Suddenly the rear doors opeded in the midst of the service and in walked several white hooded figures (3 or 4). They marched up to the three ministers and handed each and envelope, then marched out again.
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| Pro Klan, anti Roman Catholic cartoon by Branford Clarke published in Heroes of the Fiery Cross by the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey |
The service ended with nothing said. This was too much for my father who got up and walked out with the rest of us trailing behind.
He was furious and announced he would never go back to that church again - which he never did except for a school graduation which was held there. We had a few uncomfortable years (we were ostracized) until interest in the KKK died down.
Sometime later some of the townspeople apologized for their actions. The Episcopal minister, Mr. Harper, spoke to my father and told him he had not kept the envelope when he found it contained money. At this time the Klan was against Catholics. There were a lot of Italians who worked on the estates and they were the objects.
My father always stood up for the underdog, He believed everyone had the same rights.
Millie also remembered....."I was in school one day when a cross was burned over on another hill, it was set off to scare the Catholics and perhaps force them out of town."
I'm sure this colored Millie's opinion of churches. She didn't belong to a church in all the years that knew her. Among the many notes she left was a statement, "Please don't tell me that people who go to church are better than ones that don't. The best church goers were all in the clan."
Read More:
The Ku Klux Klan was welcomed at the Jersey Shore
A History of the KKK in New Jersey
The History of the KKK in New Jersey - Wikipedia
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