50 years ago in Expo history: The symphony got a boost in sales from the fair

Expo ’74’s beneficial effects apparently extended to Spokane’s cultural institutions, especially the Spokane Symphony.

The symphony had just recorded a wildly successful subscription drive, “surpassing the 5,000 mark for the first time in the orchestra’s 29-year history, and is on the verge of a ticket sellout.”

The Spokesman-Review said this was a tribute to the orchestra itself, but also to “the increased cultural awareness” brought on by Expo.

From 100 years ago: Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans, the “Imperial Wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan, came to Spokane and addressed “nearly a thousand” local klansmen at the Masonic Temple.

Here are a few excerpts from his speech:

About the recent national election: “They told us that we’d be killed off Tuesday. You know, I’m just a little bit intoxicated yet about that landslide.”

About immigration: “We decided to stop the dilution of Americanism, and if you want to stop the dilution of anything, you just put a cork in the bottle so there can’t anything more get in.”

About a new immigration bill: “There was nothing more to debate – the wall is built!”

About immigrants already in the U.S.: “But the knights of the Ku Klux Klan are going to propose that when foreign nations ship their criminals here, and we catch ’em, we’ll ship ’em back where they came from!”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1960: U.S. Marshalls escort four 6-year-old Black girls to previously all-white public schools in New Orleans in response to death threats against the girls and race riots.