Introducing A People’s History of Pitman, NJ
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
One of PARC’s goals is to uncover not just the high points of Pitman’s past, which are numerous and laudable in many respects, but also the low points. In particular, we believe it is important that we as a community acknowledge that systemic racism and white privilege were a considerable part of our community’s development over the last 100-plus years. We believe that education is our strongest weapon to help Pitman grow as a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community. By bringing transparency to our town’s history, we can use our knowledge as an educational tool for generations.
It is the intention of this blog, named in tribute to Howard Zinn’s landmark historical tome, A People’s History of the United States, to be an ongoing project to combat survivor bias and to acknowledge our town’s historical role in systemic racism. It’s likely to take years to uncover a fraction of the information that has lain dormant for decades. We will be posting regular news articles from Pitman's past, interviewing lifelong residents, and more. We will present stories not just about our community’s racist past but also about the everyday heroes in our community who helped to combat racism, particularly during the years prior to and after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Our goal is to provide a thorough examination of the actions and attitudes of our former leaders and residents, and the trajectory those steps created. This will include discussing what part religion and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union played in the promotion of racist ideas and the ways in which some of those same churches later helped to combat racism in our community.
With its pinwheel of 12 streets surrounding a center Auditorium, the Pitman Grove is a relic of a time past. As part of Mantua in 1871, the Grove streets were lined with tents in the summer months for Methodist fellowship. Giving way to small year-round houses and businesses, the town of Pitman was incorporated in 1905. In recent years the population of Pitman has remained stable, but the community’s signature downtown shopping district has transformed. Along with various culinary choices, there are several new and historic shops Uptown. Having long held Temperance beliefs, Pitman is now home to two micro-breweries and a pub. Pitman consistently places high in round ups of the best small towns in Southern New Jersey.
The Temperance Movement played a key role in another town development; the reason it has remained a majority white population. The WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) organized in 1873, eventually led to Prohibition in 1920. Its purpose was to give rise to a "sober and pure world through abstinence, purity, and evangelical Christianity."
Prohibition itself was intermixed with anti-immigrant biases, and more specifically, Catholic immigrant bias. The belief being that Catholic immigrants were bringing their drinking habits to America. And with that, they found a commonality with the Ku Klux Klan.
Pitman is not the only town in South Jersey where the Klan was prevalent. However, our research has shown that Pitman played a larger part in promoting and advancing membership in the Klan than most of our current residents would ever suspect.
Indeed, our town hosted not only the KKK, but its rivaling splinter group The Reformed Order of Klansmen.
Klan Meetings were held in Pitman’s original Borough Hall and in Whitecar Tabernacle, they held parades on Broadway, and there were KKK days at Alcyon Lake. There is evidence of confusion and fear at their arrival into town in 1923, but by 1925 they were welcomed.
Originally founded after Emancipation, the KKK flourished during Reconstruction. Initially, the Klan was prevalent only in the Southern States, and it died off by 1871 through federal enforcement. Its second life began in Georgia after the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. A silent fictionalized account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination; with white actors in blackface, it portrayed African American men as simple-minded, sex-crazed menaces to white women. That film is what gave rise to the ideology of a Klansman; a caped crusader on a white horse burning crosses, saving townswomen, and preserving American values. The Klan's second life died out in the 1930s through systemic corruption, and rose again a third time during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.*
Each resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan followed significant anti-immigrant sentiment and perceived threats to white supremacy. Housed originally in Protestant communities, the Klan was staunchly anti-immigrant. While taking a prohibition stance; they were opposed to Jews and Catholics, along with African Americans. In 1920, with the aid of a massive PR campaign in partnership with the Southern Publicity Association, the KKK expanded throughout the United States. Structured in an elaborate pyramid scheme, it grew to an estimated 4-5 million American men with paid memberships by 1925.
We will be archiving and linking to any newspaper, advertisement, or pamphlet we uncover through research that is relevant to our mission to document the Ku Klux Klan’s history in Pitman, NJ. We will also refrain from any censorship of offensive wording or names referred to in the original source articles, though we will include trigger warnings and content warnings for offensive language.
Finally, we are interested in hearing your thoughts about the information we have presented here. In addition, we would love to hear about any artifacts, articles, or oral histories you possess that speak to the issue of historical racism in our community and any effort by our citizens to combat racist ideas and practices.
*Editors note: Currently PARC has uncovered no evidence of a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in Pitman during the 1960s.
