Lilly, Pennsylvania: KKK Kicked Out Monument

Bronze plaque on a brick pedestal shows 15 hooded Klansmen armed with torches, while two joined hands block their advance. Commemorates the day in 1924 that the people of Lilly kicked out the Klan.

Address:: 499 Railroad St., Lilly, PA
Directions:: Downtown, at the corner of Railroad St./Hwy 53 and Cleveland St.
RA Rates:: Worth a Detour

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Klansmen are not welcome.

Ku Klux Klan Riot Monument

Driving from Pittsburgh to Williamsport, I decided to stop and see if the Ku Klux Klan Riot monument listed on RoadsideAmerica.com existed. It indeed does. Follow the only road into town and turn right towards the railway tracks first chance you get. In case the plaque can not be read, in its entirety it reads:

"KU KLUX KLAN RIOT - April 5, 1924. Lilly was targeted for a massive Ku Klux Klan demonstration because local coal mines had hired Catholic immigrants and fired Klan members. Four hundred hooded Klansmen arrived by train early on this April evening and paraded to Piper's Hill where they burned two crosses and exploded multiple dynamite charges to intimidate the locals.

But the townspeople were not cowed! During the parade back to the trains, the Klansmen were jeered, pelted, roughed-up and hosed down. Gunfire broke out and lasted for several minutes. The Klansmen then fled in disarray to the trains, leaving Lilly residents Philip Conrad, Cloyd Paul and Frank Miesko to die from gunshot wounds.

LILLY'S RESISTANCE TO THE KLAN'S DEMONSTRATION PROVED TO BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE KLAN'S ADVANCE IN THE NORTH-EASTERN UNITED STATES"

[Stephen Rzonca, 04/09/2010]