One of SD’s first American Legion State Commanders was WW I veteran Jay Henley Williams USMC of Gettysburg, SD. A 1923 Rapid City Journal newspaper tells his role as the Legion leader in ridding South Dakota of the Ku Klux Klan.

Williams, who abhorred bigotry of all kinds, said, “As I understand the Klan, it is based on the persecution of Jews, Catholics and Negroes. I am neither Catholic nor Jew and I have no Negro blood in my veins. But I grant every man the right to worship God as he chooses. I hold no man his race against him and I grant him the same right to live in this country that the Constitution guarantees. No other organization will be more effective or carry more responsibility than the American Legion in fighting this rising tide.”

Gettysburg’s own lore says that when Williams discovered that a meeting of the Klan was to be held in his home town at the local movie theater, he waited until the meeting had begun, drove his car to the theater and waited for the meeting to end, at which time he shone his car lights on each attendee as he left. Such was his influence in the community that there was never another meeting of the Klan in all of Potter County.

SD State Legion Commander.jpg

State Legion Commander.jpg

Jay H. Williams (1890)