Oklahoma Grand Dragon N.C. Jewett Arrested, Sept. 22, 1923

Leader of Klansmen in Oklahoma Under Arrest. . . Grand Dragon Jewett Charged with Rioting After Military Court Made a Full Investigation. . . Legislature Is Not to Meet. . . Governor Walton Says 50 Members Are Klansmen and Session Would Only be a Klan Meeting

By the Associated Press

Oklahoma City, Okla., Sept. 22—The net spread by Governor J.C. Walton for alleged participants in mob violence has enmeshed Grand Dragon N.C. Jewett, the highest officer of the Ku Klux in Oklahoma, under the executive’s proclamation of state-wide martial law, Jewett was arrested here last night by the civil authorities, in connection with the beating of E.R. Merriman of Oklahoma City on the night of March 7th, 1922. He pleaded not guilty to a formal charge of riot, and was released on a $1,000 bond.

Charging that 58 members of the lower house of the Oklahoma legislature are member of the Ku Klux Klan, Governor Walton declared last night that the proposed session of the House of Representatives which has been called to consider impeachment proceedings would not meet until next Wednesday, because any such attempt would constitute an unlawful assembly of the Klan under his proclamation of martial law. He has threatened to imprison any member of the legislature who attempts to attend the extraordinary session.

“But the Klan is whipped,” the Governor said, at “field headquarters” in the executive mansion where he has been confined for the last week with a severe cold.

One hundred eighteen cases of mob violence have been considered by the military court at Tulsa since martial law was invoked there on August 14th, officers of the court announced. A number of men, several of whom have admitted membership in the Klan, have been arrested as a result of the court’s findings.

A joint commission of military and civil authorities ended its first day’s session at Shawnee yesterday by ordering the arrest of three men for alleged participation in the flogging of a man there June, 1922.

May Close the State Fair

Oklahoma City, Sept. 22—A threat to close the Oklahoma State Fair and place Oklahoma under more rigid enforcement of martial law unless members of the state legislature abandon their plans to meet in extraordinary session next Wednesday, was voiced today by Governor J.C. Walton.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Sept. 22, 1923. When the state house of representatives did meet Oct. 11, it voted to impeach Gov. Walton, who was suspended from office the next day. On Nov. 19, 1923, Walton was convicted the removed from office. Background—Walton was elected governor in the shadow of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when whites raged through black neighborhoods, beating and killing. Some 10,000 were left homeless and officially 36 had been killed. The violence continued, and Gov. Walton tried to crack down on the Klan by declaring martial law.