The Ku Klux Klan’s surge in activity during 1927, as explored in the diary entry dated June 28th, came into sharper focus in relation to the film “The Callahans and the Murphys”. The movie tapped into an undercurrent of resentment amongst the Irish-American community, especially as the surge in KKK activity saw a fierce protest break out during a New York parade in May that year. During this chaotic event, approximately 1,000 Klan members, donned in their robes, clashed violently with the police—who were predominantly of Irish descent—a fact the KKK was acutely aware of.
Following the traumatic events, leaflets were circulated across Queen’s with headlines falsely accusing the “Roman Catholic Police of New York City” of assaulting “native-born Protestant Americans” exercising their rights.
Bizarrely, Italian fascists also became embroiled in the riots, leading to the death of two of their members in altercations with counter-protestors and the police. The New York Times, which also reported the anti-Catholic statements made by the KKK, provided coverage of the imminent funerals for the deceased rioters to take place at a Catholic church in the Bronx, anticipating an attendance of around one thousand Fascists.
An intriguing footnote to the 1927 riots surfaces when we ascertain that one of the detainees was a certain Fred Trump of Devonshire Road, Jamaica. Although he was speedily discharged without any charges pressed, his name re-emerged years later, during the contentious 2016 US presidential campaign of his son, Donald Trump. Trump’s electoral stance was steeped in anti-immigration rhetoric, and this historical event was used to remind those Irish-Americans involved in Trump’s administration, such as his press secretary Kellyanne Conway, of their roots.
The Intercept, a news website, suggested that Conway appeared “obliviously unconscious” of the fact that her own ancestors found themselves subject to the very kind of “nativist hatred” that her boss was currently stoking.
Furthering the controversy, Trump rejected any claims of his father’s participation in the KKK protest, initially dismissing them as untruthful. He later backtracked, stating that the allegations were arbitrary since no charges were laid against his father. In a peculiar turn of events, this situation bears a curious resemblance to the life of Kathleen Norris, whose amiable depiction of Irish Catholic America in her novel “The Callahans and the Murphys” (1924), was the source of inspiration for the movie that triggered this historic maelstrom.
Born in California to parents who ran a teetotal campaign, Norris was a supporter of the Democratic Party. However, she parted ways with Franklyn D Roosevelt in 1933 over his decision to repeal prohibition. In the midst of the Great Depression, she voiced opposition to FDR’s welfare programme. Deanna Paoli Gumbina, Norris’s biographer, mentions that she strongly held the view that any American who wished to work could find employment, demonstrating this by dressing in tattered clothes and pretending to have an Irish accent to secure a dishwasher job in a private home during the early days of the economic downturn. As she returned home, she reassured her anxious family that plenty of job positions were available for those who sought them.
Years later, Norris was photographed at a 1941 rally held in New York that was against US participation in World War II. She was seen alongside Charles Lindburgh and others, appearing to perform what resembled a Fascist salute. Some defended her, suggesting her salute was towards the US flag, in a style associated with the pledge of allegiance. Another theory proposed was that it was the ‘Bellamy salute’, a gesture that predated the Nazi’s but was later swapped in 1942 for the hand-on-heart motion.
Her participation in the America First movement resulted mainly from her pacifism and conviction that the war was a European issue. Despite Gumbina’s book suggesting that she was not a Nazi supporter, it does seem possible that she conveniently ignored the nature of the people she associated with in the name of peace.
British journalist and communist, Tom Driberg who was present at the 1941 rally in New York, described the America First Committee as an infamous pro-Nazi group and the audience as manic as any Hitler crowd, however with an increased level of unpleasantness. He additionally noted that they sang ‘America First, Last, and Always’ but refrained from singing ‘God Bless America’ due to its Jewish author.
In regards to the salute, occasional disputes have arisen over the angle of the arm and hand. The trio captured in the photograph are inclusive of Norris, Lindbergh, and the Democratic senator from Montana, Burton K Wheeler.
In a controversial move, the New York Review of Books utilised this photograph as an example in their essay on American fascism. A Wheeler biographer vehemently disputed this portrayal, arguing that the senator’s salute was the Bellamy salute, and branded the implication that it was Nazi, a defamation.
In return, an editor at the NYRB admitted that whilst Wheeler’s salute seemed somewhat insincere and less suggestive of Nazism, Lindbergh’s salute appeared completely fascist. Although it is at the far right of the image, Norris’s salute appears somewhere in the middle in terms of style.