Ku Klux Klan Scrapbook
Finding aid created by History San Jose Research Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
History San Jose Research Library
2023
1661 Senter Road
San Jose, California 95112
(408) 287-2290
research@historysanjose.org
http://www.historysanjose.org/
Title: Ku Klux Klan Scrapbook
Dates: 1980-1981
Collection Number: 2019-44
Creator/Collector:
Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (1975)
Extent: One folder
Online items available
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
San Jose, California 95112
Abstract: Binder of newspaper clippings, certificates and photographs of a California Klan gathering and cross burning, 1981. The clippings
are from San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, and the photographs were likely taken in the Central Valley, possibly Ceres.
Language of Material: English
The materials are open to the public for research.
Contact the Research Library for information on reproduction and publication.
[Identification of item]. Ku Klux Klan Scrapbook. Collection Number: 2019-44. History San Jose Research Library
Donated to History San Jose in 2019. The binder was found in the former Lighthouse Inn on Pearl Street in Moss Beach, California,
during a cleanup of the property in 1990. According to the donor, the former owner of the property collected items from estate
sales.
Scope and Content of Collection
Binder of newspaper clippings, certificates and photographs of a Klan gathering and cross burning, 1981. Clippings are from
the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle, some about the events held in Pierce Park (Modesto) and in Ceres in
early 1981, the rest of the clippings are national coverage, including several "Inside the KKK" series of reports by Jerry
Thompson of Nashville Tennessean. Also included are five commendation/membership certificates issued by the Invisible Empire,
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, signed by Bill Wilkinson, Imperial Wizard, to two different individuals (1980-1981), and a form
letter inviting unnamed recipient to come to a meeting to be held November 22, at 819 Villa, San Jose, California, signed
Steven M. Seager.
Several pages from a photo album portray a rural Klan gathering and cross burning in a location that does not appear to be
San Jose, but is likely related to the rally and cross burning event that took place in Ceres, CA in February 1981. Men, women
and children are seen at a campsite, and at a night time event in a field, with men in robes carrying torches and images of
a burning cross.
Cross burning
Right-wing extremists
Hate groups
Nineteen eighties
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
Central Valley (Calif. : Valley)
color photographs
newspaper clippings
certificates