku Klux Klan signed a letter reminding their members to pay their poll tax, lest they not be legally eligible to vote. They described voting as a way “to combat the rottenness which is nauseating” in the world. “It is useless at this time to innumerate the many incidences, which causes your Manhood to cry-out, What will I do?”
The letter also credits the 60,000 Klansmen in Oregon for voting into law a mandate that children in that state between the ages of eight and sixteen attend public schools, which “puts a crimp in the Parochial Schools”—Catholics being among the groups targeted by the Klan.
IMAGE: “Pay-Your-Poll-Tax!” (Library of Virginia)