In April 2014, I took my children to a wonderful antique advertising show at a fancy resort in the upscale suburban community of St. Charles, Illinois. My daughter loved the beautiful old jukeboxes. My son (and my good friend, Tom)
could not get enough of the fantastic restored pinball machines. And while neither Tom nor I were sure we liked seeing things we grew up with being considered antiques, we had a great time. If had an extra $8,000 to spare, I know my son would have loved for me to have bought the ultra-cool “Rocky And Bullwinkle” pinball machine! The show was large and really fun. Until Tom took me aside and whispered in my ear, “I didn’t want the kids to see this, but you won’t believe what I found.”
He showed me this:
Klan Robe For Sale
An authentic Ku Klux Klan robe for sale. I stared at it in stunned disbelief. Who would want to own such a grotesque piece of terrorism? Would people think it appropriate to bid on the robes Osama bin Laden was wearing? Would you be excited to bid on a brick from the ovens at Auschwitz? Would you want to own a piece of clothing worn by a racist murderer? Why? Tom’s wife, Mary, who has a great eye for detail, pointed out to me what appeared to be faded blood stains on the sleeve. They were right above the neat little sign
Close-up Showing Price And Possible Blood Stains
that told you that this item could be yours for just $900.
Should People Collect Ku Klux Klan Memorabilia?
On the one hand, it is a free country; if collecting terrorist items is your thing, I suppose you have the right. I don’t understand why Ku Klux Klan memorabilia would appeal to anyone. I would have no problem with a museum displaying Ku Klux Klan memorabilia if they included explanatory signage about how the war on terrorism in America focused on the Klan. But to own it for pleasure or sell it for profit? Turns my stomach.
Consider: if the stains on the sleeve were blood, then the last thing some innocent person saw before he was murdered was this robe. And it can be yours for only $900.
If a relative of yours was murdered for any reason, let alone the color of their skin, would you hope some entrepreneur, like the seller at the St. Charles show, could at least make a profit off it? If you lost someone on 9-11 or in one of the mass shootings that have plagued our country from Newtown to Aurora to Virginia Tech, would you feel good about folks making money off your loss?
I did not talk to the seller. I did not ask him if he felt good about buying Ku Klux Klan memorabilia and then selling it for a profit. I didn’t ask him if collected other terrorist memorabilia. I honestly did not want to look him in the eye. I just walked away and, before I rejoined my children, I said a prayer for everyone murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.
Hi,
In the late 1960s, I was on a business trip that included Lancaster, PA. I turned on the TV one evening and started flipping through the channels. (Had to do it manually, if I recall. No remote.) On their public broadcasting channel was a local KKK meeting! The guest speaker was the head of the Klan from Indiana. They used a single camera and everyone (without their hoods) knew they were being televised. They didn’t preach violent hatred, but they focus more on the importance of “white America.” Being somewhat naive at the time, I never realized the Klan had chapters in the North. I was dumbfounded by the whole thing, but watched every minute of it. Hope to see you soon again, Best, BL
Bob,
That is an amazing story. The Klan rarely, to my knowledge, was quite that public. They must have felt very safe and very protected. In the South they were protected by local police and government authorities, who were often members themselves.
Amazing.
Barry
Look at it this way. Museums display less than 10% of their items. How is that teaching anybody? So that makes it wrong for a collector who is preserving it as much, and actually caring about the historical piece in displaying it? There is no difference in collecting this stuff than any other stuff, as long as the history is understood and not used in a misrepresented way.
Kyle,
The piece was not being displayed by a collector it was being sold for profit. The Ku Klux Klan was a terrorist organization, the American equivalent of Al Qaeda. They were racist murderers who boastfully used terror including murder, rape, kidnapping, dismemberment, and arson to spread terror in the United States. In the context of a museum display, the exhibition of the Ku Klux Klan robe with an explanatory note about the role of the largest terrorist organization in the history of America would be appropriate. However, in this case, a collector was attempting to use the remnants of terrorist activity to make a profit.
An equivalent might be if somehow the clothes of the terrorists who crashed planes on 911 survived, were found by a local citizen, then decided to make profit off of their sale, ignoring blood stains on the sleeve, most likely from the victim of a murder. In fact, the blood stains made it more valuable. The death of a human being by a terrorist could help this particular collector make a profit.
I’m a collector of all things Historical and KKK items are but one small part . But mine has a bit of a twist on it the item most come from North of the Mason Dixon line . Like I said KKK items are but one small segment of my collection . Holocaust and 3rd Reich are in there as well . And my collection have been used by not only a museum I once operated but others as well ..But your concern is people making a profit off of the items … I’ve been collecting now going on 50 years and I don’t know of anyother way to get around this you can’t remove it from the equation..
Our family has a token/coin that my grandfather received from the 1928 KKK convention in PA. He was part of the Lilly Riot and upset by the Catholic immigrants who were taking over mining jobs. This history helped me understand why our family had a “Catholic thing.” I wasn’t allowed to date Catholics in my almost all Catholic coal mining town, and just didn’t understand what was so bad about them. Well, nothing. But this prejudice stemmed from history I never knew about. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned my grandfather was a member of the Klan in the 1920s. I actually saw his robe and hood in his attic once, but it just looked silly to me. It disappeared after that. I think the coin/token is important in learning more about prejudice and hate, and where it came from. It has answered family questions for me.
Diane,
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s amazing when people make such discoveries about their relatives.