PORTSMOUTH — We don’t usually picture Portsmouth as a town that would host a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. 

As I research Portsmouth history, I can take pride in the examples of integration in Portsmouth schools, churches and in the community in general. But Portsmouth is a town like any other town, and bigotry did exist, especially in the 1920s. 

Accounts in the Newport Mercury in May of 1924 record a “Fiery Cross” being burned in a field near the Newport County Fair Grounds. Abby Sherman’s diary entry for May 26, 1924 reads: “Last Night the Fiery Cross was burned on the hill on the Cory land by the Klan. There were about 200 at the meeting.” 

I believe the Cory Farm was where St. Barnabas Church is today.

Abby’s son, Arthur Sherman, was among those listed as members of the Klan. Arthur was a prominent local politician and served as a state senator. An official state hearing on Klan activities before the Rhode Island House Militia Committee listed Sherman among other state officers (senators, adjutant general) as sympathetic to the Klan.

Klan activities centered around typical social activities: tent meetings, all-day outdoor rallies, oyster suppers, and clambakes. One newspaper account listed 2,500 persons present at a “Klan Field Day” in Portsmouth in 1924.

During that era the Klan’s targets were Catholics, African-Americans, Jews and immigrants. Anti-Catholicism was most prevalent around the Narragansett Bay Area. Only native-born white Protestants could join the Klan. They were outwardly patriotic, anti-Communist and proclaimed they were upholding traditional values. 

Klan activities did not take hold in Rhode Island’s cities, but were centered around rural and Republican areas. In many ways the fear of losing power led otherwise decent white, native-born and Protestant people to flirt with a radical organization.

This article was reprinted with permission from portsmouthhistorynotes.com, Gloria Schmidt’s research notebook of topics in Portsmouth history. One of her resources was the article “KKK in Rhode Island,” by Norman Smith from Rhode Island History Magazine. Abby Sherman’s diary was transcribed by Town Historian Jim Garman.