Finding aid encoded in EAD, version 2002 by Tara
Maharjan, April 2019
Special Collections and
University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant
from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of
State.
Bernard Bush Collection on The Ku Klux
Klan in New Jersey
Dates:
(1915–1946), bulk 1913–2010
Quantity:
8.73 cubic feet (8 cartons and 2 manuscript
boxes)
Abstract:
Assembled documentation pertaining
to the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey and related background materials. Present are
geographical files relating to the Klan in New Jersey, all of its counties and many
of its municipalities; files on Klan and pro-Klan organizations, leaders and
publications in relation to New Jersey; files concerning the New Jersey Klan in
relation to special subjects (such as immigration, Prohibition, elections and
Protestant churches); files on target groups (Catholics, Jews and African Americans)
and their reactions to the New Jersey Klan; files on Nazism/fascism and race
theory/eugenics in relation to the New Jersey Klan; copies of relevant Pennsylvania
State Police records (relating to the Klan's Realm of New Jersey); oral history
interviews; photographs (four folders of copies); additional contextual materials;
and supplementary files primarily related to assembling the collection.
Collection No.:
MC 1402
Language:
English
Repository:
Rutgers University Libraries.
Special Collections and University Archives
Acknowledgment:
The gathering of this research collection was aided by grants-in-aid received by
its compiler from the New Jersey Historical Commission.
Assembled documentation pertaining to the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey and related
background materials. Present are geographical files relating to the Klan in New
Jersey, all of its counties and many of its municipalities; files on Klan and
pro-Klan organizations, leaders and publications in relation to New Jersey; files
concerning the New Jersey Klan in relation to special subjects (such as immigration,
Prohibition, elections and Protestant churches); files on target groups (Catholics,
Jews and African Americans) and their reactions to the New Jersey Klan; files on
Nazism/fascism and race theory/eugenics in relation to the New Jersey Klan; copies
of relevant Pennsylvania State Police records (relating to the Klan's Realm of New
Jersey); oral history interviews; photographs (four folders of copies); additional
contextual materials; and supplementary files primarily related to assembling the
collection.
The materials in the files, which include citations, typically consist of one or
more contemporary press clippings from a New Jersey or New York City newspaper
reporting on Klan activity or mentioning the Klan in an editorial. Sometimes other
materials are present in a folder, such as: excerpts from published histories
(county, local or institutional) or other monographs; excerpts from contemporary
Klan publications or later historical society journals or newsletters; printed
versions of web pages; notes derived from published sources; unpublished essays
(e.g., student papers); copies of contemporary personal papers or organizational
records; or e-mails or other correspondence exchanged with librarians, archivists or
other persons (e.g., concerning relevant insights, potential research material or
memories of a Klan event).
New Jersey cities represented in the geographical files by at least seven folders
each are Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson. Two places
included that are not a county or municipality are the property of the Burlington
County Progressive League in present-day Mount Holly Township (represented by one
thick folder) and the property of the Monmouth Pleasure Club Association (near
Belmar) in Wall Township, Monmouth County (represented by six folders).
Serial publications in the collection include the Special Bulletin of the New Jersey
Grand Dragon, 1916-1918 with gaps, and The Good Citizen (Zarephath, N.J.), 1921 and
1926 with gaps. Among the persons represented are Edward James Smythe (of the German
American Bund) and Alma White (of the Pillar of Fire). The lone videotape included
is a copy of newsreel footage relating to a 1940 rally (the joint rally of the
German American Bund and the KKK at the Bund's Camp Nordland in Andover Township,
Sussex County).
The circa twelve oral histories that were conducted by Bush are represented by
transcripts, by signed agreements and by related correspondence. Several of the
persons interviewed, and/or their parents, were of the Catholic faith. Among the
persons interviewed: Clarence Still (concerning an incident in Lawnside, Camden
County) and John T. Cunningham (primarily concerning an incident in Brookside,
Mendham Township, Morris County).
Personal papers and organizational records reproduced from other repos- itories
subject to restrictions imposed by the institutions possessing the original
documents; consult the cited owning institutions for guidance.
This collection was assembled from private and institutional holdings as source
material for a proposed book. Its creation was supported by grants-in-aid received
from the New Jersey Historical Commission. Among the institutional sources from
which the collection was gathered are: the National Archives and Records
Administration, Northeast Region (selected Monmouth Pleasure Club Association
material from U.S. District Court records); the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian
Society (selected Vineland material); the Manuscripts and Archives Division, New
York Public Library (selected Hudson County material from the Edwin P. Banta
papers); the Federal Bureau of Investigation (files on Edward James Smythe); the
Pennsylvania State Archives (Ku Klux Klan records pertaining to New Jersey included
in a regional collection of KKK records acquired by the Pennsylvania State Police);
and the Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress (selected material from the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People collection).
The bulk of the documentation is in the form of paper-based reproductions. Many of
the reproduced press clippings are mounted on letter size paper with
pressure-sensitive tape.
These records, which were stolen from the home of a
regional Klan leader in 1940, contain files of the New Jersey Klan
pertaining to both organizational and policy matters. The New Jersey
files include a great deal about the internal controversy over the
Klan's association with the German-American Bund and a joint rally in
1940. (Several hundred pages were photocopied for the compiler, believed
to comprise all substantive New Jersey files. The copies were placed in
folders, but only partly sorted.)