A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that promotes tolerance, says Kokomo is home to one of the state’s 26 organizations it deems a hate group.
The study reports the Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan operate in Kokomo, which can include activities such as criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing.
The list of groups was compiled using organizations’ publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports, according to the law center’s website.
The study reported the Ku Klos Knights also have a presence in Muncie and Indianapolis. Members of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were reported to be in Madison and Auburn.
The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization whose beliefs or practices “attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”
In total, the study identified 26 organizations in Indiana it defined as a hate group, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, black separatists, anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT and radical traditional Catholicism.
The number of hate groups operating in the U.S. in 2016 remained at near-historic highs, rising from 892 in 2015 to 917 last year, according to the latest count by the SPLC.
KKK in Kokomo
Kokomo has been an historic hotbed for KKK activity since at least the early 20th century. The city hosted what is reported to be the largest Klan rally in history on July 4, 1923, in which an estimated 200,000 supporters converged on a park about four miles west of the city.
An article by historian Robert Coughlan reported “literally half” the town had joined the Klan at its peak between 1923 and 1925.
In 1925, the KKK opened its own 50-bed hospital on West Sycamore Street because members didn’t want to be treated at the only other hospital in town, which was operated by Catholic sisters, according to a publication of the Howard County Historical Society.
The Klan hospital closed in 1930 and eventually was turned into St. Joseph Memorial Hospital.
The KKK held another large rally in downtown Kokomo on April 26, 1980, in which around 50 supporters marched around the courthouse with a heavy police escort. Hundreds of others showed up in opposition to the rally.
In October, police contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations after vandals spray-painted “KKK” on political signs, vehicles and a trailer on the city’s north side.
Mayor Greg Goodnight condemned the vandalism, saying in a statement “These actions and threats are the tools of cowards and bigots.”
“The people behind this are trying to scare and intimidate people,” he said. “We must come together to support our neighbors at this time.”