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Monday, May. 19, 2025

Was Denver once a hub for the Ku Klux Klan?

Por Jaijongkit, The Colorado Sun
yes

During a second wave of Ku Klux Klan activity nationwide, Denver briefly became a hub for the white supremacist organization in the 1920s before the group’s influence waned. 

The Klan gained support following post-World War I anxieties amid growing immigrant populations, targeting Catholics, Jews, immigrants and Black and Latino communities. Major Colorado cities at the time, including Pueblo, Cañon City and Grand Junction, had chapters. 

At the group’s peak in Denver, nearly one-third of the city’s white, male, U.S.-born population were members. Gov. Clarence Morley and Denver Mayor Ben Stapleton were Klansmen, and the 1925 legislative session saw a Republican majority filled with Klan-selected candidates. The investigation that year of the Klan’s Colorado leader for tax evasion, coupled with crippling opposition in the state Senate, saw the group lose influence. 

As of 2023, the KKK was no longer listed among the 30 hate and anti-government groups thought to be active in Colorado.

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