Thank you SO much for mentioning that point! I could have written this entire piece about the anti-Catholicism the KKK fostered in the Midwest. And everything you said rings absolutely true to me.

My mother was born in Peoria in 1926 to white Protestant parents and often spoke of the anti-Catholicism she saw there. I could never understand where that came from, and after reading Egan's book, I'm sure the Klan had a lot to do with it, because it was in its virulent ascendancy then.

I'll add only that besides the anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiments your parents faced, they probably saw a lot of prejudice against immigrants in general, who were tarred with the brush of being called "greenhorns" no matter where they came from. They had a much tougher than most of us knew.