A century ago, the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Southern Oregon

One hundred years ago, members of notorious hate group the Ku Klux Klan staged a series of so-called “night riding” attacks in Southern Oregon. They are the only known attacks of their kind in the state.

On Friday, March 17, 1922, Medford resident J.F. Hale — a white man — was lured from his home, kidnapped, blindfolded and driven to an isolated area along the Rogue River. He later told police that a mob of between 12 and 18 hooded men tied a noose around his neck and hoisted him into the air. When they let him go, they warned him to drop a pending lawsuit against a Klan member and break off his romantic relationships with young women in the area.

The next day, the Medford Mail Tribune ran the headline “J.F. Hale Given Neck Tie Party.”

The Klan had only arrived in Oregon about a year before as part of a nationwide Klan revival. And in Oregon, many of the organization’s main targets were white.

Professor Darrell Millner of Portland State University’s Black Studies program says Oregon’s Klan didn’t focus on Blacks because there weren’t many Black residents in the state. “You couldn’t build a movement against a population that was so small and non-threatening in Oregon.”