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Did the media inform you that 20,000 Klu Klux Klan members marched in support of their pro-KKK candidate at the Democrat’s Madison Sauare Garden National Convention? Probably not. The politico article I’m referencing, for example, was written in 2016, prior to the recent attack line which stipulates that political rallies held at MSG means Republicans are commemorating Nazis. The 1924 Democratic National Convention held at Madison Square Garden was a fight between the KKK’s candidate (William Gibbs McAdoo of California, a progressive whose father-in-law was President Woodrow Wilson) and Al Smith (the non-KKK candidate of New York). Demonstrators chanted “Mac! Mac! McAdoo” countered by Smith’s supporters who cried out, “Ku, Ku, McAdoo,” as Robert K. Murray wrote in his 1976 book The 103rd Ballot.“On Independence Day, the 10th day of the convention, 20,000 Klansmen amassed across the Hudson River in New Jersey to burn crosses and punish effigies of Smith.” H.L. Mencken, who covered the convention for the Baltimore Evening Sun, wrote, “There may not be enough kluxers in the convention to nominate McAdoo, but there are probably enough to beat any anti-klan candidate so far heard of, and they are all on their tiptoes today, their hands clutching their artillery nervously and their eyes apop for dynamite bombs and Jesuit spies.”Eventually, after 103 ballots, these two factions canceled each other out and a lesser known compromise candidate prevailed, John W. Davis, who went on to lose to Calvin Coolidge (28.8% to 54%). In fact, there’s a long list of additional political rallies occurring at MSG:- Grover Cleveland accepted his 2nd nomination with a speech at Madison Square Garden in 1892. (The convention was held in Chicago, but his acceptance speech was held later, in NY.)- Herbert Hoover addressed a crowd at MSG on October 22, 1928 prior to winning his election. - Herbert Hoover again held a major campaign speech there on Oct. 21, 1932.- FDR campaigned there during his 1936 campaign. - On Oct. 28, 1940, FDR again spoke to his supporters at MSG before winning re-election against Republican nominee Wendell Wilkie.- Days before defeating Republican nominee Thomas Dewey in 1948, President Truman campaigned at MSG.- President Eisenhower came to the Garden in October 1956 to rally his troops to re-elect the Eisenhower/Nixon ticket. - A Democratic Party fundraiser and JFK’s birthday celebration was held there on May 19, 1962 (Featuring Marilyn Monroe’s infamous serenade to the president).- On Oct. 31, 1964, President Johnson addressed fellow Democrats at MSG.- The Garden was also the site of the 1976 & 1980 DNC conventions for Jimmy Carter. - It was the site of the 1992 DNC convention for Bill Clinton.- It was the site of the 2004 RNC convention for George W. Bush.Strangely, it was only in 2024, upon learning that Donald Trump would campaign at MSG, when the news industry collectively “forgot” about these other examples, remembering only the one time when a failed Nazi movement held a rally there in 1939.________________________Sources:https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/1924-the-craziest-convention-in-us-history-213708/https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-madison-square-garden-iconic-venue-has-played-host-many-campaign-gatherings-near-election-day.amphttps://time.com/7099093/trump-rally-madison-square-garden-follows-long-tradition-in-politics/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/grover-cleveland-second-term-event-timelinehttps://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/october-21-1932-campaign-speech-madison-square-gardenThe Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition, Authored by Linda GordonADDENDUM: There is a popular photo of a KKK march from 1924 circulating (often referred to as the Klanbake), but it’s actually NOT from this particular story. That particular photo was from a separate incident in Wisconsin where the KKK held a parade for the funeral of a police officer. Please do not de-legitimize the truth of the above post by accidentally conflating it with that photo, as it gives critics of this true story a false claim of “debunking.” https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM1902