Betty Jo Brenner, Program Coordinator, Colorado Humanities

Proposal Type: Panel

Abstract: In the 1920s, in cities and rural communities across America, large numbers of men and women joined the Ku Klux Klan to promote the cause of 100% Americanism. Klan members believed they needed to save the country from the influences of recent immigrants, blacks, Catholics and Jews. In Colorado, Klan membership numbers reached as high as 35,00 men and 11,000 women.

Until my research, little had been written about the women of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado or its leader Laurena Senter. Excellent Commander, Laurena Senter, was a pillar of the Denver community until her death in 1986, and in her life, she served as President of numerous clubs and organizations. Her story and the story of the women of the Klan is fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

My paper, The Colorado Women of the Ku Klux Klan, was published in 2011 by the Colorado Historical Society in an anthology of historical papers about Colorado history. As a result of my public presentation at the History Colorado Center, I was invited to present my research to many clubs, libraries and organizations in the Denver area.

Seeking: The topic I am proposing for a panel is titled “Collecting and Interpreting” the 1920s Ku Klux Klan. I am proposing a panel of other historians who have researched, written and presented about Klan membership in other states. How has your research affected audiences and how have you interpreted the history that still troubles us as a nation and yet still holds connections to our society and ancestral roots. It’s a difficult subject to discuss because it was blatant white supremacy and it was mainstream and somewhat accepted. I was fortunate to find a treasure trove of information donated for historians by the Senter family to the Denver Public Library . I am interested in collaborating with other historians who have researched the women and men Klans in other areas. How have they collected information from a secret society, how have they interpreted it, and how has their information affected audiences? Why is it so difficult for us to talk about and interpret?

How was the Colorado experience the same and different from other states and why? It’s complicated, but I think we would have much to share.

Related Topics: Material Culture, Oral History, Memory

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Betty Jo Brenner, brenner[at]coloradohumanities.org

If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.

 

Discussion

8 comments
  1. Thomas Cauvin says:

    I think the pane can produce very interesting discussions, not only about the history of the Klan, but about sensible topics in general. It also raises questions about the “voices” of the Klan, how do historians deal with “voices” that encourage violence, racism, discrimination. In addition to ethical/legal values for Oral History (what does one do about interviews in which comments can be condemned by the law?), it seems to me that the panel may very much question the role and position of historians vis-à-vis his/her sources. You could bring issues such as how to deal with emotions (anger, empathy…) as public historians. I look forward to knowing more about it.

  2. Denise Meringolo says:

    This idea seems very rich. Whenever I describe to someone what I do and what I care about as central to the idea of public history as distinct from “traditional” history, I am invariably asked some version of the question: but what about distasteful or discredited histories? Is it possible to expand your panel to include people whose work involves the interpretation of other ugly pasts?

  3. Amy Lonetree says:

    I think this sounds like a very interesting and important panel. I agree with Denise that it might be good to pursue a comparative angle if you are able to find another who also works on another unsettling historical topic.

  4. Mary Margaret Kerr says:

    I am not sure if your interests extend to interpretation for children, but one commentator suggested that our projects might form a roundtable (perhaps in the future?) on interpreting “ugly” history. I have a proposal on this forum that describes our work at the Flight 93 Memorial.

  5. Morgen Young says:

    I think is a great panel proposal. One idea for another panelist is Troy Eckard, who has written about the Klan in Oregon: http://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/ku_klux_klan/#.U7HZ26hjBUk or David Horowitz, a professor at Portland State University. As a historian who now lives on the West Coast, but went to graduate school in the South, I think it would be especially interesting to see the influence of the Klan in western states. Oregon, for instance, has historically been one of the most exclusive states in the union. It is the only state to have a black exclusion clause in its constitution, yet many do not know about such racist legislation or the statewide impact of the Klan in the 1920s. I can pass along Troy and/or David’s contact information if you are interested.

  6. Jill Ogline Titus says:

    This is indeed a fascinating and important topic. You might consider broadening your focus out to explore interpretation of a closely related topic, lynching. But if you strongly prefer to keep the panel focused specifically on the Klan, I’d encourage you to further develop the larger theme you’re hinting at in your title – the challenges of documenting, collecting, and interpreting this difficult history. If you follow up on the Oregon connection, you might reach out to the Clatsop County Historical Society. They opened a Klan history exhibit in the late 1990s that was vandalized by their own visitors on multiple occasions, an excellent example of the challenges of interpreting this history. The Williamson Museum in Georgetown, Texas, also had a Klan history exhibit several years ago. You might also talk with Cindy Gardner, Director of Collections at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. I believe she’s leading the effort to collect materials for the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and might have a very interesting perspective on the challenges of collecting and interpreting Klan-associated materials.

  7. I agree with everyone about the importance and interest of this topic, but wonder, with Jill, about expanding the focus beyond the Klan. Public historian Kirsten Delegard, now working in Minneapolis, has published on the history of conservative women from approximately the same time period you are looking at and worked with (I believe) and researched in the records of the UDC, DAR and other conservative groups. While she wasn’t “collecting,” I think there are some related challenges not only in interpretive “difficult” pasts but also pasts involving major characters whose views the historian might be very opposed to. Anyway, Kirsten is on Twitter @historyapolis if her perspectives might be useful.

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