Camilla White

Gary Lawless, a poet, editor, publisher, community activist and co-owner of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, presented on Brunswick’s history with the Ku Klux Klan at Curtis Memorial Library on Wednesday. The talk was sponsored by Midcoast Senior College.

“People are really interested right now in how do we stop the new rise of legitimizing hate … or how to stand up against it, which I didn’t really have answers for,” Lawless said in an interview with the Orient. “I was just there talking … letting people work out their own responses to it.”

Donna Marshall, the program coordinator of the event, explained that the presentation is part of the Midcoast Senior College’s “Winter Wisdom” series. The events in this series are free to the public, as an effort to make educational opportunities available to the community. This year marks the Midcoast Senior College’s 25th anniversary.

“In all of these [events], there is a thread of Maine in them,” Marshall said. “A lot of effort is put into making a Maine connection.”

Lawless began the talk discussing June 22, 1916, the day the Bowdoin Orient’s front page proclaimed: “Ku Klux Riders Terrify Campus.” That year, the Class of 1911 returned to campus for their five year reunion, led by Bowdoin alumnus William H. Clifford, carrying a large, blazing cross inspired by the film “The Birth of a Nation.” While the motives of the students involved were unclear, Lawless said that the move illustrates how the Klan was integrated into the American cultural ethos.

“It wasn’t really a Klan rally; they were just acting out what they had seen in the movie,” Lawless said. “I don’t think they were Klan members.… I don’t think they were really all hateful people.”

Regardless of the motivation, Bowdoin has unfortunate ties to the Klan’s history beyond the bounds of campus. Lawless said in an interview with the Orient that he hoped the talk would emphasize just how close, physically and personally, the Klan was to the Brunswick community.

“The Klan [was] here just 100 years ago, in this very area in Brunswick and Orr’s [Island] and Bailey Islands,” Lawless said. “So I wasn’t even talking about the whole state of Maine. I was trying to be pretty specific to here.”

In the talk, Lawless described how the Ku Klux Klan’s presence began to steadily grow in Brunswick throughout the 1920s, gaining popularity through their associations with pillars of the community. On December 19, 1923, F. Eugene Farnsworth, the King Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan in Maine, came to the Brunswick Town Hall to deliver a speech on “Americanism” and the Klan’s ideals. It was reported that the hall was “comfortably filled,” with over 800 attendees. Although the number of Klansmen in Brunswick was never truly known, it was estimated that 65 percent of the town was involved.

In 1924, Ralph Brewster, a member of the Class of 1909, ran for Governor of Maine, ultimately winning the election. While he denied being part of the Klan, he was financed by Klan members because of his support for certain bills. In particular, Brewster supported the Blaine Amendment, which would have banned giving any federal money to educational institutions affiliated with religion as a means of targeting Catholics in the state. Additionally, Brewster supported conditional suffrage, only providing support towards white women, and prohibition in Maine. Brewster was notably quoted for stating that, “I do not question the good citizenship, the loyalty or the Americanism of the Klan,” and that he had friends on “both sides” of the debate.

Although Bowdoin denounced the Klan activity during the tenure of former President Sills, who was an antagonist to the Klan, it cannot be denied that the Klan is part of the College’s history.

“People were condemned because of their race.… A state of terror was substituted for a state of law,” Lawless said during the talk. “How can these evil people get to say they are working for God?”

Ultimately, Lawless said he hopes the talk inspires members of the Bowdoin community to think critically about the parallels between this historical era and the present one.

“I think watching a historical account of the rise of hate groups is useful right now, because it happens kind of slowly for a while. You don’t notice it until all of a sudden it’s reached a certain point, but you have to stop it before it gets to that point. You have to stand up and say, this is wrong,” Lawless said.