On July 4th, 1925, 3,000 people marched through Grand Rapids under the banner of the Ku Klux Klan. Though this Klan had only limited ties to the earlier one in the Reconstruction-era South, its list of adversaries had expanded. No longer merely random vigilantes, the 1920s Klan expressed the unease of many Americans about the ethnic diversity of cities and against the new social mores of the Roaring Twenties. For people from rural areas, lacking in large ethnic or African American communities, concerns about cultural issues and social mores would serve as motivation to join the Klan.  

Subject: history, diversity 

Matthew Daley, PhD, is a professor of history at GVSU. His research focuses on urban, public, and social policy; Great Lakes maritime culture and technology; and public history.