Dr. Michael Brook’s presented his research on the Ku Klux Klan in Wood County, OH in the brown bag research series of the History Department on February 26th, titled “Klan in the Cornfields: History of the Ku Klux Klan in Wood County, OH”

The Klan emerged in Wood County in late 1922, and at its peak the white supremacist group boasted nearly 1400 members in the county. Klan members occupied many municipal and county elected positions, and nearly 40 percent of the Protestant ministers of Wood County joined the Klan in the 1920s. Cross burnings, public marches, and even vigilante activity were among the forms of political expression used by Klan members during the 1920s in Wood County.

Unlike Klan chapters in other parts of the country, many of which faded after a brief flurry of activity in the mid-1920s, the Wood County Ku Klux Klan remained active until at least 1941.