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Race and the cross burning

 
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:06 pm
There was a book I read that I found informative, Denver, by John Dunning. It was a novel of sorts. As I am unfamiliar with the kkk history in Colorado, I can't corroborate.. but scary stuff and not all so long ago.

Did you read that, Roger? I think you and I and Diane may have all read it, but I'm not sure.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:12 pm
@ossobuco,
Did I READ it? I sent it to you to share with Diane.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:16 pm
@roger,
All right already, I believe you! I didn't remember ordering it from Amaze zone.
The hardback is now worth lotsa money, which is fitting, given the author. I remember that your copy is now crumply. I do think Diane did read it, will have to check. I also seem to remember Dys agreeing and elaborating (he knows lots of local info) but that he didn't read it.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:26 pm
@ossobuco,
She read it.

Most of Dunning's stuff is about a book collecting and book dealing detective. In the forward to one, he proudly announced he had become "A Collected Author". Fine, I just read him, and I read faster than he writes.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:42 pm
@roger,
I've read most of his stuff (they all look alike except for Denver); have bought primarily used books for a long time. I guess I'd put him in the mid range, as I don't hate his writing. I did like Denver though, primarily for what I learned as opposed to cool writing.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Sep, 2009 09:57 pm
Before Simmons "re-founded" the Klan in 1915, there was the Lily White movement to which i alluded, and it was popular all over the nation--but most especially in the Old South and in the West. There had been race riots (and would continue to be) in northern cities, but many blacks, disillusioned by their experiences in the North, had moved west.

The Klan became equally as popular, and as widespread, but the unlike the Lily Whites, who were acceptable at a church social, the Klan was an activity for the edge of town, and in the dark of night. Much of the iconography of the modern Klan came directly from Dixon's novel, via Griffith's The Birth of a Nation.

In the poster below, you can see the origin of the Klan robes, and note that the night rider here has a burning cross in his hand:

http://pds10.egloos.com/pds/200903/10/74/e0020274_49b62e107eee6.jpg

In this still from the motion picture, Klan members prepare to lynch a black man:

http://1001moviez.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/birth1.jpg

The motion picture, as well as the Klan, was quite as popular in the North and in the West, as in the Old South. The NAACP was founded after a race riot in Springfield, Illinois--Lincoln's "hometown"--which was itself sparked by a Klan style lynching of a black man. It has been alleged (and i believe, with good reason and inferential sources) that Klan members would not parade in their regalia, nor wear it when they intended to lynch someone, or burn a family out of their home--the organization continued to maintain a public face for quite a long time. In 1972, a friend and i convinced a Klansman in white robe, accompanied by a Klan security agent in a helmet liner spray-painted silver and carrying an M1 carbine, to pose next to a Newport News city police cruiser, with two officers inside--all of them smiling--which we then photographed. They apparently saw nothing wrong with being photographed in that manner, nor seemed suspicious of our motives. Of course, i was able to talk just like them, so we didn't have any of that "you ain't from around here, are ya?" problem.
0 Replies
 
 

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