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Pennsylvania Governor Orders Police to Investigate Ku Klux Klan Activities in State

August 30, 1946
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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Gov. Edward Martin today ordered the state police to investigate Ku Klux Klan activities in Pennsylvania.

The Governor’s action followed receipt of a letter from Justice Meier Steinbrink of the New York State Supreme Court who, as chairman of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League of B’ni B’rith, asked him “to direct the investigative and prosecutory forces of the state of Pennsylvania to proceed immediately against the Ku Klux Klan.”

Judge Steinbrink brought to Governor Martin’s attention “an Open Letter to the Public” from the Franklin Country Klan of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which appeared on August 23rd as an advertisement in a Chambersburg daily newspaper, “Public Opinion.” He charged that the Franklin County Klan was inciting race hatred by falsely claiming in the advertisement that “if the Negro gets his vote, they will turn quickly on those who held them down.”

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