Anita Talsma Gaul will present on, “The (Not So) Invisible Empire: The KKK in Southwest Minnesota in the 1920s” at the Lyon County Museum, 301 West Lyon Street, Marshall on Tuesday, October 14 at 6:30 PM.
The 1920s was a period of rapid change, causing many Americans to feel a sense of nostalgia and fear – nostalgia for an idealized, simpler past and fear that America was in a state of moral decline. This prompted the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, particularly in the Upper Midwest.
Klan activity in Southwest Minnesota began in 1922, peaked in 1924, and virtually disappeared by 1927. Dozens of cross burnings occurred, but there were also Klan rallies, parades, picnics, and meetings.
What attracted rural Minnesotans to this organization? How and why did it become popular in this area? And what accounts for its sudden demise?
The brief but intense presence of the KKK in Southwest Minnesota is a hidden chapter in the region’s history and one that merits closer scrutiny.
