Much as I applaud much of Bashir Mohamed's research on and publicity of the Black experience in Edmonton I think he's wrong to think that Knott was affiliated with or supported the KKK during his time in office.
Bashir's opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal (June 5, 2020) states:
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In 1931, at the height of the Klan’s power, the Klan’s leader J.J. Maloney wanted Daniel Knott to be mayor of Edmonton. He won. On election night, the Klan burned a cross on Connors Hill to celebrate. Once in office, the Klan would request cross burnings and Knott would approve them on the condition that “no smoking would be allowed.”
Knott’s portrait is one step outside the mayor’s office and a school is named after him. The school’s logo is a fire-breathing dragon. The Klan only lost their legal status in Alberta in 2003.
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But one shouldn't blame Dan Knott for the KKK having legal status in Alberta. That is originally the fault of the provincial government of John Brownlee of the UFA, and carried on by the Social Credit and Conservative governments to 2003. It was a provincial matter and not up to Knott.
But now the Dan Knott school is to be re-named.
Due to student objection to the name based perhaps on Bashir's scholarship, the Edmonton Public School Board has voted to rename it.
Edmonton Journal (Sept. 9, 2020) article states:
Dan Knott, a former Edmonton mayor who served in office between 1931-33, was affiliated with and supported the KKK during his time in office. Alberta Klan imperial wizard J.J. Maloney actively campaigned for Knott and when he won the 1931 election, Maloney burned a cross on Connors Hill in celebration. Dan Knott School, a junior high in the city’s southeast, is currently named after the former mayor.
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But just because the KKK claimed him as their friend, that it celebrated his victory by burning a cross on Scona Road - does not mean that Knott supported the KKK. Allowing the KKK to hold rallies and burn a cross at the exhibition ground was the politic thing to do when thousands were attending KKK rallies. It would have taken a more forceful character than Knott to oppose such - at the time unfortunately - popular things.
Although he did not ban the KKK meetings, which was also the shortcoming of Mayor James Douglas I have seen no evidence that Knott spoke at any of these rallies, nor that he even attended one.
The KKK at that time - heinous in their utterings and despicable, criminal and violent in their acts - was not - at that time in this place - mostly targeting blacks but instead Catholics. That was likely why it applauded Knott's victory over James Douglas, a former Liberal MP. The Liberal Party was known as the party of the French and Catholics while the Conservative Party was known as the party of Protestants and English-speakers.
However, Dan Knott was not that great. Although of the Labour Party, as mayor he allowed (or ordered) city police and Mounties, mounted on horseback and armed with truncheons, to break up a peaceful protest march in 1932, the famous Hunger March, where the unemployed joined with struggling farmers to demand better treatment - things that we now mostly have such as unemployment assistance, public health care, and comprehensive pensions.
Margaret Crang
If we are looking at another name for Dan Knott School, I think we should honour a woman.
And I would suggest it should be one of the first women to serve on city council, Margaret Crang. Still the youngest ever elected to city council, the first Edmonton-born person on council, a pro-worker and farmer representative, she was re-elected with the most votes when elected to her second term on council in 1935.
Margaret Crang with others successfully defended the right of a black nursing student to attend the city's public hospital over objections of other members of the hospital board. These racist members, being male and white, likely have schools named after them, while there is little to memorialize her. Many years later she recalled this victory over racism as one of the high points of her time on the council. I write of this in my book Protest and Progress Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton (p. 185).
I know that Bashir knows of and applauds Margaret Crang's stand in this case, so such a name may meet with his approval.
Thanks for reading.
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Postscript:
I would've been nice if the name Margarate Carang had been put on the school, if in fact it had to change its name.
but we see:
as of the 2022-2023 school year, the school has a new name kisewatisiwin.
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