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The era the Ku Klux Klan controlled Colorado politics

Steve Staeger, 9News

The decision by a Denver neighborhood to strip the name of a former Denver mayor tied to the Ku Klux Klan is a reminder of the power the KKK had in Colorado for a short period less than a century ago.

Mayor Benjamin Stapleton, a member of the Klan, was elected largely because of the influence of that organization in the early 1920s.

“They had really dominated state government, city government,” said Brian Trembath, a researcher for the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection.



“They were operating more or less openly and they weren’t quite the lynching, night riding Klan we think of, but they were every bit as hateful,” Trembath said.

Trembath said the organization wasn’t in the shadows then as it is today.

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