When you’re a child, a hundred years ago seems like ancient history. But it’s not really so long. It’s the lifespan of a very-old person. Around 825 people in Colorado were alive then. If you’re an adult, you’ve almost certainly met people who had memories of that era. My grandfather was born in 1920, and I knew his mother.
A hundred years ago, the big Colorado news was that, by a wide margin, voters elected Republican Clarence Morley, a stooge of the Ku Klux Klan, as governor. To this day Morley’s portrait hangs in the halls of the state capitol, and you can read more about him in the dome. History Colorado has details.
Some newspapers normalized the KKK
Here is the sort of news you could expect to read. On January 25, 1925, shortly after Morley assumed office, the Rocky Mountain News published an article reporting Morley’s “appointment of Dr. John Galen Locke, grand dragon of the Colorado realm of the Ku Klux Klan, as a colonel in the medical corps of the Colorado National guard, in which he will serve as aid-de-camp to the governor’s staff and as recruiting and publicity officer for the guard.”
What may amaze modern readers is how normalized this all was. A couple weeks earlier, on January 14, the Rocky, in its lead article for the issue, reported, “Morley, as his first act on taking office as Colorado’s chief executive, . . . opened fire on waste, duplication and inefficiency in the conduct of the state government.” The paper describes Morley’s “inaugural address, which followed an impressive ceremony before 10,000 spectators in the municipal Auditorium.”
On Page 2, the News has a story about a talk that Morley gave to the Cosmopolitan Club. Without mentioning Locke’s leadership of the KKK, the paper reports that “Locke, toastmaster, declared that Colorado may face the incoming administration with faith that Governor Morley will give to the performance of his duties the best that is in him, and that his tenure of office will pass into history as the best the state has ever known.”
“Morley opens war on waste,” the paper continues in a subhead on Page 3. Morley announced support for “amendment of the state primary law to prevent supporters of one political party from nominating the ticket of their opponents,” the paper summarizes, an issue we’re still debating today. In line with the KKK’s anti-Catholic stance, Morley said “an abuse in the granting of permits for intoxicating liquor for sacramental purposes . . . should be stopped,” the paper paraphrases.
“Rigid alien exclusion laws . . . will become a necessity in the next few years,” Morley said (with the paper paraphrasing), in line with the KKK’s anti-immigrant stance. Morley said he opposed “creation of the office of public defender,” the News reports. And Morley announced he wanted to eliminate several state boards, including the state board of health.
Morley was serious about his anti-immigrant efforts. A few weeks earlier, on December 4, 2024, the News ran an Associated Press article reporting that “Morley . . . will urge the Colorado legislature . . . to enact a law similar to the anti-alien land act of California. . . . Hundreds of Japanese are coming into Colorado, he said, and large colonies already have been established within the last year.”
KKK newspaper praised Morley
It’s not like Morley showed up at political events wearing a white hood. He kept his Klan membership somewhat discreet. But the link was well-known, if often swept under a rug.
Some people might be surprised that Colorado had a KKK newspaper back then, the Rocky Mountain American, published from 1033 Walnut Street in Boulder to promote “staunch Protestant Americanism without fear or favor,” “America First,” and “Christian manhood.” No one should be surprised that the KKK paper wrote glowingly of Morley.
The KKK paper, for example, declared in a May 1, 1925, article that “Morley will make good—he is a man of character, executive ability and above all is honest and sincere in his desire to give Colorado the best that is in him.” The paper characterizes Morley’s political opponents as “poisonous vipers who promoted everything un-American, up to near treason.”
Black newspapers took different stances on Morley
Nor will modern readers be surprised to learn that the Denver Star, a black newspaper, railed against Morley (using language common of the day but harsh to modern ears). Under the head, “Klan or No Klan” from September 20, 1924, the Star opined that the black “man [is the one] farthest down, struggling and looking up as he strives amid confusion of prejudice and color hate from all of the white groups.” The paper continues, “The Klan has been attempting to put the Jew and Catholic in our class,” and those “who have hitherto forgotten the Negro and things done to him in times past, are now [asking] for our help in this state Klan fight.”
The Star continues, “The Negro in this state Klan issue, when one man represents the Klan and boasts of its intentions of control of the government as against another who does not, when the issue is Klan or no Klan—of course, every Negro should rally against the Klan. That means that Negroes must oppose Clarence J. Morley for some other candidate, either in the primary or at the election.”
But remember that the Republican Party was the Party of Lincoln, the party that set America on the path to abolishing slavery. So black voters tended in this era to remain highly loyal to the Republican Party.
Still, it probably will surprise most people today to learn that another black newspaper from Denver, the Colorado Statesman (not to be confused with the more recent paper by that name), wrote approvingly of Morley. Why? Then, as now, largely it was the economy, stupid.
Here is how the Statesman greeted Morley in a January 17, 2025, article: “It is now Governor Clarence J. Morley! The new state executive was inducted into office . . . with most impressive services. His inaugural address, read in a clear tone, was accorded unusual attention, and he had something of interest to say. Of course the burden of the theme was ECONOMY.”
The paper continues, “The whole nation is groaning under a heavy load of taxation and welcomes with open arms any suggestions for reform or relief. Governor Morley was prolific in his recommendations to the assembled legislators. Certainly it may be readily agreed that Colorado . . . has a great multiplicity of useless laws upon its statute books. That many of these can be repealed without any impairment of efficiency whatsoever, goes without argument. There is every possibility, also, that there are many duplications and overlappings in boards and commissions sufficiently flagrant as to justify the governor’s demand for a general abolition.”
The Statesman notes that politicians often promise big but deliver little. But the paper is optimistic about Morley: “He has made a splendid record in public life and has, on more occasions than one, demonstrated a courageousness and independence of action highly necessary to the successful conduct of official duty.” The paper closes, “We offer to the new administration the fullness of our support at all times, in its righteous effort to build for a greater and better Colorado.”
And so it was that, for a time, one of Colorado’s black newspapers joined with Colorado’s KKK newspaper in praising Republican Morley, a KKK plant who often deferred to Grand Dragon Locke. As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows.
Later writers condemned Morley
The Statesman’s view changed over time. In a September 26, 1941, column, Earl W. Mann, who soon would be elected as a Republican to the legislature, writes of the KKK, “Do we want to make that same ghastly mistake again? It can be repeated, easily. Unless we set ourselves and guard against it—applying constant vigilance—we will once more be running the high and dangerous fever which accompanies an orgy of racial intolerance.”
Mann continues, “Know nothings and the Ku Kluxers thrive only in times of strain. They are the by-products of war and trouble. They finally come to full flower in secrecy and hate. . . . They run their courses like wildfire and then die down as suddenly, with an afterglow of shame for all concerned. . . .
“We can best visualize the dangers by recalling what happened in our own generation—the blind fury of the Klan in the early ’20s; the nightshirts and the masks, the flaming crosses, and the kleagles, the seizure, in Colorado, of a large measure of Governmental control, including the rape of the judiciary by Dr. John Galen Locke and the installation of a puppet governor and a puppet U.S. Senator [Rice W. Means]. . . .
“We can remember Dr. Locke, Mr. Means and Clarence J. Morley formed the triumvirate of intolerance—the kidnappings and tarring and featherings by night, the politicians cowering before the dragons by day, the bribery and corruption, all in the name of ‘pure Americanism,’ and the ‘fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.’”
As for Morley, I’ll let Wikipedia close us out: “In 1935, Morley was arrested on charges from mail fraud; he was convicted for 21 counts of mail fraud and using political influences to defraud customers. Sentenced to five years in Leavenworth Prison, he died three years after being released. He is buried in Denver at Fairmount Cemetery.”
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.
