The Athens Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s: What Can It Tell Us about the Era and America?

On this day, we'd like to invite you to the library's auditorium on Sunday, April 10th at 3:00pm for a program sponsored by the Athens Historical Society and the Heritage Room.

Dr. Nancy MacLean, Arts and Sciences professor of History at Duke University and author of Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan will speak about her prize-winning book that uses a rare, surviving cache of internal Klan records in Athens to make new sense of the movement in the context of the changing world of the 1920s.

In addition to racism and violence, the Klan also wanted to enforce traditional moral codes on the young people of the carefree Jazz Age. With more than 2 million members in chapters in most cities and towns of every state, the Klan dominated the legislatures, police forces, courts, and executive branches at every level. Dr. MacLean will use her Athens research to offer a new understanding of the era and explore some of the enduring patterns of response to economic crisis and social challenge that have resonance for our own time.

This program is free and open to the public. Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan will be available for sale and signing following the program.  We hope to see you there.