The Historian's Notebook: Thoughts on the KKK

Saying no to invitations from the Klan, social media groups

Over the past year, so many of you have asked questions that go far beyond the finished videos. You want to know how I decide what to trust, what I leave out, and how my thinking changes as I research. So as I celebrate one year of Rising from the Red, I welcome you to The Historian’s Notebook. This is the place where I show paid subscribers how I figured out what happened, where I’m still uncertain and all the thoughts in between.

Today’s thoughts are mostly in-between.

I don’t hear a lot about the Klan or white supremacy groups. At least I didn’t for several years.

When I first moved to northern Indiana in 2006 for a newspaper reporter position, a klan leader was shot and killed by his son. It was the headline on the paper that day.

And then I’ve heard little bits in the last few years, but most notably this year.

There was a white supremacy group that marched in Indianapolis.

There was a white supremacy group that marched in Washington, D.C. They still masked up, but donned khakis and polos instead of bed sheets. These are the same people who probably didn’t wear masks during COVID.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, there was a Pride celebration not far from where I live. A woman arrived to set up and noticed papers scattered everywhere. It looked like someone had dumped a large plastic trash can full of flyers and shaken them across the grounds. They were advertising some sort of “Straight Pride” event, hosted by the Klan. That revelation, from that woman, alone early in the morning, was rattled. And she’s also tough as nails. She chose to simply pick up every flyer and throw them away, refusing to give them any more power.

That’s been living in my head for a while. Someone went to a lot of effort to print all those papers, load them in a trashcan, put it in a truck, drive it to the location of the festival and dump them all over the ground, either very late at night or in the wee hours of the morning.

You see, the Klan doesn’t just hate Black people. They hate Catholics. Jews. Immigrants. And the entirety of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Then, I did a couple of videos and wrote a Substack about D.C. Stephenson and some of the Klan’s history in Indiana. People messaged and commented with their stories and memories. And many of these people lived (or at some point lived) in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. These weren’t Klan stories from the South. These were in the North, well into the 20th century.

People also sent me messages about the Klan being active in their area, and more than one person sent me this flyer. Celebrate America’s 250th birthday with the Klan. There will be fellowship and food. It looks like any other normal picnic flyer. Except it’s not.

And then my algorithm changed on social media. I started getting invited to join white supremacy groups.

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