All Ages
Kennedy School Theater
Two dollars of every ticket will be donated to the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.
In Peddlers of Hate, journalist Steve Law draws on published and unpublished sources, new research, and interviews with leading scholars to provide a comprehensive account of how Oregon became one of the Ku Klux Klan’s strongest outposts in the 1920s. Klan salesmen, working on commission, enlisted Oregonians with a message of religious prejudice and racism, vilifying Catholics, immigrants, Blacks, and Jews. With more than 60 chapters established in both large and small communities like Portland, Medford, Astoria, and La Grande, the Klan’s power escalated in the region. At the Klan’s peak, Portland was home to the sixth largest chapter in the country and there were more members per capita in Oregon than in any other state except one.
The hate group gained wide support, toppling an incumbent governor and congressman, persuading voters to ban Catholic schools, and winning control of the legislature and several local governments. From stories of “escaped nuns” to fiery crosses at mass Klan rallies at Salem’s state fairgrounds and Portland’s Mount Tabor Park, Law examines this divisive and forgotten time in Oregon’s history. He shows how it was finally greed, hypocrisy, and corruption that spurred the KKK’s demise—providing historical lessons that will resonate today.
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