1924 Democratic
National Convention AKA KLANBAKE
The 1924 Democratic National Convention, also
called the Klanbake,[1]held
at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from
June 24 to July 9, 1924, took a record 103 ballots to nominate a presidential
candidate. It was the longest continuously running convention in United States political
history. It was the first major party national convention that saw the name of
a woman, Lena Springs, placed in nomination for the
office of Vice President. John W. Davis,
a dark horse,
eventually won the presidential nomination as a compromise candidate following
a protracted convention fight between front-runners William Gibbs McAdoo and Al Smith.
The notoriety of the "Klanbake" convention and the
violence it produced cast a lasting shadow over the Democratic Party's
prospects in the 1924 election and contributed to their defeat by incumbent
Republican President Calvin Coolidge.
Davis and his vice presidential running-mate, Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska,
went on to be defeated by the Republican ticket of President Calvin Coolidge
and Charles G. Dawes.
The selection of New York as the site for the 1924 convention
was based in part on the recent success of the party in that state. Two years
earlier, in 1922, thirteen Republican congressmen had lost their seats to
Democrats. New York had not been chosen for a convention since 1868. Wealthy
New Yorkers, who had outbid other cities, declared their purpose "to
convince the rest of the country that the town was not the red-light menace
generally conceived by the sticks". Though dry organizations opposed the
choice of New York, it won McAdoo's grudging consent in the fall of 1923,
before the oil scandals made Smith a serious threat to him. (McAdoo's candidacy
was hurt by the revelation that he had accepted money from Edward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon implicated in
the Teapot Dome scandal.)
McAdoo's own adopted state, California, had played host to the Democrats in
1920.[2]
Ku Klux
Klan
The Ku Klux Klan was resurrected after the
1915 release of D.W. Griffith's
very popular motion picture The Birth of a Nation.
After World War I, the
popularity of the Klan surged due to connections of its public relations
leadership to those who had promoted the successful Prohibition Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution,[4] becoming a political power
throughout many regions of the United States, not just in the South. Its local
political strength throughout the country gave it a major role in the 1924
Democratic Party National Convention (DNC). The 20th Century Ku Klux Klan was notoriously
anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic, in addition to being anti-black. The Klan
advocates opposed those supporting Catholics from the major cities of the
Northeast and Midwest. The tension between pro- and anti-Klan delegates
produced an intense and sometimes violent showdown between convention attendees
from the states of Colorado and Missouri.[citation needed] Klan
delegates opposed the nomination of New York
Governor Al Smith because
Smith was a Roman Catholic.
Smith campaigned against William Gibbs McAdoo,
who had the support of most Klan delegates.
KKK platform plank
The second dispute of the convention revolved around an attempt
by non-Klan delegates, led by Sen. Oscar Underwood of Alabama, to condemn the organization for its
violence in the Democratic Party's platform. Klan delegates defeated the
platform plank in a series of floor debates. The final vote on condemning the
Klan was 542.85 in favor, 546.15 against, so the plank was not included in the
platform.[1] To celebrate, tens of thousands
of hooded Klansmen rallied in a field in New Jersey, across the river from New
York City.[5] This event, known subsequently
as the "Klanbake",[1] was also attended by hundreds
of Klan delegates to the convention, who burned crosses, urged violence and
intimidation against African-Americans and Catholics, and attacked effigies of
Smith.[citation needed]
Smith's name was placed into
nomination by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his first appearance
at the Democratic National Convention since his paralytic illness. This
signaled a political comeback for Roosevelt; he would be elected Governor of
New York four years later and President eight years later.
