Category: Commentary/Editorial, History || By

In 1926, a struggling evangelist named Dr. Bob Jones was trying to get a national ministry off the ground. A group of prominent Protestant businessmen from McKeesport read of his plight and invited him to lead a month-long crusade in the city.

Just after New Year's Day, 1927, a revival tent was erected on the football field at McKeesport Technical High School at the corner of Cornell and Spring streets, and the Daily News led a loud and boisterous publicity campaign, devoting several pages every night to Jones' sermons.

Thousands flocked up the hill to Tech High to hear Rev. Jones speak. One night, a school board meeting had to be canceled for lack of a quorum; most of the school directors were at the revival tent.

. . .

On Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16, according to the Daily News, "interest and enthusiasm was keyed to fever heat by the presence of no less than 3,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan from McKeesport, Duquesne, Clairton, Swissvale, Homestead, Elizabeth and Irwin."

The Klansmen brought with them a wooden cross illuminated by "a clever electric arrangement (that) caused flames to shoot from the cross during the entire service," according to the News.

Rev. Jones "welcomed the Klansmen" by saying that they had been misrepresented by propaganda. "He declared that he had always noticed that in every fight, it seemed that the Klansmen were fighting on the right side," the Daily News reported. "You might have some things that don't suit my taste, but I've found that in most cases, you're the finest bunch I've ever met."

(Following the revival, John Sephus Mack, president of G.C. Murphy Co., promised to do whatever was necessary to help Rev. Jones launch a bible college. Bob Jones University to this day has a library named for Seph Mack.)

. . .

It happened 81 years ago, and a lot has changed since then. None of this suggests that the Mon Valley or Western Pennsylvania are inherently racist.

Nor am I suggesting that Bob Jones University is racist. (I should also note that the university was very helpful when I was working on the G.C. Murphy book.)

But 81 years isn't that long ago in terms of Western Pennsylvania, which is home to some of the oldest areas, demographically, in the United States.

. . .

You wouldn't have to look very hard in Olympia Shopping Center to find people alive when the Klan openly marched in the streets in Western Pennsylvania. You also wouldn't have to look very hard to find people who remember when blacks weren't served in certain restaurants in McKeesport.

And you really wouldn't have to look hard to find people who still sling around racial slurs. (D.J. Coffman has been all over this issue.)

. . .

Racism is deeply ingrained in this area. Someone would have to be pretty thick to be outraged over John Murtha's comments last week to the Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review.

Luckily, there's no shortage of thick-headed radio talk-show hosts, bloggers, and other cranks who spend all of their time getting outraged over something or other.

No, supporting John McCain doesn't make you a racist, and supporting Barack Obama doesn't make you a snob. Both Democrats and Republicans could stand to tone down the rhetoric: Obama could lose the election for a lot of reasons besides racism.

But instead of working up a lot of fake outrage over Murtha's comments, we all need to step back and look at ourselves.

. . .

Take a ride through North Huntingdon or Sewickley townships and count the number of Confederate battle flags flying from houses, or decorating trucks and cars.

Down South, they say the "stars and bars" are a symbol of heritage. Maybe that's true if you had a great-grandfather who fought in the Confederate army, but I'm pretty sure Westmoreland County never seceded from the union.

Heck, it wasn't too long ago when a local police department got in trouble for having a stars-and-bars sticker on the back of one its patrol cars. The police chief said he sure didn't authorize it, and it's entirely possible someone stuck the sticker on there as a prank.

But there's only one reason you fly the Confederate flag up north, and it isn't because you're a "Dukes of Hazzard" fan.

. . .

Murtha's a lot of things, good and bad, but he didn't create the reality. He's just callin' it as he sees it.

Whether we like it or not, this dirty old shoe fits us.

We do have a choice as to whether we want to keep wearing it.