This episode explores the tumultuous offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, The Black Legion, which emerged in the Midwest during the 1920s and promoted violence against marginalized groups, including African Americans, Catholics, and Jews. At its peak between 1933 and 1936, the organization carried out acts of arson and murder, often targeting union members and others they labeled undesirable. Public outrage following the 1936 murder of Charles Poole triggered a major investigation that led to the conviction of several members, ultimately contributing to the group’s collapse. The Black Legion’s actions in Michigan remain a stark reminder of the destructive impact of extremist ideologies and hate-driven violence on communities.
This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. It was called the Black Legion, a Midwestern offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. It demonstrated an even greater propensity for violence.
During the:
merica. It was founded in the:
Most Black Legion members were poorly educated Anglo Saxon males, many of whom had moved to Michigan from the Deep south to find factory work. In its nighttime initiation rites, members had to pledge loyalty to the organization and to keep its secrets under penalty of death.
ring the Legion's peak years,:
A long list of murders included George Marchuk, the secretary of the auto Workers union in Lincoln park, who was found shot to death in a vacant lot, and John Beileck, an organizer for the American Federation of labor.
In May:
McCrae brought in black Legionnaires for questioning. Trigger man Dayton Dean confessed after learning that Poole had never beaten his wife, and he implicated many other Black Legionnaires.
Dean also revealed a plot to murder Arthur Kingsley, publisher of a community newspaper in Highland park, and a scheme to inject typhoid germs into dairy products circulated through Jewish markets. McCrae won murder convictions for 11 Black Legion members, including Dayton Dean, who eventually died in prison.
More trials sent 37 additional legionnaires to prison. The convictions left the Black Legion in disarray. The Legion's national commander, Virgil Effinger, tried and failed to form a new organization.
Finally, the Black Legion's campaign of terror in Michigan came to an end. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.
