The first Klan recruiters were dispatched to Oregon from KKK headquarters in Atlanta in early 1921, paid by commission to enlist white, Protestant, native-born men as dues-paying members. The following year, the Klan toppled an incumbent governor and replaced him with a Klan sympathizer. But its bigger plum in that November 1922 election was passage of a ballot initiative that aimed to shut down Catholic schools.
In the 1922 elections, Klan members and sympathizers gained control of the Multnomah County Commission and Oregon House of Representatives. They helped defeat an incumbent governor and replace him with a Klan sympathizer and provided the muscle to pass a state ballot initiative aimed at banning Catholic schools.