How I became interested in the Ku Klux Klan – Blog 1 of 3

I can recall sitting in my 4^th hour history class in high school learning about the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). I remember thinking that it seemed so long ago that white men were wearing sheets and riding horses while parading around town scaring black people and burning crosses on their lawns.  When I heard stories about the Klan of the 1800s and early 1900s, it seemed like something so foreign that couldn’t have happened so recently.

A few years later, I was in college and came home from school and flipped on the TV to find six couples sitting on the Jerry Springer stage and yelling about White Power. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.  Were there really members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1996?  I had no idea.

It wasn’t until almost 12 years later at a local restaurant on the west side of South Bend that I thought about the KKK again.  That night, I was sitting with friends when one of them pointed out that a young guy playing pool was in the KKK.  I think my jaw must have hit the table, because I didn’t realize that members of the Klan still existed, not to mention that this guy was in his late 20s. He was dressed in jeans and a blue sweater and had blonde hair, and wasn’t anything like how I had envisioned a Klan member to look. 

I want to make it very clear that I am not a fan of the Ku Klux Klan.  However, when I realized that I didn’t know they even existed anymore, I thought it was important to learn more about them.  It is a practice I have with many things that I don’t know much about.

So I decided that evening that I needed to learn more about the Ku Klux Klan.  After all, there was at least one living within ten miles of my house.  Were they only filled with hatred for black people?  Were there many Klan members in South Bend?  Did they still burn crosses on people’s lawns?  How many are there?

Although I knew that I wasn’t a target for the Klan, I live in a very racially mixed neighborhood and I wondered how much of a target my neighbors were.  I remember coming home from work after I initially Googled the Klan and talking about it with my neighbor Earsel.  He is a black man in his late 30s, his wife is white and his daughter is bi-racial.  I mentioned the KKK and a shiver came over him. I think he was teasing a little, but he did appear a bit shaken by the conversation and we only talked about it another time or two after.  It was clear that he didn’t want to talk about the KKK.

I learned a lot about the Klan throughout the next few years.  I researched them because I think it is important to try and understand the opinions of those who have differing beliefs and passions than my own. It would be easy to simply say the Klan is crazy without understanding who they are and what they believe; however, without that understanding, I don’t believe I would have an intelligent argument against them.

My next few blogs will be about the KKK and my personal experiences when I decided to interview them.   I think it is important to share what I have learned, because I realize that not everyone is familiar with the Klan, especially the current Klan in Indiana. I hope you will use my interviews and insight on the them as a learning tool that will help you form an educated argument and opinion for or against the Klan.