Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/12/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Fascinating thread for this non American. Thanks to all for throwing some light. Most interesting. For those who would like to read more on the dehumanizing side of war and the loss of schoolboy idealism connected with it, I wholeheartedly recommend "Goodbye To All That" by Robert Graves, who later in his life ended up as a Poet laureate of GB, about the First World War. Cheers Jayanand On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 7:13 AM, Chris Crawford < chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote: > That stuff isn't limited to the south. Here in northern Indiana, > confederate flags are common and there are probably more KKK members than > in any southern state. > > I grew up in Waynedale, a section of the city of Fort Wayne that had its > own Ku Klux Klan chapter. The Klan held a parade in Waynedale in 1982! > When I was a teenager, Waynedale's KKK no longer existed, but the National > Imperial Wizard of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the largest > KKK in the country, lived just outside Fort Wayne. He went on Jerry > Springer three times in the 1990s! > > In 1993, on Martin Luther King day, the American Knights KKK had a rally > on the front steps of the courthouse in downtown Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne is > a big city with a lot of the folks the Klan hates (Blacks, Jews, Mexicans, > etc.), so the police were afraid there would be violence. They set up two > areas for spectators to watch the KKK rally, one for Klan opponents, and > one for the Klan's supporters. Spectators were asked which side they were > on and directed to the appropriate area. An enormous number of police > officers stood in the space between the two sides to keep them from > fighting. The cops counted how many people went to each viewing area, and > more than HALF told the police they were there to support the Ku Klux Klan! > > There was no violence due to the overwhelming law enforcement presence, > but the number of KKK supporters in the crowd was a gigantic embarrassment > to the city's leaders, who were desperately trying to portray Fort Wayne > as a wonderful, progressive, modern city that is a good place to do > business (create jobs). > > When the Klan was at the height of its power, in the 1920s, more than > 40,000 men in Indiana were Klan members. Indiana was never a slave state, > and was not part of the confederacy, but racism here was and is very > strong. > > -- > Chris Crawford > Fine Art Photography > Fort Wayne, Indiana > 260-437-8990 > > >