Springfield’s forgotten history of terror: 100 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan was here

Springfield’s forgotten history of terror: 100 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan was here

Black and white residents of Springfield lived together in harmony, declared The Rev. William N. DeBerry. He doubted the Ku Klux Klan would ever establish a presence in the city. It was February 1921. There were rumors that the Klan, which had sown racial terror across the South during Reconstruction, was forming a branch in Springfield. Black leaders in Boston had asked President-elect Warren Harding to suppress the group.