Klanbake

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The Klanbake convention is a designation given to the 1924 Democratic National Convention held in New York City. The term, a play on clambake, comes from the heavy participation of members of the Ku Klux Klan within the Democratic Party at that convention.

Their participation at the DNC produced an intense and sometimes violent showdown between convention attendees from the states of Colorado and Missouri.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Presidential nomination

Klan delegates opposed the nomination of New York Governor Al Smith as the Democrat's candidate for president on account of Smith being Catholic. Smith campaigned in opposition to William Gibbs McAdoo, who had the support of most Klan delegates. The dispute was resolved when McAdoo and Smith both withdrew from the nomination. The Convention then nominated compromise candidate John W. Davis of West Virginia.

[edit] KKK platform plank

The second dispute of the convention revolved around an attempt by non-Klan delegates, led by Forney Johnston of Alabama, to condemn the organization for its violence in the Democratic Party's platform. Klan delegates succeeded in defeating the platform plank in a series of floor debates. To celebrate the defeat of the plank, tens of thousands of hooded Klansmen rallied in a field in New Jersey opposite of the convention building.^{[citation needed]} The event was 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.

The plank was defeated by one vote. [1]

[edit] Impact

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.