Part I 1925-37 The Black Legion

The Black Legion was a clandestine, violent, far-right vigilante organization active primarily in the Midwest—especially Detroit—during the 1920s and 1930s. Emerging as an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, the group embraced a darker, more openly paramilitary structure. Members wore black robes, took blood-oath initiation rituals, and organized themselves around fantasies of authoritarian rule, racial purity, and “Americanism.”