The Ku Klux Klan was not seen in Colorado in 1920’s but by 1925 the Klan members and sponsored candidates controlled the Colorado State House and Senate. Ultimately, Colorado lawmakers managed to prevent the Klan’s legislative agenda from passing.
Ku Klux Klan dominated much of Colorado politics during the mid-1920’s. After the general election of 1924, the governor, Clarence Morley, was a Klansman, taking his orders from Dr. John Galen Locke, the Grand Dragon of the Colorado Realm [4]. Much of the elected personal in the House had open Klansman support thus making the state House of Representatives a Klan majority in Colorado.
With the majority of the House and Senate supporting the Ku Klux Klan Colorado became stronger than any other state. Colorado was predominantly Protestant, and the message played well due to many people in Colorado being protestant. Many people in Denver joined the KKK both because it opposed foreign immigration and because it defended prohibition [4]. Roman Catholic immigrants, particularly of Irish or Italian descent, were often the target of KKK discrimination. They made and drank wine, thereby violating Prohibition and showing disrespect for law and order. They also sent their children to parochial schools, thereby demonstrating that they weren’t rearing their children to be
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Senator Billy Adams of Alamosa, managed to prevent the Klan from passing more laws that were not needed therefor turning the political climate against the Klan [7]. Locke resigned in June of 1924 as Grand Dragon after being jailed for contempt of court in an income-tax matter, the power of the Klan ended abruptly and completely after that [3]. In the end, most of the Klan-sponsored legislative proposals were defeated. “Just two Klan-endorsed bills became state law: one requiring schools to fly the American flag and the other making ownership or operation of (an alcohol) still a felony