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Ku Klux Klan appointment certificate for Wilbur F. Fordyce

 Collection
Identifier: Coll890

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of a certificate made out to Wilbur F. Fordyce (written on the form as W. F. Fordyce), appointing him as field director for the Junior Department of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan through December 31, 1925. The certificate is dated February 1, 1925, and signed by the national director of the Junior Ku Klux Klan, though the name is not easily legible.

Dates

  • 1925 February 1

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical Note

Wilbur Franklin Fordyce was born in Kansas in 1899, and served in World War I. He lived in West Linn, Oregon, from the 1920s until the 1950s, and he worked as a carpenter. He was a member of the white supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan as of 1925; it is unknown how long he was a member. He died in 1956.

Source: Vital records via Ancestry.com.

Administrative History

The white supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic organization known as the Ku Klux Klan established itself in Oregon in 1921, when Klan members from the southern United States came to recruit members. By 1923, Oregon Klan leaders claimed that the state had 35,000 members in over 60 chapters. Klan members won elections for local, county, and state offices in 1922, and the organization helped elect Democrat Walter M. Pierce as governor of Oregon. Klan members and their allies in the Oregon State Legislature passed bills prohibiting foreign-born residents from owning land and prohibiting public schools from using textbooks that criticized the founders of the United States. The Klan in Oregon also helped to pass an initiative mandating that all children from ages 8 to 16 attend public school, a measure meant to target Catholic schools; this measure was never implemented, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1925. The number of Oregonians who were members of the Ku Klux Klan dwindled in the mid- and late 1920s, due both to displeasure with the leadership style of Exalted Cyclops Fred L. Gifford and multiple scandals involving the Klan in other states.

Source: "Ku Klux Klan," by Eckard Toy, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/ku_klux_klan/

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 folder in shared box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Certificate appointing Wilbur F. Fordyce (written as W. F. Fordyce on the form) field director of the Junior Department for the white supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan. Wilbur Franklin Fordyce (1899-1956) was a resident of West Linn, Oregon, from the 1920s to 1950s; it is unknown how long he was a member of the Klan.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Neal A. Dietz, March 2022 (RL2022-032).

Creator

Title
Guide to Ku Klux Klan appointment certificate for Wilbur F. Fordyce
Status
Completed
Author
Jeffrey A. Hayes
Date
2022
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

Contact:
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Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
5033065240