Bernard Bush Collection on The Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey

Assembled documentation pertaining to the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey and related background materials. Present are geographical files relating to the Klan in New Jersey, all of its counties and many of its municipalities; files on Klan and pro-Klan organizations, leaders and publications in relation to New Jersey; files concerning the New Jersey Klan in relation to special subjects (such as immigration, Prohibition, elections and Protestant churches); files on target groups (Catholics, Jews and African Americans) and their reactions to the New Jersey Klan; files on Nazism/fascism and race theory/eugenics in relation to the New Jersey Klan; copies of relevant Pennsylvania State Police records (relating to the Klan's Realm of New Jersey); oral history interviews; photographs (four folders of copies); additional contextual materials; and supplementary files primarily related to assembling the collection.

The materials in the files, which include citations, typically consist of one or more contemporary press clippings from a New Jersey or New York City newspaper reporting on Klan activity or mentioning the Klan in an editorial. Sometimes other materials are present in a folder, such as: excerpts from published histories (county, local or institutional) or other monographs; excerpts from contemporary Klan publications or later historical society journals or newsletters; printed versions of web pages; notes derived from published sources; unpublished essays (e.g., student papers); copies of contemporary personal papers or organizational records; or e-mails or other correspondence exchanged with librarians, archivists or other persons (e.g., concerning relevant insights, potential research material or memories of a Klan event).

New Jersey cities represented in the geographical files by at least seven folders each are Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson. Two places included that are not a county or municipality are the property of the Burlington County Progressive League in present-day Mount Holly Township (represented by one thick folder) and the property of the Monmouth Pleasure Club Association (near Belmar) in Wall Township, Monmouth County (represented by six folders).

Serial publications in the collection include the Special Bulletin of the New Jersey Grand Dragon, 1916-1918 with gaps, and The Good Citizen (Zarephath, N.J.), 1921 and 1926 with gaps. Among the persons represented are Edward James Smythe (of the German American Bund) and Alma White (of the Pillar of Fire). The lone videotape included is a copy of newsreel footage relating to a 1940 rally (the joint rally of the German American Bund and the KKK at the Bund's Camp Nordland in Andover Township, Sussex County).

The circa twelve oral histories that were conducted by Bush are represented by transcripts, by signed agreements and by related correspondence. Several of the persons interviewed, and/or their parents, were of the Catholic faith. Among the persons interviewed: Clarence Still (concerning an incident in Lawnside, Camden County) and John T. Cunningham (primarily concerning an incident in Brookside, Mendham Township, Morris County).