Oscar Haywood

Oscar Haywood (January 6, 1868 – December 8, 1943) was an American Baptist preacher, orator, and politician from North Carolina. He was a pastor at Baptist churches in Tennessee, Connecticut, and New York City and then travelled widely giving speeches advocating for the Ku Klux Klan.[1] He was also a book collector and had first editions and correspondence with various influential people in his collection at the Haywood Plantation house.

Not long after his return to North Carolina, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1927 as a Democrat.[2] Despite being a supporter and advocate for the Ku Klux Klan he sponsored legislation in the North Carolina House of Representatives placing restrictions on secret groups.[3] Haywood also sponsored legislation to prohibit "sexual immorality" but it failed after being debated.[4]

Biography

Haywood was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina to Harrietta Baldwin and William Haywood. He had a brother, J.B. Haywood, who lived in Savannah, Georgia.[3] Haywood graduated from Wake Forest College. He received honorary degrees from several Baptist colleges and universities[3] and was known as Dr. Oscar Haywood.

He supported racial segregation and the Ku Klux Klan, and advocated the view that the political leaders of the Northern states abused white Southerners during the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War. In the wake of controversy over Thomas F. Dixon Jr.'s The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, he offered to debate Dixon. Howard was a Klokard of the Klan.[5] In March 1923 he spoke at a Sayville church, advocating for the Klan.[6]

Haywood was attacked by angry Catholics and Jews in Perth Amboy on June 4, 1923,[7] after he was met by protesters outraged by his preaching at a Klan rally. He reportedly said that Jews and Catholics were "unworthy of American nationality." The confrontation made national headlines.[8][9] He gave the Mt. Hermon Memorial Association annual address in 1929.[10]

Plantation house

His neoclassical plantation house is located on Thickety Creek Road in Mount Gilead. The Haywood Plantation House features a stained glass window with Haywood's initials O.H. incorporated into the design.

Personal life and burial

Haywood married Marion Plesants.[11] After becoming a widower he married Mary Eaddy.[3] He is buried in the Sharon Cemetery in Mount Gilead.

See also

References
  1. "A Southern orator: Oscar Haywood :: Traveling Culture - Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century". Digital.lib.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. "Haywood, Oscar" (PDF). Wakespace.lib.wfu.edu. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  3. Chalmers, David Mark (25 January 1987). Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. Duke University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0822307723. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Internet Archive. oscar haywood ku klux.
  4. Gatewood, Willard B. (1 June 2012). Preachers, Pedagogues, and Politicians: The Evolution Controversy in North Carolina, 1920-1927. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9780807873717. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Google Books.
  5. "KLOKARD HAYWOOD HERE TO AID KU KLUX: Issues Challenge to Author of 'The Clansman' to Meet Him in Public Debate. PLANS PUBLIC ADDRESSES Pastor Calls Men Rouge Outrages a Plot -- Says Disclosures Would Shake the World". The New York Times. February 5, 1923. ProQuest 103217416.
  6. "Big meeting Here Last Night" (PDF). Nyshistoricnewspapers.org. Retrieved 25 January 2019. Orator Received a Respectful Hearing and at Times His Points Were Loudly Applauded — No Masks Nor Gowns in Evidence
  7. Newton, Michael (21 December 2009). The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History. McFarland. ISBN 9780786457045. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Google Books.
  8. "History lessons: The KKK met its match in Central Jersey". Mycentraljersey.com. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  9. Perth Amboy Mob in Anti-Klan Riot; Scores are Beaten, Aug. 31, 1923 New York Times
  10. "Burlington Daily Times Archives, May 15, 1929, p. 10". Newspaperarchive.com. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  11. "Read the eBook North Carolina manual [serial] (Volume 1927) by North Carolina. Secretary of State online for free (page 43 of 45)". Ebooksread.com. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
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