Church to host silent walk against hate on Good Friday
The Light of Christ Ecumenical Catholic community church is putting on a silent walk through downtown Longmont to commemorate Good Friday and shed light on some of the darker parts of the city’s history.
On Friday the inaugural “Silent Walk To End Hate and Exclusion” will stop at six places in Longmont that historically were used as meeting sites by the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was active in Longmont and held rallies and parades in the city in the 1920s, according to newspaper articles from the time.
Although the Light of Christ Ecumenical often facilitates conversations about social and racial justice, this is the first time the church has held this particular event. Pastor Teri Harroun said one of the goals of the walk is to combine education with prayer.
“Maybe there’s an understanding that this was something in our past but not an understanding that the threat of that has continued,” Harroun said, referencing former Klan activity in Longmont. “It just manifests in different ways.”
At 1 p.m., participants will start walking from Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., and will cover a distance of about 1.3 miles. After heading south on Main Street, the route will end at the Empson Cannery at Third Avenue and Martin Street. People of all faiths, as well as nonreligious community members, are welcome.
Church members will speak on the historical significance of each site along the walk, and biblical passages will be read to draw parallels to Jesus’ story. Like traditional walks held on Good Friday, the event also will be a quiet opportunity for participants to reflect and pray.
“It’s not meant to be a quick run — it’s meant to be meditative,” said Helen Majzler, leader of Light of Christ’s Adult Formation committee.
According to Majzler, Roosevelt Park was chosen as the walk’s starting point because Klan members often gave speeches in the venue and gathered there for parades. The portion of the walk along Main Street will highlight how Catholic and Jewish businesses in Longmont’s commercial district were boycotted by the Klan in the 1920s.
Majzler said the church looked at the Klan as a “representative group” for other present-day examples of discrimination and intolerance.
“The amount of bigotry and hatred that we have experienced in this country has suggested that maybe this isn’t new,” Majzler said. “This kind of bigotry has roots in the country that go beyond this year.”
Majzler also said that 2024 seemed especially fitting for this event as an election year.
“We expect even more misinformation, more rhetoric,” Majzler said. “So to kind of prepare ourselves and the rest of our community for what we might be exposed to, we thought this was the year to do that.”
The Longmont Museum has a booklet of Klan rules and regulations for the Longmont branch on display in the permanent gallery. Other than that, no photos or membership lists documenting the group in Longmont remain that the museum is aware of.
“It’s an area, I think, of embarrassment for some families,” said Elizabeth Beaudoin, curator of history at the Longmont Museum. “From the start, (Klan members) were fairly secretive, which probably resulted in there being less records that survived.”
Beaudoin said Friday’s walk could challenge some misconceptions Coloradans might have about the Klan only existing in former slave states, or only targeting African-americans.