Nearly a century ago, thousands of Klan members descended on Grand Rapids to celebrate the 4th of July

I would be shocked if the City of Grand Rapids, or Grand Rapids-based news agencies, would make it a point to remind people that thousands of KKK members, from 50 counties throughout the state, came to this city to show their patriotic spirit in 1925.

Both the Grand Rapids Press and the Grand Rapids Herald reported on the gathering of Klan members 98 years ago. In fact, one of the headlines of the Grand Rapids Herald read, Klan, Looking for 16,000 here today, erects tent city. 

Klan members started arriving on July 3rd, 1925, in order to prepare for the parade they would hold on July 4th. Now the parade began on the westside, at Lincoln Park and moved east on Bridge Street. According to the Grand Rapids Herald, the parade started at 3pm. “Passing along Monroe Avenue it was greeted by throngs which crowded into the streets to witness the pageant. The crowd was orderly and for the most part friendly, breaking into applause frequently as one or another patriotic float passed.” It is also worth noting that the parade was led by a “squad of motorcycle police.”

After passing along Monroe Avenue, the parade turned right on Fulton and went all the way down to John Ball Park, where the thousands of Klan members held a rally. What is interesting, is that none of the newspaper reporters happened to mention anything about what was said at the rally, which means they completely ignored the message and the platform of the KKK gathering, which was always a central part of their rallies. 

What we do know about the 2nd wave of the Klan, is that they were anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-immigrant and anti-Black, yet there was no reporting on the Klan platform and no one from the Catholic, Jewish, recent immigrant or Black communities was asked to comment on the large gathering of the White Nationalist and White Supremacist organization in 1925. (See Craig Fox’s book, Everyday Klansfolk: White Protestant Life and the KKK in 1920s Michigan, for additional background on the Klan.)

Equally important is the fact that this Klan gathering didn’t just happen, where KKK members happened to come to Grand Rapids in 1925. In fact, the Kent County chapter of the KKK hosted this gathering of Klan members from across the state. 

Additionally, according to a retrospective piece by GR Press writer Garrett Ellison, written in 2012, where he relies on GVSU history professor Matthew Daley, Ellison, “Members began arriving in Grand Rapids in the weeks ahead of July 4 and set up a tent city on the municipal outskirts near the Bridge Street hillside. Daley said mentions of “a symbol” seen atop the hill the night of July 3 suggest Klansmen fired off a cross, possibly with a matching one over Belknap, to announce their presence the next day.” Such a display certainly sent a message to the residents of Grand Rapids.

So the Klan set up a tent city on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, which suggests that the tent city was legal. Interesting, considering that the City of Grand Rapids will not tolerate tents being put up in Grand Rapids by those who are unhoused. In fact, on July 11, there will be a public hearing on proposed ordinances that will impose fines and jail time for people who repeatedly asked for money, keep their belongings with them during the day and attempt to set up tents in the city.  

All of this is to say that it was quite normal for the KKK to show up for a parade in Grand Rapids in 1925, where the public applauded them, where there were no visible signs of opposition and the GRPD even provided a motorcycle escort for the parade. 

However, the normalization of White Supremacist values continues to be entrenched in Grand Rapids even today. Sure, we don’t see throngs of KKK members in their white robes, but we do see lots of white people rallying to support white political candidates in Grand Rapids and white people applauding the massive investments into the downtown, while Black and Brown neighbors experience disinvestment. We still see white people opposing the support of immigrants in this City and white opposition to Black people when they demand accountability for the brutality of the GRPD, or when they call for a defunding of the police. We see white people and white dominated organizations calling for the criminalization of the unhoused. We see white people silent on the contemporary manifestations of White Supremacy. You know who you are. We see you!