Chris Segal
Assistant Perspectives Editor
The Ku Klux Klan terrorized black and white Americans who disagreed with their notions of white power. Last week an auction house in Howell, Mich., turned KKK memorabilia into $24,000 in profits.
There is something disturbing about museum curators and swastika-wearing attendees getting into a bidding war over white robes.
There were 12 robes and capes up for auction, which sold for $700 to $1,500. According to the auction-house owner, he once sold a woman’s robe for $2,200.
In early January, a KKK robe from the auction house went on consignment. Citizens of Howell complained to the city manager when the robe was displayed in a window. Publicity from the robe and the window display caused items to flow into the Ole Gray Nash Auction House.
The owner of the auction house gave an eloquent explanation for why museums would be interested in obtaining KKK antiques.
“We sell antiques and we also sell history, whether it’s good history or bad history,” Gary Gray told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. “If you hide evil, you won’t be able to get rid of it.”
This is true but there is something distinctly wrong with selling KKK knives and pamphlets that were used to instill fear in non-Klansmen. Making money off of hate and bigotry is not the ideal way to make a living. Since profits were made from the auction, the money from the memorabilia should go to support anti-racism education.
The auction house had one robe when Gray discovered that KKK memorabilia was in high demand. He worked at collecting this valuable memorabilia and then sold it off to skin heads, curators and other collectors.
Gray is right about the importance of these items because the KKK is a part of this country’s history, just as the holocaust is part of world history. Museum curator David Pilgrim purchased a $700 robe on behalf of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich.
Museum officials intend to use the items to teach tolerance. Museums dedicated to tolerance and education are the best location for KKK items to be housed, not gun cases of KKK-button-wearing supporters.
Members of a local diversity council raised money to buy a robe for an anti-racism museum exhibition, according to MSNBC.
Many of the 200 people in attendance who purchased memorabilia chose to remain anonymous, which indicates they realized buying KKK propaganda might not be the most noble of endeavors. If people were really buying items for their historical value then why conceal their identity from others?
KKK buttons and patches from the past were worn by some attendees of the auction and those lacking them had a wide assortment of slogans to pick from. One sticker had “White Power” next to a swastika. The KKK also directed their distaste to the Jewish community with “Join white power today or live under Jew communism tomorrow.”
The Klan targeted blacks, Jews and Catholics through the organization’s history. Six confederate soldiers founded the KKK in 1866. Due to the Klan’s extreme violence, the founder, Nathan B. Forest, ordered the Klan to be disbanded, in 1869. Despite being disbanded 49 years later, the Klan re-emerged in 1915. The Klan was at the height of its support before the great depression; since then the numbers have dwindled significantly.
There is still an offshoot of the Klan still trying to bring about “the white-rights movement,” but now they call themselves the The Knight’s Party.
Gray has emphasized that he does not support the KKK. According to the Detroit News, Gray’s motivation for the auction is that remembering the history of the Klan is one way to prevent hate groups from resurfacing. The best way to prevent racist groups from resurfacing is to educate people about the KKK, not by selling robes used by Klan members.
According to the KKK’s Web site, the Klan is a “grass-roots movement to take back America.” America does not need to be taken back to times of lynching and men burning crosses while wearing pointy white hoods.
The NAACP branch in the neighboring Oakland County criticized the auction as insensitive. What was truly insensitive of the auction house was its originally scheduled auction date for the auction — Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Community groups and businesses are upset with the auction because it taints the town’s image. Howell Mayor Geraldine Moen told MSNBC the auctioning of the items re-ignited stereotypes about the community.
Howell is located in Livingston County, which has 9,000 people according to the 2000 census and is one of Michigan’s least diverse counties. Only 29 blacks were living in the town of Howell.
These items from the KKK are part of the collective history as is Auschwitz. Making a sizable profit off of other’s suffering is not justified by saying it will prevent future groups from coming to power. If Gray’s ultimate goal is to prevent racist groups from re-emerging than the processes of the auction would reflect that.
2-3-2005