Segregation, Intolerance, and Integration

Penn Avenue School, Cumberland - 1928 Yearbook


The 1928 Pennsylvania Avenue High School graduating class of 25 students was the first class to complete its education at the school. The opening page of the athletics section of their 1928 Yearbook, "The Quill", depicts an African-American leaping over a fence into an area identified by a sign as "Great Open Spaces," while two robed members of the Ku Klux Klan look on.

Also within the yearbook, under the Joke section, the following appears:

Question: "What's the best color for a bride?"

The Howard and the Garden

On July 11, 1927 the Howard Theatre opened in Cumberland. Located at 126 North Mechanic Street the Howard was a theatre that served the area’s African-American community and provided movie showings twice an evening. Unfortunately, for whatever reason this did not work out and on October 31, 1927 the theatre reopened under a new name, The Garden.

he Ku Klux Klan is depicted here on parade and marching in downtown Oakland, Garrett County, on July 23, 1925. This was in an era when the KKK was on the rise throughout much of the country.
 

It is August 1925, and members of Fort Cumberland Klan #37 of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan depart the Queen City Railroad Station enroute to the big KKK march in Washington, D.C.

The following train description is from Cumberland, Maryland Through the Eyes of Herman J. Miller:

Fort Cumberland Klan #37 of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan board a train at the Queen City Railroad Station enroute to the big KKK march in Washington, DC, in August 1925.

The following excerpt is from Cumberland, Maryland Through the Eyes of Herman J.Miller:

The Liberty Aluminun Band, which was comprised of the "Cumberland Ladies of the KKK", lead off this Ku Klux Klan parade in Cumberland, circa 1925.

The following excerpt is from Cumberland, Maryland Through the Eyes of Herman J. Miller:

On Saturday evening, May 17, 1924, Cumberland received its first real insight of the Ku Klux Klan en mass when a large number of members of the organization assembled here for a series of ceremonies under auspices of Fort Cumberland Klan No. 37.

Members of Fort Cumberland Klan #37 of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan stand ready to march in a parade held in Cumberland, circa 1925.

The following excerpt is from Cumberland, Maryland Through the Eyes of Herman J. Miller:

COMING!
Western Maryland Field Day Saturday, May 23, 1925
Women of the Ku Klux Klan
Cumberland, Md.

The Biggest Event in the History of Klancraft.
Patriotic Americans Everywhere are Planning to Come.

We Have Perfected an Amazing Programme, Which Will Last Throughout the Day.

Aerial Stunt Flying, Day and Night, Aerial Fire Works, Night and Day, Ground Fire Works
Speakers of National Renown in Ku Klux Circles Will Lecture at Intervals throughout the Afternoon. Also Many Added Attractions you Can't Afford to Miss.

Cross-Burning by the Ku Klux Klan in Vale Summit

by Anton Urbas

During the early stages of the 1921-24 coal strike that swept through the George's Creek coal basin, a group of men from our village formed a cell of the Ku Klux Klan. The identity of these individuals was a closely guarded secret among those families whose men were a part of this cell. As youngsters, endowed with a keen perception, we viewed these crude attempts of maintaining secrecy of identities as a throw-back of the Middle Ages-nothing escaped us.

The Lynching of Anthony Crawford