Pulling off the Sheets: The Second Ku Klux Klan in Deep Southern Illinois: Saluki Publishing
Autor Darrel Dexter, John A. Beadlesen Limba Engleză Paperback – 25 apr 2024
Unmasking old-time racism in southern Illinois
Pulling off the Sheets tells the previously obscured history of the Second Ku Klux Klan which formed in deep southern Illinois in the early 1920s. Through meticulous research into both public and private records, Darrel Dexter and John A. Beadles recount the Klan’s mythical origins, reemergence, and swift disappearance. This important historical account sets out to expose the lasting impact of the Klan on race relations today.
The ideation of the Klan as a savior of the white race and protector of white womanhood was perpetuated by books, plays, and local news sources of the time. The very real but misplaced fear of Black violence on whites created an environment in which the Second Klan thrived, and recruitment ran rampant in communities such as the Protestant church. Events like the murder of Daisy Wilson intensified the climate of racial segregation and white supremacy in the region, and despite attempts at bringing justice to the perpetrators, most failed. The Second Klan’s presence may have been short-lived, but the violence and fear it inflicted continues to linger.
This disturbing historical account challenges readers to “pull back the sheet” and confront the darkest corners of their past. Dexter and Beadles emphasize the importance of acknowledging the damage that white supremacy and racism cause and how we can move toward healing.
Pulling off the Sheets tells the previously obscured history of the Second Ku Klux Klan which formed in deep southern Illinois in the early 1920s. Through meticulous research into both public and private records, Darrel Dexter and John A. Beadles recount the Klan’s mythical origins, reemergence, and swift disappearance. This important historical account sets out to expose the lasting impact of the Klan on race relations today.
The ideation of the Klan as a savior of the white race and protector of white womanhood was perpetuated by books, plays, and local news sources of the time. The very real but misplaced fear of Black violence on whites created an environment in which the Second Klan thrived, and recruitment ran rampant in communities such as the Protestant church. Events like the murder of Daisy Wilson intensified the climate of racial segregation and white supremacy in the region, and despite attempts at bringing justice to the perpetrators, most failed. The Second Klan’s presence may have been short-lived, but the violence and fear it inflicted continues to linger.
This disturbing historical account challenges readers to “pull back the sheet” and confront the darkest corners of their past. Dexter and Beadles emphasize the importance of acknowledging the damage that white supremacy and racism cause and how we can move toward healing.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780809339426
ISBN-10: 0809339420
Pagini: 196
Ilustrații: 17
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 18 mm
Greutate: 0.32 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: Southern Illinois University Press
Colecția Saluki Publishing
Seria Saluki Publishing
ISBN-10: 0809339420
Pagini: 196
Ilustrații: 17
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 18 mm
Greutate: 0.32 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: Southern Illinois University Press
Colecția Saluki Publishing
Seria Saluki Publishing
Notă biografică
Darrel Dexter is the author of several books, including Bondage in Egypt: Slavery in Southern Illinois and A Trot Down to Egypt: The Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Jonesboro, Illinois.
John A. Beadles is the author of A History of Southernmost Illinois and Stained with Blood and Tears: Lynchings, Murder, and Mob Violence in Cairo, Illinois 1909-1910 (SIU Press).
John A. Beadles is the author of A History of Southernmost Illinois and Stained with Blood and Tears: Lynchings, Murder, and Mob Violence in Cairo, Illinois 1909-1910 (SIU Press).
Extras
PROLOGUE
When I was growing up in Ullin, Illinois, the silent ghosts of the Ku Klux Klan were unknowingly all around me. The first house I lived in as a child was less than half a mile from the site of a large Klan rally in 1924, and I went by the site almost daily with no realization of its historical significance. Many times as a teenager I visited the house where my aunt lived near Elco, not knowing it was the same house visited by Klan sympathizers in 1924 bent on forcing Black residents to move from the area. I never heard my parents, grandparents, or any relatives talk about the Klan having once existed in the area. If they knew about it, they were indifferent to it or did not want me to know about it. In fact, in doing research for this book, I found few current residents of Pulaski or Alexander County who remembered even hearing talk about the Klan in the area, although events discussed in this book were only a generation or two removed from most of them.
I was surprised to see the regional and family connections to the Klan, although as far as I know none of my ancestors were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Ben Sowers, a Methodist Episcopal minister and one of the organizers of the Klan in Southern Illinois, was a childhood sweetheart of my grandmother, Ella Mowery, and they were once engaged to be married. She was a second cousin to Sheriff Ira Hudson, who resisted the Klan in Pulaski County in the 1920s, and when she married my grandfather, Ben Dexter, in 1914, the ceremony was performed at Jonesboro by the Rev. Isaac Edward Lee, a Baptist minister who later became connected with the Klan in Williamson County. The Rev. Charles L. Phifer, my grandparents’ pastor at Beech Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, where I also attended as a child, was one of the local organizers of the Second Ku Klux Klan in the Ullin area. The Klan’s past was hiding all around me, but never mentioned, whether out of forgetfulness or shame I am not certain.
As a child I heard the doctrine of white supremacy spoken in knowing whispers. Arch Miller, a farmer between Ullin and Elco, gave my father, Paul Dexter, his first job after high school and my father laughingly told me how shocked and angry his mother was when she found out that “Uncle Arch” not only hired Black workers, but allowed them to eat dinner at the same table with her son and the Miller family. My uncle remembered overhearing his parents arguing one night about my grandfather hiring Black workers to help on the farm after my father left home to enlist in the United States Navy during World War II. Two generations later, we were taught and conditioned to hide any ideas of white supremacy, as by the 1970s and 80s such sentiments were not as publicly acceptable or politically correct. They are still prevalent, but they have become covert and perhaps that makes them even more dangerous and harder to confront. They are hidden beneath the sheets we often us to cover the past.
The evidence of race hatred and white supremacy in Southern Illinois in the early 1900s is overwhelming. Nevertheless, just as there are those who would deny the existence of the Holocaust in Europe, there are those today who deny or choose to ignore the significance of the history of racism and racial violence in deep Southern Illinois and more broadly in America as a whole. Such a denial and a desire to forget the racist past is itself often unknowingly steeped in racism. Healing does not occur because people forget, it only happens when everyone embraces the truth of past events and moves forward together.
This book is a history of a series of atrocities committed against one group of Americans by another group of Americans. The purpose of telling the story is not to make anyone feel guilty, as those who might have reason to feel remorse about the events presented here have been dead for decades. The authors have a strong faith in the belief that people are capable of growth and change and that many have grown and moved beyond their unchecked racism. An example of such change can be found in another pastor of Beech Grove and Ullin Methodist Churches. Melvin “Bucky” Jordan watched the scenes of “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965, at Selma, Alabama, and drove through the night to participate in the second march two days later with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Angry people lined the streets and shouted “[“N-word”] lover!” and “You call yourself a preacher!” but he said marching with Dr. King was “truly a life changing experience for me.”
The terrorism of the Klan was built on a very real, but misplaced fear of all Americans of African descent by many white residents. It was emphasized by a strong color line that kept people separated based on skin color and encouraged ignorance and an acceptance of stereotypes about any group of people who was not like them. An open and beneficial discussion about the history must begin with an honest and truthful understanding of the past in order to correct the misunderstandings and falsehoods about it. Sometimes that means being reminded of the things we want to forget.
[end of excerpt]
When I was growing up in Ullin, Illinois, the silent ghosts of the Ku Klux Klan were unknowingly all around me. The first house I lived in as a child was less than half a mile from the site of a large Klan rally in 1924, and I went by the site almost daily with no realization of its historical significance. Many times as a teenager I visited the house where my aunt lived near Elco, not knowing it was the same house visited by Klan sympathizers in 1924 bent on forcing Black residents to move from the area. I never heard my parents, grandparents, or any relatives talk about the Klan having once existed in the area. If they knew about it, they were indifferent to it or did not want me to know about it. In fact, in doing research for this book, I found few current residents of Pulaski or Alexander County who remembered even hearing talk about the Klan in the area, although events discussed in this book were only a generation or two removed from most of them.
I was surprised to see the regional and family connections to the Klan, although as far as I know none of my ancestors were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Ben Sowers, a Methodist Episcopal minister and one of the organizers of the Klan in Southern Illinois, was a childhood sweetheart of my grandmother, Ella Mowery, and they were once engaged to be married. She was a second cousin to Sheriff Ira Hudson, who resisted the Klan in Pulaski County in the 1920s, and when she married my grandfather, Ben Dexter, in 1914, the ceremony was performed at Jonesboro by the Rev. Isaac Edward Lee, a Baptist minister who later became connected with the Klan in Williamson County. The Rev. Charles L. Phifer, my grandparents’ pastor at Beech Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, where I also attended as a child, was one of the local organizers of the Second Ku Klux Klan in the Ullin area. The Klan’s past was hiding all around me, but never mentioned, whether out of forgetfulness or shame I am not certain.
As a child I heard the doctrine of white supremacy spoken in knowing whispers. Arch Miller, a farmer between Ullin and Elco, gave my father, Paul Dexter, his first job after high school and my father laughingly told me how shocked and angry his mother was when she found out that “Uncle Arch” not only hired Black workers, but allowed them to eat dinner at the same table with her son and the Miller family. My uncle remembered overhearing his parents arguing one night about my grandfather hiring Black workers to help on the farm after my father left home to enlist in the United States Navy during World War II. Two generations later, we were taught and conditioned to hide any ideas of white supremacy, as by the 1970s and 80s such sentiments were not as publicly acceptable or politically correct. They are still prevalent, but they have become covert and perhaps that makes them even more dangerous and harder to confront. They are hidden beneath the sheets we often us to cover the past.
The evidence of race hatred and white supremacy in Southern Illinois in the early 1900s is overwhelming. Nevertheless, just as there are those who would deny the existence of the Holocaust in Europe, there are those today who deny or choose to ignore the significance of the history of racism and racial violence in deep Southern Illinois and more broadly in America as a whole. Such a denial and a desire to forget the racist past is itself often unknowingly steeped in racism. Healing does not occur because people forget, it only happens when everyone embraces the truth of past events and moves forward together.
This book is a history of a series of atrocities committed against one group of Americans by another group of Americans. The purpose of telling the story is not to make anyone feel guilty, as those who might have reason to feel remorse about the events presented here have been dead for decades. The authors have a strong faith in the belief that people are capable of growth and change and that many have grown and moved beyond their unchecked racism. An example of such change can be found in another pastor of Beech Grove and Ullin Methodist Churches. Melvin “Bucky” Jordan watched the scenes of “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965, at Selma, Alabama, and drove through the night to participate in the second march two days later with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Angry people lined the streets and shouted “[“N-word”] lover!” and “You call yourself a preacher!” but he said marching with Dr. King was “truly a life changing experience for me.”
The terrorism of the Klan was built on a very real, but misplaced fear of all Americans of African descent by many white residents. It was emphasized by a strong color line that kept people separated based on skin color and encouraged ignorance and an acceptance of stereotypes about any group of people who was not like them. An open and beneficial discussion about the history must begin with an honest and truthful understanding of the past in order to correct the misunderstandings and falsehoods about it. Sometimes that means being reminded of the things we want to forget.
[end of excerpt]
Cuprins
CONTENTS
Prologue
Introduction
1. The Mythical Klan and Rumors of Its Second Coming
2. Memories of the First Klan
3. The Second Coming of the Klan
4. Pulaski and Alexander Counties in 1923
5. The Klan Goes to Church
6. The Elco Trouble
7. For Twenty-six Pennies
8. The Lynch Mob and the Klansman’s Prayer
9. Railroad Detectives and the National Guard
10. The Trial of Hale and Conner
11. Lynch Mob Indictments and Trial
12. The Second Klan Fades from Memory
Works Cited
Notes
Index
Prologue
Introduction
1. The Mythical Klan and Rumors of Its Second Coming
2. Memories of the First Klan
3. The Second Coming of the Klan
4. Pulaski and Alexander Counties in 1923
5. The Klan Goes to Church
6. The Elco Trouble
7. For Twenty-six Pennies
8. The Lynch Mob and the Klansman’s Prayer
9. Railroad Detectives and the National Guard
10. The Trial of Hale and Conner
11. Lynch Mob Indictments and Trial
12. The Second Klan Fades from Memory
Works Cited
Notes
Index
Recenzii
“This well-documented history should be read by anyone who wants to understand and work to eliminate racial divides in southern Illinois.”—Sheila Simon, former lieutenant governor of Illinois
“What we experience today in this country from those who preach the power of white supremacy, nationalism, and caste preferences has deep roots. Dexter and Beadles teach us that the very atmosphere of our region, our country, has been shaped and privileged by a form of Christianity that still engenders hatred, division, and cruelty. Attention must be paid to what these authors bring to light.”—Joseph A. Brown, SJ; Ph.D., professor of Africana Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“How fortunate southern Illinoisans are to have historians like Darrel Dexter and John A. Beadles, who have meticulously researched our region’s role in a dark chapter of U. S. history. Every county needs and deserves this kind of truthful accounting of its public institutions and church officials, because these small, detailed, honest histories are essential to tell the complete national story. Dexter and Beadles have shown us how American democracy was subverted for decades in our region. This is history we must read, acknowledge, and learn to not repeat.”—Kay Rippelmeyer, author of Giant City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps and The Civilian Conservation Corps in Southern Illinois, 1933-1942
“Clearly written and meticulously documented, this book focuses on a regional hotspot of racial discord. Fueled by post-WWI nationalism and by pop culture such as The Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan made itself felt in deep southern Illinois in the early 1920s. The chief targets were African Americans in Alexander and Pulaski counties (think Cairo and environs). But this iteration of the Klan had a wide variety of other enemies—new immigrants, Catholics, Jews, moonshiners, and others who were not ‘100 percent American.’”—Herbert K. Russell, author of The State of Southern Illinois: An Illustrated History
“What we experience today in this country from those who preach the power of white supremacy, nationalism, and caste preferences has deep roots. Dexter and Beadles teach us that the very atmosphere of our region, our country, has been shaped and privileged by a form of Christianity that still engenders hatred, division, and cruelty. Attention must be paid to what these authors bring to light.”—Joseph A. Brown, SJ; Ph.D., professor of Africana Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“How fortunate southern Illinoisans are to have historians like Darrel Dexter and John A. Beadles, who have meticulously researched our region’s role in a dark chapter of U. S. history. Every county needs and deserves this kind of truthful accounting of its public institutions and church officials, because these small, detailed, honest histories are essential to tell the complete national story. Dexter and Beadles have shown us how American democracy was subverted for decades in our region. This is history we must read, acknowledge, and learn to not repeat.”—Kay Rippelmeyer, author of Giant City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps and The Civilian Conservation Corps in Southern Illinois, 1933-1942
“Clearly written and meticulously documented, this book focuses on a regional hotspot of racial discord. Fueled by post-WWI nationalism and by pop culture such as The Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan made itself felt in deep southern Illinois in the early 1920s. The chief targets were African Americans in Alexander and Pulaski counties (think Cairo and environs). But this iteration of the Klan had a wide variety of other enemies—new immigrants, Catholics, Jews, moonshiners, and others who were not ‘100 percent American.’”—Herbert K. Russell, author of The State of Southern Illinois: An Illustrated History
Descriere
Pulling off the Sheets tells the previously obscured history of the Second Ku Klux Klan which formed in deep southern Illinois in the early 1920s. This important historical account sets out to expose the lasting impact of the Klan on race relations today.