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CONFRONTING SKELETONS

NMU?event defends archiving a hateful history

These historic photos (above and below top), circa 1926, document more than 150 hooded Klansmen marching down Front Street in Marquette. The 1920s saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan popularity, locally and around the country. (Courtesy photos) At bottom is a local Ku Klux Klan advertisement from the 1920s. (Journal file photo)

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

MARQUETTE — A rare, historic photo hanging in the Negaunee Public Library recently provoked indignation among some middle school students when they noticed it for the first time.

Jessica Holman, director of the Negaunee Public Library, recalled their ire at a presentation on the campus of Northern Michigan University Thursday evening.

The photo, circa the 1920s, depicts Ku Klux Klan members — hooded and decked out in full white-robed regalia — marching openly through the city of Negaunee as spectators looked on.

“(The students) were surprised, and they were offended,” Holman went on. “And they said, ‘We’re offended. We want this taken down.’

“I said, ‘Great, I’m glad you’re offended — you should be offended by this. I’m not taking it down.'”

The presentation, entitled “The Skeletons in our Closet: The KKK in Michigan,” offered a local history of the white supremacist group and addressed the reluctance among many communities to acknowledge uncomfortable truths in their past. It also addressed the role of archivists in preserving that history, and why it’s important.

Holman said she used the incident as a teaching moment for the kids.

“I did add a little quote (to the photo’s inscription) to hopefully inspire some thought,” Holman added. “‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’ Life of Reason, volume one, by George Santayana.”

Hosted by the Central Upper Peninsula and NMU Archives in Mead Auditorium, the presentation featured Holmann, NMU Archivist Marcus Robbins and Frank Boles, director of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

Klan background

When asked about the KKK, people often think of the civil rights era or post-Civil War reconstruction, Robbins said.

“But almost no one ever says or has any clue about the role of the Klan in the 1920s, when oddly enough, the 1920s was when the Klan was its most powerful, most widespread (and) most successful in U.S. history,” Robbins said.

In 1925, the KKK was believed to have 4.5-6 million members nationwide, he explained.

While its ideology was obviously racist, it was also a very nativist, xenophobic, nationalist movement with widespread support in the Midwest and western U.S. It aimed for protestant hegemony and followed a sharp rise in immigration from southern and central Europe in the early 20th century. The KKK was vehemently anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, prohibitionist and moralistic, Robbins said.

“I liken it to a very successful third party of the U.S.,” Robbins said. “Because it had so many members, controlled so much of government. … It was far more successful than the Socialist Party in 1908 and 1912.”

Recent history

In attendance was Russell Magnaghi, U.P. historian and NMU professor emeritus, who answered a question from the audience about the KKK since that time.

Magnaghi said after the ’20s, the KKK gave way to the far more violent Black Legion, which was a runoff with a similar agenda that enjoyed significant support in Michigan and the Midwest. World War II saw that activity simmer down until it boiled over again in the ’60s and ’70s in response to the Civil Rights movement. The ’80s and ’90s saw a shift toward white supremacist militias, including the Posse Comitatus, which had a significant presence in the U.P.

“It’s around. Students who did some work for me in Florence, Wis. found that the Klan is very active in northern Wisconsin,” Magnaghi said. “In the U.P., you don’t hear about it. Some people will say it’s around if you go looking and check it out. So I wouldn’t say that it’s gone and forgotten and so on. There’s certain elements that go on and are still … somewhat active.”

Archiving hate

Boles talked about a personal experience archiving KKK activity that he jokingly said would be subtitled, “How to change your reputation from a leftwing academic to a rightwing bigot in one week.”

CMU’s Clarke Historical Library in 1992 purchased hundreds of KKK documents — membership cards, namely — from an auction in downstate Fremont after a boarded-up attic revealed a bounty of local records and memorabilia.

Such documentation is rare and “incredibly unusual,” Boles said, and the archives bought them for their historical value. But the backlash from CMU students, the local community and people across the state was intense. People thought the library was condoning the KKK.

“I don’t like offending people, but I don’t like suppressing evidence — I like that even less,” Boles said. “So it may be a heritage of hate, but my job as an archivist is to document what is important in society and what motivates people, not to reform society or save individuals.”

There is debate about whether social justice should be the goal of archivists, or whether they should remain completely neutral and refrain from taking a “side,” Boles said.

But regardless, “memory has to be comprehensive and honest,” he said.

“I would argue that the highest use of the archival record … is to create understanding for reconciliation,” Boles said. “Archives tell the truth, but the truth should do more than make us feel good about ourselves or those who came before us. It should also be used to heal the scars and open wounds of our past.”

Mary Wardell can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. Her email address is mwardell@miningjournal.net.

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