The heartland. Race and memory in america. And slinging doughnuts for the boys and American Woman in world war ii. His most recent book is hoosiers, a new history of indiana, which is on display outside. For many years he coedited the Indiana University press series midwestern history and culture, which included a book he edited entitled comparative historys of the midwestern states. Jim says hes very proud, in a modest hoosier way that the midwest Mystery Association bestowed on him the Lifetime Achievement award. I have known jim many years, is since i was a student, his student back at Indiana University and ill testify that he has solid midwestern values, unfailing kindness, decency, unflagging work ethic and solid common sense. Jim represents the best of what it means to be midwestern but hes never roman tied midwestern history. We pride ourselves on being nice, but we dont always live up to that ideal. So today jim will be speaking on a darker side of the midwestern past. Hell be talking about who is an american, the rise and fall of the ku klux klan in the midwest. [applause] thank you all for coming out this morning and listening to a subject that may not be as bright as it is outside but a subject that i think is important. I do want to thank grand valley state university, grace whitney, scott st. Louis, the staff, the leaders of our midwestern history association. Ted france, sarah, john, and many others, who make this organization what its become in five short years and i state that with deep hope and optimism that that trajectory will continue to move upwards in the coming years. I want in a very quick and dirty way for which ill apologize only this once, talk to you about the ku klux klan, convince you the klan story is relevant and important, convince you to incorporate the story or part of the story into the history that you do, whatever form of history you do. Its an old, old story, and yet i want to assert that its a new story. A story that connects to the center of our nations history. This is not a story for the margin, for the side bar. This is a story that goes in the center of our textbook. Our minds and hearts. As we think about the question who is an american. A story that paraded proudly down pennsylvania avenue. Its a story that spans a century of time, from 1920 to recent events in charlottesville, and elsewhere. A story of White Supremacists to be sure but much, much more than White Supremacists. We have advantages today in telling this story that we did not have a generation or two ago. There is new scholarship. Lots of good new scholarship on the klan. Yet, after several weeks of doing a customer sorry investigation of that scholarship in the midwest, i have to also report that there is not nearly enough scholarship for any of the states, the communities, or the region as a whole. There are so many areas of opportunity to plow through the sources and create your own stories about the klan, and i want to convince to you try to do that. Among the advantages that we have, in addition to pretty good foundations of secondary scholarship, are primary sources. The new digitized sources particularly of newspapers, which those of you who do research from primary sources, you know they are a gem. Folks, my generation are owed reparations for having lifted [laughter] bound newspaper volumes and cranking microfilm. I have thousands of hours invested in that as some of you old timers do also. We should get payback. It feels like im cheating when i go to the digitized newspapers, but boy, are they wonderful for a subject like the klan. Heres the one that drove me. Ive been focusing mostly on indiana. Its based in indianapolis, but the fiery cross, leading klan newspaper in the north, publishes widely stories from across the midwest and will be useful to anyone and its completely digitized and searchable. Let me make some key generalizations to park your interest. This is these are the words of elmer davis, a distinguished reporter from new york who came out to indiana, his native birthplace to study the klan in 1924. This is what he concluded. These were marginal people. They were the great unteachables. Now, i want to say after 40 years in the classroom, i want to hope that no one is unteachable. I had a few students who were close to that maybe. [laughter] but were all teachable. I dont agree with davis on that point, this word, but more importantly, most of the midwesterners who joined the klan were not marginal. They were main line, mainstream midwesterners. They were not abnormal. Maybe not even wicked. We now have very good analyses of klan memberships in some locations and there is a project that we desperately need to have more of. The vocation and the analyses of klan membership lists but we have enough now. To have some idea of who these men with their backs turned to the camera, preparing to be initiated, naturalized into the klan, who they were, what kind of people they were in a socioeconomic way at least. So the question is, who joined . The great midwestern novelist tarkington said it was the rank and file of good, honest people who joined the ku klux klan and thats often the case. These are people of the heartland the friendliest people on earth. The nice people. Good methodists, good lawyers. Good merchants. Lions club members. Church women. Proudly joined the klan. This group posing with their masks down because they are very proud members of the womens ku klux klan. Heres one of the greatest challenges in telling this story. It takes a theologian or some other insight toe connect good people. And what we would today describe unanimously as evil. Where was the klan popular . Everywhere. Across this country. Certainly in the south but also in the north. In fact there, were probably in the 1920s more klan members in the north than there were in the south. And it was certainly popular in the midwest. In all the midwestern states, in most communities, in those states, and especially so in ohio, indiana, and illinois. This was the heartland of the klan. Heres their definition of themselves. They were americans. They were 100 americans and thats a wonderful figure to introduce to students and others. What does it mean, 100 american compared to only 99 american . Heres their definition. Characteristic, pure white. They use that again in newspaper speeches, propaganda, pure white race. Native born, militantly protestants and aggressively patriotic. A hundred percent americans in a protestant country, as this minister in des moines told his audience. Militantly protestant. The badge wore on the front of the robe of the klan members. The cross. The red, the drop of blood that christ shed for all. Mainline protestants, methodists, baptists, presbyterians, quakers, who had their churches at real crossroads, in big cities in county courthouse squares where klan members often showed up on a sunday morning, marched to the alter and left the congregation singing on ward christian soldiers. The klan at rallies and parades always displayed the cross. The burning cross, the symbol of the religious belief. The light of their world. The fire of their hearts. And the American Flag, a patriotic flag that flew at all klan events. A religious and patriotic conviction that america was in decline, that there were enemies at the gates, even inside the gates, causing a turning away from that cross and that flag. The klan was brilliant in creating the dichotomy of us and them. Of those people, the others, of defining who the enemy was, and what the enemy was threatening to do. So who is the enemy . The largest most important enemy for the ku klux klan in the midwest were catholics. I want to say that again because thats commonly not understood, and i dont think there is any doubt in the mind of any scholar, certainly in the writing of any scholar on the klan, in the midwestern region, that that is true. The largest enemy in numbers and power and threat were catholics. Many of you will understand this. Many americans today do not understand, have no sense of anticatholicism. Which was deep in the dna of americans from the beginning, down maybe to the 1960 president ial election. A vicious distrust of a Foreign Church led by a foreign pope, goodness gracious, pope didnt even speak english did he . That was engaged in a conspiracy to undermine basic american values. Not just protestantism but there was a lot of focus in klan action on Public Schools and the threats that parochial schools catholics offer to the Public School tradition in america. This anticatholicism is everywhere, even in beautiful new suburbs like oak park outside of chicago, where the women organized a ku klux klan event in order to stop the flow of catholics into their lovely middle class neighborhood. Anticatholicism, catholics, the first enemy. And, of course, immigrants, and these are often the same, catholic immigrants, pouring into america, and this of course, is the tail end of the period of the largest, longest, pour of foreign people into the united states. I think i need not tell you, nativism is deep in the american soul. They must be turned aside. These invaders from across the atlantic. Jews were the enemy. This was an example that comes from dearborn, michigan, henry ford, brilliant innovator, entrepreneur. Notorious antisemite, spreading the word in his newspaper. Africanamericans. Africanamericans were the enemy. Race divided americans in the 1920s. It divided midwesterners in our history from the very beginning down to the present. More than any other line of division in our region. And so africanamericans were certainly the enemy. Maybe not the largest enemy, because there were seem ways to keep black, midwesterners in their place before and after the klan, that there wasnt a whole lot of work for the klan to do with this particular enemy. So these are the enemies. Catholics first. Immigrants, jews, africanamericans, us, the good americans. The 100 americans who are going to redeem america from these enemies. What are the issues . Weve got to stop this horde of immigrants coming into our country. Weve got to close the door to them. And that happened. In one of the most significant pieces of National Legislation ever passed, the National Origins quota act of 1924, which created a quota system that allowed folks from northern and western europe to enter in large numbers, larger numbers than those from southern and eastern europe. The lesser people, the darker people, the more catholic people, the more jewish people, are pretty much turned away by this 1924 legislation. It was a Great Success for the klan. The klan pushed it aggressively, and while many forces contributed to its passage, the klan was among them, and taking credit, imperial wizard, the National Leader of the klan, hiram evans, told an indiana audience that now america has built a stonewall around the nation, so tall, so deep, so strong, that the scum and riffraff of the old world cannot get into our gates. These immigrants, these others were the cause of many problems. I think the largest problem they caused was alcohol. At a time of prohibition. This, too, is a long story. In many midwestern communities. The enforcement of prohibition was the number one policy issue. It had pushed hard by protestants for over since the 1840s at least, in many parts of the midwest. Especially by Protestant Church women, concerned about what they saw as the decline of family life. The growing corruption that came with the sale and manufacture of alcohol. All the more unsettling because it was quite clear that the authorities were not adequately enforcing the law of the land and the law of the states, that some people like this swell crowd, i think this is madison, wisconsin, were mocking prohibition. Not just disobeying the law. Prohibition is the number one issue but there were lots of other signs of moral decline. These flappers, this is something not old but new, in the 1920s. Fueled by booze and new music. It was the music of the jungle, the klan claimed that they were dancing to and listening to, and, of course, back seat sex, the arrival of the auto mobile across the midwest changed lives in so many ways. Including new opportunities for new sins, or old sins in new garb. I love this broadside from the klan in lincoln, nebraska, listing all the problems and challenges, you cant read all the details there but you can find this and many of the images i am presenting this morning, particularly on the sights of our wonderful state and local Historical Society. You know them all but we need to shout out our enthusiasm and gratitude to the midwestern state historical societies, from wisconsin to ohio, to nebraska, to iowa, and all the others. Who have, for generations, been gathering the primary sources and now wonderfully digitizing their collection so that anyoneo that anyone, anywhere in the world with computer access can look at these images and read some of the documents and create your own stories about the klan. The broadside from lincoln, Nebraska Historical society, the last issue, petty parties, a menace to national morality. Married men, do your joyriding with your own wives. All this is encouraged by hollywood films, which of course, according to the klan were made by jews and catholics to corrupt youthful americans. Hollywood films that played in small town movie theaters, not just big city chicago movie theaters. In darkened theaters, the klan newspaper wrote, couples sit close together to watch sex filth, distorted history, and vicious and degrading immorality. What did the klan do to advance the cause . Publicity. Propaganda. Persuasion. Advocacy. Many traditional ways, just like midwesterners have always done, they had parades. Robed figures, usually almost always led by a marching band. They gathered at state fairgrounds, at state fair times, a wonderful subject i hope some people take up. We have had scholarship on state fairs in the midwest, and we know how important they were, and are, and the klan was there at the state fair. In most states, i am not certain, but in many if not most. I love the marching bands. This is one of the most famous, from muncie, indiana. Travelede klan band around the region. Here they are getting ready to march. I love this photograph, because if you can see, in the front is a saxophone player, i think that is a baritone sax in the marching band. I had always assumed the saxophone was the instrument of the devil in the 1920s. [laughter] the muncie is, in band. So whoever is writing about klan bands needs to explain, too, why a saxophone appeared in this band, and maybe not in one in medicine, wisconsin madison, wisconsin. Parades, on holidays such as the fourth of july, and someone can probably identify some of these buildings in grand rapids. Parades, with floats, lots of floats, with all sorts of messages. Often about saving the Little Red Schoolhouse from catholics. Floats, specifically done by the women of the ku klux klan. That is a subject, by the way. We know a little about women in the klan, but as far as i know, no one has yet found a membership list of a womens klan organization. That would be exceedingly valuable. The assumption is the women were pretty much like the men who joined the klan. Good, middleclass, hardworking, honest midwesterners. Rallies. Madison,hi sone in wisconsin. Lectures, parades around the capital, naturalization, swearing of new members, fireworks. A picnic in Central Illinois, with all sorts of entertainment. These were festivals. These were places where people of likeminded sort got together, the way they had before and after the klan, but now with this more than twist, of klan speeches and programs. This ad is particularly interesting, because it includes at the bottom the names of the sponsors, the local businesses in gerard, illinois, including the local ford dealership. That tells us, as so many sources do, again, that this was a picnic attended not by people abnormal and out of the mainstream, but by the good, honest to godfearing people in this Central Illinois town. The parades had messages. Protestant the school. One law, the protestant law. One flag, the protestant symbol, in topeka, kansas. You can spend a lot of time, when you have these on your computer, to blow up the images and look at the details. Theyre all looking back towards the camera. They didnt remove their masks, but the person in the back looking out the window, you see her or his eyes looking out the back of that car. Its very sweet. [laughter] activity,common klan to donate an American Flag to the schools, to all the schools in the township or the city. To rural schools, like this one in ohio. Gathering in their robes to present the children this symbol of their america. Klanspeople showed up at funerals, and weddings, and baptisms. Ther there are lots of images of these religious events with klan members in robes in our state Historical Society collections. Parades and rallies and picnics are more traditional forms of advancing the cause, but the klan was not a traditional organization. In fact, it was innovative, it was progressive, on the cutting edge of the technology of the 1920s, on the cutting edge of salesmanship. This is the decade in which salesmanship became a notable expertise, area of expertise. And propaganda. The klan leadership was very, very good at this, including the making of their own films to counter the rot that was coming out of hollywood. Justice,he toll of one of the most widely shown films made by the ku klux klan to present the klans story. The klan also produced its own music, 100 american songs for the Dubuque County klan quartet. Phonograph records made in various studios around the midwest. The largest was in richmond, indiana, where they recorded dozens of klan records. At the same time, ironically, the studio in richmond recorded a young trumpet player from new orleans, his first recording, and it was of course Louis Armstrong. In the same studio. The klan and Louis Armstrong may have passed, entering the doors. Films, music, radio. The klan was early adopters of radio. Dragon, imperial wizard hiram evans gave an address from kansas city, reaching into other midwestern states as far as indiana. Again, sophisticated. Airplanes. As we heard yesterday morning, midwesterners looked up, the klan looked up,