“About the middle of the afternoon, while I was consulting with the mayor and the circuit judge, the commander of the local post of the American Legion came in and stated that he had reliable information that if Archdeacon Irwin remained in the city he would be lynched, and that in all probability church property would be burned and numerous lives lost. He therefore asked that Archdeacon Irwin should agree to leave the city that afternoon.”
The charge made by the mob against the clergyman was that he had preached “race equality” and “intermarriage.” Bishop Mann declares unequivocally that Archdeacon Irwin does not hold to social or political equality for negroes in the United States, has never taught it, and in his missionary work has incurred disfavor with some negroes by his opposition to societies and movements which upheld the doctrine.
It was reported in the papers that the judge who brought the case to the attention of the Grand Jury told that body that, while the right of free speech is guaranteed, strangers should not defy the sentiments and traditions of the public.
July 16, 1921.—At Bay City, Tex., W. M. Hoopengarner, a banker, was tarred and feathered and beaten. The reason alleged was domestic infidelity.
July 18, 1921.—G. C. Benson beaten at Dickinson, Tex.
July 18, 1921.—E. H. Peters, of Athens, Tex., was dragged from his room, beaten, dumped out of an automobile and seriously hurt.
July 19, 1921.—At Tenaha, Tex., J. W. McKnight was seized a second time by masked men.
July 19, 1921.—Declaring that he had information that fifty per cent of the members of the Oklahoma City police department belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, Mayor John C. Welton directed Chief Glitsch to investigate and to discharge every police officer who did not resign immediately from the Klan. On July 24, Mayor Welton was called on the telephone, and was told: “We warn you to lay off the Ku Klux Klan, or we will have to wait on you.” The mayor paid no attention to the warning.
July 22, 1921.—At Hillsboro, Tex., a note from the Ku Klux Klan was received and published in the local paper as a “warning to some married men who should spend more time with their own wives.”
July 26, 1921.—At Topeka, Kan., a warning was sent to Senator Capper’s newspaper to “leave the Ku Klux Klan alone.”