Madera’s principal stood up to the Klan

From the Author’s Collection

In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a revival and made its presence felt in communities all over the country. This group, shown here in Lakeland, Florida in the 1970s, was typical of the marches conducted by the robed and masked bigots. Madera was not immune from the contagion that infected the nation as today’s Coate Tales shows.

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Any look at Madera during the Roaring Twenties will include politics, prohibition and prostitution. Women won the right to vote; moonshine flowed freely, and prostitution, recently outlawed, flourished, especially on the west side of the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.

It was, indeed, a roaring time. But there is another piece of our past that recent research has brought to light.

In addition to bad booze, bigotry in bedsheets raised its ugly head and tried to reach its hands into Madera High School.