Where is the KKK and Skin heads During all these Riots?

Elwood, IN was the location for the Klan headquarters in recent years and has a well-known reputation as a white town. They were still holding an annual KKK parade a few years ago. Between Marion and Indianapolis, NE of Indianapolis.
Ray Stannard Baker, Following the Color Line (NY: Harper Torchbook, 1964 [1908]) writes: "There are counties and towns where no Negro is permitted to stop over night. At Syracuse, OH, Lawrenceburg, Ellwood [sic], and Salem, IN, for example, Negroes have not been permitted to live for years. If a Negro appears, he is warned of conditions, and if he does not leave immediately, he is visited by a crowd of boys and men and forced to leave. A farmer who lives within a few miles north of Indianapolis told me of a meeting held only a short time ago by 35 farmers in his neighborhood, in which an agreement was passed to hire no Negroes, nor to permit Negroes to live anywhere in the region." (p. 126)

Elwood was the home town of Wendell Willkie, presidential candidate in 1940 against Franklin Delano Roosevelt. According to a New York Times articles, "Fred Bays, state chairman of IN Democratic Party, predicted support for FDR from "the colored voter, who is not only grateful for the many benefits his people have received under the President's administration, but who also resents Mr. Willkie's selection of Elwood [as the site for his acceptance speech], a city in which no colored man has ever been permitted to spend the night, let alone live there." ("FDR, Jr., Aids in Campaign," 8/24/1940).

Marse Callaway, of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, wrote "300,000 Cheer Willkie; Elwood Wide Open to Everybody Alike," after he stayed in biggest hotel in Elwood. Cornelius Richardson, chair, local entertainment committee, ""Willkie told Elwood's mayor that he wanted all races treated here alike, and you see what happened."" (8/24/1940).

However, an Elwood resident recalled that "Elwood had an old, tattered sign, 'N word, don't let the sun set on you in Elwood,'" in 1966.
"Many of the Negroes who opposed Willkie, did so because Willkie spent his early life in a prejudiced village in Indiana. Some Negro political spokesmen made capital of the fact that in Elwood, IN, where Willkie was born there hung a sign in large letters, 'N word, don't let the sun go down on you here.' Many Negroes were of the opinion that, since his father was mayor and one of the leading citizens of the village, Willkie or his father could have done something about it if either had wanted to. To do nothing or remain silent about it was tantamount to endorsing it." See Elbert Lee Tatum, "The Changed Political Thoughts of Negroes of the United States 1915-1940," Journal of Negro Education 16 #4 (1947), 530.

Another New York Times article was titled, "Willkie Ancestry Is Raised As An Issue":

"Negro Democrats Cite German Background and Seek to Lies 'Race Bias" to his Father"
The Colored Division of the Democratic National Committee issued a pamphlet "attempting to hold his father responsible for anti-Negro activities in Elwood, Ind., his birthplace." It referred to Hitler's statement in Mein Kampf that "Negroes are lower than apes." Generally heavy-handed reference to Germans, to Willkie's "Blitzkrieg" seizure of the Republican nomination, etc.
Pamphlet "Democratic Campaign Facts, 1940," then said, according to article:
"Wendell Willkie was born in Elwood, Ind. His father was the leading citizen of Elwood, Ind., and took the leadership in forming all of its policies. Among these policies was the policy of excluding Negroes from residence in Elwood and in carrying out this policy, signs were displayed in conspicuous places reading 'N word, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On You.' When Senator Minton ordered photographers to Elwood to take pictures on the day after the nomination of Mr. Willkie, these signs had been removed."

A black Indiana policeman also confirms that "Elwood is by reputation still off-limits."

email 11/2007:

There are now some black families that live in Elwood and at first you would again hear people questioning it but now a lot of people that were questioning the situation of these black families living in Elwood are no longer, and that they are coming the the realization that this is something they have to accept.

People are always going to see Elwood or when they hear the name of the town think of the Klu Klux Klan. Talking with people in other states, already know of Elwood because of that. But to me its something I don't want to hide from people, that I am from Elwood, Indiana. I was to take it and learn from it and learn about the history behind it all.

An African American resident of Elwood emailed us: "Elwood is still very racially segregated. The black people live with caution , the hispanics live with ignorance, and I have yet to see an asian family live here. I have also been told that there are 150 active Klan members within city limits."