View Comments On Labor Day in 1924, nearly 15,000 Ku Klux Klansmen in white robes descended on Lansing. They marched from East Michigan Avenue to Washington Avenue, headed for the state Capitol. A crowd of 50,000 lined the route cheering the Klan floats, banners and hooded members during the massive “State Klonvocation.” Lansing police directed traffic and “members of the Klan aided the officers in keeping the aisle clear for the procession,” according to coverage in the State Journal. “The Avenue was a veritable river of white as far as the eye could see,” the article read. Seven decades later, in late April 1994, the KKK received a very different reception when 27 Klan members rallied on the Capitol steps.