YOUNGSTOWN — Listening to Dr. Martha Pallante’s speech, “Riot! 1924 Opposition to the KKK in Niles, Ohio,” on Friday at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (commonly known as the Steel Museum), it was obvious that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As she discussed Italian immigrants of the Mahoning Valley who worked and blended into American society at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, and the consequences they faced from the resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan, it was eerily similar to the hot button issue of today involving those who come to the United States from Latin American countries.

During his introduction of Pallante, Jonathan Cambouris, administrator of the Steel Museum, pointed out her “crucial role” for the museum’s alignment with Youngstown State University’s history program and her “commitment” to preserving the area’s labor and industrial history.

With no notes to guide her, Pallante quickly displayed a deep knowledge of the Italian immigrant experience in the area and how these new settlers in America had to fight back in order to establish a lasting presence.

Previously, she wrote about the Nov. 1, 1924, episode for the Ohio History Connection monthly magazine, “Echoes,” in a piece titled, “I Wish I’d Been There.”

“This is a story about resistance not being futile for those of you who are ‘Star Trek’ and Borg fans,” she said. “This is really a David and Goliath story.”

Pallante admitted that she’s been fascinated with this incident since her childhood in Niles. Discovering that she had family on both sides of the battle lines between Italians and the klan reinforced that interest.

The KKK appealed to her mother’s side — Pietistic Finnish Lutherans — because of its support of alcohol prohibition.

“This is a very, very popular organization. They recruited some immigrants that they found more acceptable,” Pallante said.

Her father’s side were Italians.

“At YSU, we have collected maybe 2,500 oral history interviews and 100 to 150 are from Italian-Americans and approaching immigration here in a variety of ways. Some of them deal specifically with the klan riots,” she said. “One of the things that came out of those interviews was that people took the criticism (of being un-American) very, very seriously and didn’t feel that it was entitled,” Pallante said.

She noted that following the Civil War, the KKK’s vigilante actions were replaced by Jim Crow laws that organized racist practices. By the 1890s, the klan faded, but not entirely. In the early 1900s, in conjunction with an isolationist approach prior to World War I, the group developed a resurgence.

“They started to look at those amongst their own populations who were different. Their first targets, particularly in the south with this new klan, were, once again, African-Americans. On the west coast, the Chinese, Japanese and Mexican migrants.

“In the Midwest, the targets tended to be more recent immigrants, what we generally call second wave immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, particularly those of what they often classified as ‘deviant faiths’ — Roman Catholics, Orthodox Catholics and Eastern European Jews in particular. They were considered non-Christians.”

Pallante added, “Anybody who joined the klan signed an oath. It said that they were there to preserve the power and prestige of white Protestant native-born Americans.”

Immigrant populations that coexisted with black ones in metropolitan areas such as Chicago didn’t attract klan activities. Instead, the organization took hold in areas of Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, southern Illinois, Ohio and West Virginia.

“Anywhere that immigrants existed in large numbers, the avowed purpose of the klan was to keep foreigners in their proper places, which meant subservient, to limit their access to suffrage. Some of these things actually get codified into law.” Pallante said.

She brought up unattainable demands that would end up preventing these new immigrants from voting.

Italians settled in Youngstown (Brier Hill and Smokey Hollow neighborhoods), Niles (migrants from Campania, Abruzzo and Calabria areas of Italy), Lowellville and Girard. They worked in factories and brought up families that connected the cities.

“By the 1920s, those first immigrants are actually in their 40s, 50s, 60s. They do, however, have children that are adults, technically native-born Americans or naturalized as children, who see themselves as slightly different than their parents. They aren’t Italian immigrants who became American citizens. They’re American citizens who come from an Italian background, and that difference is profound.

“They’re basically saying, ‘It’s not us who’s un-American. Being Catholic, being Italian does not make us un-American. We vote. We pay taxes. We go to war for the United States when we’re asked to. We are good citizens. It’s actually the klan that’s un-American. They seek to deprive natural born citizens and those that have been naturalized of their true American rights.’ This message is resonating throughout the area,” Pallante said.

With a population of nearly 16,000, 25% of Niles residents were Italian or native born Italian-American offspring.

“It’s the latter group that’s the largest,” she said.

Despite several klan parades through Niles over the summer that were met with some resistance, the KKK received a parade permit for Nov. 1, 1924, from klan-backed Mayor Harvey Kistler that would allow thousands to march through downtown and other parts of the city.

Rumors spread that Niles Catholic churches — Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Stephen — would be targeted by the group and that the Humility of Mary nuns would be raped.

Despite activities prior to the November parade that served as warning signs of impending violence — Ohio’s governor wouldn’t deploy the National Guard to protect the klan, downtown merchants requesting the permit be denied, an open community meeting that’s against the parade, the Niles mayor’s porch was struck by a pipe bomb — Kistler held firm with his decision, even ignoring a secret council meeting that voted against the klan visit.

Clashes took place in several areas of Niles on that November day; the largest occurred at the intersection of North Main Street and West Federal Avenue. Here, the KKK was stopped from crossing the Erie Railroad tracks.

Referring to one of the YSU oral history interviews, Pallante mentioned Grace, who described her parents being afraid of getting involved but because of how close their house was to downtown, they left her in charge of her siblings and they went to support the resistance.

Hours later, they returned.

“Grace said they looked really disheveled. Some of her dad’s clothing was torn. But the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘We won.’

“Her mother’s response was much more personal. She said, ‘I walked up to this guy in his hood, and he was yelling at me. So, I tore his hood off.’ She said, ‘It’s our grocer! We just stared at each other and didn’t know what to do.'” That was a very telling description of the whole day.

“A number of years later when I was talking to my father about the event. I said, ‘Can you explain it? Can you tell me why this happened?’ His response was, ‘We were different. We were strangers. And to them, we were in a strange land, but we’re Americans.'”