A century ago, at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, the Ku Klux Klan battled for party control in the longest convention in American history—16 days and 103 ballots. The convention became infamous for the violent tension within the Democratic Party.
A few years before 1920, the 18th amendment of the Constitution had been ratified, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Defending prohibition was a critical issue for the Klan in the 1924 election. The KKK had several million members, many of them politicians.
Although the Klan was secretive with its membership, and many politicians were not open about their status, according to a Washington Post analysis in 2018, 11 governors, 16 senators, and 75 congressmen, from both major parties, belonged to the Klan in the 1920s.
The front-running Democratic candidates at the 1924 presidential convention were William Gibbs McAdoo and Alfred E. Smith. The remainder of the delegates were divided among the “favorite sons.” These accounted for most of the 53 men placed in nomination at the convention. When a state delegation cast its votes for a “favorite son” from their state, the delegates were not expecting that individual to win the nomination. Rather, by voting initially for someone from their state, the delegation aimed to strengthen their bargaining position at the convention.
Smith, the governor of New York, was a son of Irish immigrants and was Roman Catholic. He opposed racial segregation, as he had experienced discrimination himself as an Irish Catholic. He supported civil liberties and denounced lynching and racial violence. He was known as a “wet,” meaning he was against alcohol prohibition.
California Senator William Gibbs McAdoo was a lawyer, and son-in-law of President Woodrow Wilson. McAdoo was a Protestant “dry” candidate, who supported prohibition and racial segregation. Because of his stances and his religion, McAdoo had the support of the KKK.
A marathon convention
The convention began June 24, 1924, in Madison Square Garden, New York City. In the first rounds of voting, Smith and McAdoo were close. At the time, a candidate had to win two-thirds of the delegates to be selected as the Democratic nominee. McAdoo knew that neither Smith nor he would immediately attain a two-thirds vote. As the balloting continued, McAdoo hoped that increasingly exhausted delegates would shift to him to end the process.
While the KKK was popular in the southern states, Alabama Senator Oscar Underwood was an outlier, and the leader of the anti-Klan delegates. On June 29, Underwood’s proposed anti-Klan plank for the party platform came before the full convention. It failed by a single vote—541 delegates in favor, and 542 votes against.
On the tenth ballot Kansas abandoned its favorite son, Governor Jonathon M. Davis, and gave their votes to McAdoo. A parade erupted in the room as Kansas delegates and McAdoo supporters cheered, waving their McAdoo signs. As the chairman brought order to the convention floor, New Jersey spoke up, foregoing their favorite son, Governor Goerge Silzer, and giving their votes to Smith. An uproar filled the room again, this time with Smith’s supporters chanting and marching.
By ballot 30, people were becoming uneasy. McAdoo forces were trying to prolong the convention purposefully so that the hotel bills would be too high for the delegates to continue. Convention spectators were spitting on the delegates, who were screaming at one another. Fistfights were breaking out on the floor. McAdoo’s forces unsuccessfully proposed adjourning the convention and reconvening later in Washington D.C. but were denied.
On ballot 58, the 1924 convention broke the record previously set by the 1860 Democratic convention. With McAdoo evidently unable to attain the two-thirds vote, the Klan switched its support to Samuel Ralston of Indiana. By ballot 82 Ralston had 200 votes, which put him third, behind Smith and McAdoo. However due to an unknown illness, Ralston was ordered by his doctor to drop out.
On July 4th, the convention took the day off, and 20,000 Klansmen met for a picnic in New Jersey. One speaker denounced the “Clownvention in Jew York.” The picnickers created an effigy of Al Smith and hurled debris at it. Cross burnings occurred throughout the event.
On July 5th, all candidates except McAdoo released the delegates who had been pledged to them, although the candidates did not formally withdraw. Delegates began gravitating to John W. Davis, a New York corporate lawyer who formerly was Governor of West Virginia. Davis endorsed the 18th amendment but was not in favor of the Klan. Because McAdoo was still holding onto his delegates, and because Smith had released his delegates but was still a candidate, the rising Davis was in third place.
Finally, on the 100th ballot McAdoo released his delegates, while still remaining a candidate. Davis rose to 352 votes compared to McAdoo’s 190. On ballot 103, McAdoo and Smith withdrew their candidacies, and the exhausted convention at last achieved a two-thirds majority for Davis.
In the early twentieth century, some Democrats and Republicans were “progressives,” who favored bigger government and a variety of good-government reforms. Disenchanted with the relatively conservative Davis, and with very conservative Republican President Calvin Coolidge, many progressives would give their votes to third party candidate Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette.
With the support of labor unions, farming groups, and the Socialist Party of America, La Follette received 17% of the popular vote, and carried his home state of Wisconsin. Davis carried every state of the former Confederacy, and no other, earning 29% of the popular vote. Coolidge won a smashing reelection, with 382 electoral votes and 54% of the popular vote.
A modern day ‘Klanbake’
New York Daily News columnist Joseph Cowan famously called the 1924 Democratic National Convention a “Klanbake.” At least outside the South, the Klan’s evident power at the Democratic National Convention may have repelled more voters than it attracted.
A hundred years later, when Kamala Harris rejected Josh Shapiro as her vice-presidential choice, Democratic political analyst Van Jones observed, “You also have anti-Semitism that has gotten marbled into this party.” Permits for demonstrations near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago have been granted to groups that advocate for the extermination of Israel, but not to the Israeli American Council.
Will the 2024 Democratic National Convention be a modern day “Klanbake?”
Savana Kascak is Senior at Hastings College, in Nebraska, where she is majoring in Political Science, and an intern at the Independence Institute in Denver.
