“Ku Klux Klan, 20-Odd Strong, Burns Cross In Carney Park: All-Day Picnic Spoiled By Rain, But While-Robed Men Hear Grand Titan Speak” (The Sun, September 18, 1938)
On Saturday, September 17, 1938, about 20 Klansman held a day-long meeting and picnic in Carney Park. Carney Park was an outdoor venue located on Harford Road behind the current location of Carney Village Shopping Center, about where the fitness studio is at 9621 Harford Road (formerly Cramer’s Hardware). The “Grand Titan” delivered a speech and a forty-foot cross was burned. The cross was visible to drivers at the intersection of Harford & Joppa. The “Grand Titan” denied the group was “intolerant” and asserted they are “dedicated to the preservation of American liberties, the perpetuation of the Constitution and the resistance of all subversive forces” (it’s scary how familiar that schtick sounds). The “Grand Titan” declined to identify himself to the press. One member identified himself as Louis Benson of Brooklyn Park (quite a journey in the days before 695 and the Harbor Tunnel!). This leads to me to believe they may not have been locals; rather, they were seeking an out-of-the-way place, and the end of the Harford Road trolley line was well-suited.
Nothing happens in a vacum, and in history context is everything. The election in November 1938 was just 53 days away. It was contentious election with many issues of concern to Klan-types in play. In the gubernatorial race, Republican Herbert O’Conor was running against incumbent Democrat Harry Nice. Nice had recently supported the hiring of Baltimore’s first African-American police officers, and he was endorsed by the Afro-American newspaper. In the senate race, Republican Oscar Lesser was opposing incumbent Democrat Millard Tydings. Tydings had spoken out on Hitler’s oppression of Jews, and the Klan was generally opposed to US involvement in the storm brewing in Europe. In August 1938 teacher Harriet Elizabeth Brown was successful in obtaining equal pay for Maryland teachers who taught African-American students (a young attorney named Thurgood Marshall represented her). Also, the highly unpopular Maryland State Income Tax Amendment was on the ballot. In addition, this gathering was just 88 days after Joe Louis’ TKO of Max Schmeling. All-in-all, it was not a happy time for Klansmen. Their world, as they knew it, was slipping away, and a gathering of twenty-some “true-believers” standing around a burning cross somewhere in the hinterland of Baltimore County was the best they could muster.
baltimorehistorybuffdotcom 