Basom, Allen; Black Legion; Jackson, Michigan

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Description:

View of Allen Basom arrested in 1936 for the kidnapping and felonious assault of a relief worker in Jackson, Michigan. "The Black Legion was founded in the mid-1920s as the Black Guards, a security force for the officers of the Ohio Ku Klux Klan, a Michigan regiment was established in 1931, with Arthur Lupp of Highland Park as its major general, organized along military lines, the Michigan Legion had five brigades, 16 regiments, 64 batallions, and 256 companies, although its members boasted that there were one million legionaires in Michigan, it probably had only between 20,000 and 30,000 members in the state in the 1930s, one third of whom lived in Detroit ... the legion's political objectives were broad and, at the same time, narrowly specific, as one of its promotional pieces stated, "we will fight political Romanism [the Catholic Church], Judaism, Communism, and all 'isms' which our forefathers came to this country to avoid" ... the legion saw as its enemies not only blacks, Jews, and Catholics, but also welfare workers and recipients and labor union organizers ... by and large, the typical Black Legionaire was a lower-class, Anglo-Saxon male, poorly educated with few industrial skills, and were Southerners transplanted to the Detroit area during the heyday of the city's industrial growth during the 1920s," from Detroit News article.

Notes:

Collection located at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. To schedule an appointment to view the original image, order high resolution copies, or seek permission to use an image, contact the Walter P. Reuther Library Audiovisual Department at reutherreference@wayne.edu., Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, and This metadata was created by Wayne State University Library system based on original description by the Walter P. Reuther Library

Date Issued:

1936-05-23T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Wayne State University. Libraries and Walter P. Reuther Library

Collection:

Virtual Motor City

Place:

Michigan

Subject Topic:

Black Legion and Terrorists

Format:

photographs

Rights:

Copyright Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University

URL:

http://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc3817